Help needed! Have you ever experienced nitrogen narcosis while doing a recreational dive?

[Wibble]

Noticeable from 30m/100ft.
Giggling like schoolgirls on a 40m/130ft chamber dive.
Off me tits on 25% at 45m/150ft

Helium is your friend. Rebreathers rock.

 

[boulderjohn]

One of my characteristic traits when experiencing narcosis is that I don't know I am experiencing narcosis unless some event occurs that allows me to gauge the level of my stupidity. I have never felt anything. Since such events are rare, I don't have many instances to share. I will share a few.

1. My buddy and I were following a guide at about 100 feet in a wreck in Truk Lagoon (Chuuk). The guide swam through a hole in the bulkhead, and I noticed a short length of pipe hanging down from the top right corner. I was then wearing a conventional regulator set, and I noted that it would be easy to catch the regulator hose on it. I congratulated myself on that perception and noted that I must not be experiencing any narcosis. My buddy swam through, and, sure enough, he caught his regulator hose and had to pull it down to get through. I swam through and felt a tug as a hose caught on something. Which hose was it, I wondered. Do I pull it up or down to free it? I heard the guide laughing at me through his regulator. I realized that those were easy questions, and I should know the answers. I must be narced!
2. My buddy and I were swimming side by side at about 130 feet. We were using technical diving gear (long hose primary; alternate hanging from the neck on a bungee), but breathing air. It was dark as night. My buddy flashed me with his light to get my attention. He wanted to know why I was breathing from my alternate. It was news to me. Reflecting on it, I had had problems with that regulator and had adjusted the flow prior to the dive. I probably decided to test it at depth and forgot I was breathing from it.
3. I did almost all of my cave training at depths of about 100 feet. I think I was narced on every one of those dives. Nothing significant happened; I just felt like I was even more stupid than normal. I struggled to remember details from the very simple dive plans we had.

 

[Mr. Sunday]

131'/40m leading a dive on air

 

[splitti]

Both myself (once at 90' in cold dark water) and my buddies (100+ ft) during rec dives, a few times. With air as well as Nitrox

 

[tursiops]

Although I'd been to that depth before on air, my first clear indication of narcosis while diving was when trying to take a picture at 142 ft of an anthias at Molokini; I had trouble using the camera controls. Other instances of clear narcosis at > 100 ft were only apparent after the dive when trying to remember or relate parts of the dive; I had no indications during the dives. In clear water, unstressed, I now can recognize some symptoms of narcosis -- especially the ability to focus and a loss of situational awareness -- at >100 ft, definitely at 120-130 ft. My one dive on air to 185 ft I have almost no memory of.

 

[S****N]

Starts at 20m (65ft),at about 40m(130ft) it takes all my attention to keep everything under control. Anything under 50m(165ft) get’s tricky.

 

[johndiver999]

I dive 130 now pretty frequently and I think I feel a little different than at 80, but the difference is not great.

 

[formernuke]

One word for you...... trimix

 

[Bigbella]

Only once, at about twenty meters, while diving on cold meds -- yeah, bright, I know -- the whole vertiginous experience and a somewhat pleasurable five martini effect, which all but disappeared, like flipping a switch, upon ascending a few meters.

Hasn't happened in years and I had been far deeper than that, before and after . . .

 

[S****N]

One word for you...... trimix

As an answer to OP’s question?