How deep have you gone on air?

[Tortuga68]

I can't help but think that memory loss should be one of those things that is discussed more widely when convincing the inexperienced to deter from deep air dives ...

I have a story... we had four divers on a 55m deco dive to Sweetlips 'Cave' (more like a swimthrough really, you're never lightlocked per se). At the entrance, my buddy gave his small torch to another diver to go through. On the other side, he asked for the torch back and got a :shrug: After the dive, said diver insisted that they had not been given a torch

The torch was recovered on a later dive to the same site, lying in the sand outside the entrance

I've also known divers to go 'unresponsive' at 50-60m on air, to the extent that they had to be escorted up from depth. They subsequently had little or no recollection of anything between some time during the descent and somewhere around the 21m deco stop during ascent, or thereabouts, when they 'woke up' again

Obviously this could be potentially a very dangerous situation, and there are plenty of stories about people not levelling out at the target depth who just kept descending - often without a happy ending

 

[scubadada]

There are many accounts of narcossis in this thread - others tell that they don't feel the effects as much ...

I have questions regarding memory loss:

I don't know much about it (since I don't dive that deep ...), but I understand that some divers lose memory
as shallow as 55m - 60m on air?

Can some members give some information regarding memory at depth and / or personal accounts?

Sorry, I don't remember

 

[Eff]

I've only been to ~90 feet on air.

~130 feet on EAN 28.

And frankly I felt narced at 130. Probably was at 90 too but didn't realize.
I see Trimix in the future... $$$

 

[Tortuga68]

Current thinking is that oxygen can be just as narcotic as nitrogen, so EAN won't necessarily reduce narcosis

You're also right at the MOD of EAN28 there

 

[joe8mofo]

I have been to 127' on 21% and deeper on richer EAN mixes.

 

[NJScubaDoc]

A bounce dive (<5 minutes bottom time) to 205 in Bonaire to prepare for a dive on the Windjammer later in the week. Narcosis was evident at 180', pronounced at 205. I was aware I was narced, but maintained focus and completed the dive. Would I dive air that deep for any substantial amount of time? No.

Later that week I did a 20 minute dive, 66 minute run time on the Windjammer to 181'. I'd do that dive again, sure.

 

[matt_w]

I have been to 127' on 21% and deeper on richer EAN mixes.

Not much richer...

 

[Rhone Man]

I have a story... we had four divers on a 55m deco dive to Sweetlips 'Cave' (more like a swimthrough really, you're never lightlocked per se). At the entrance, my buddy gave his small torch to another diver to go through. On the other side, he asked for the torch back and got a :shrug: After the dive, said diver insisted that they had not been given a torch

The torch was recovered on a later dive to the same site, lying in the sand outside the entrance

Reminds me of a story which Gary Gentile recounts in Deep, Dark and Dangerous about the divers who used hacksaws to cut free the statue of the admiral from the lobby of the Andrea Doria (at about 210 fsw, on air).

After a series of dives slowly working their way through, the divers were complaining that the cheap hacksaws kept breaking. Eventually they had to go back to shore (about a 240 mile round trip) to get more hacksaws. Eventually the admiral's statue is freed lifted, and has now disappeared into obscurity.

However, a more experienced deep air diver (I forget who) is visiting the spot a little bit later on during the charter, and he sees this large pile of hacksaws on the bottom, all of them perfectly intact. Exacerbated by the physical exertion, the narced salvors had just been tossing away perfectly good hacksaws, insisting when they got to the surface that they had broken.

 

[MORAY SCUBA]

132' however I would consider going deeper if the need was to arise.

 

[Dirty-Dog]

155 feet (for 4 minutes) checking out Cenote Angelita from under the Sulfur Dioxide cloud.