How did you know you were narked?

[sea_ledford]

I think it was seeing your taste of oysters in another post that made me post this question. I had never heard of that before. I had heard a few mentions of people having a metalic taste in there mouth though.

I had a friend that would smell chocolate cookies when he was narced.

 

[archer1960]

I didn't realize it at the time, but afterwards, the fact that I couldn't find a water bottle in my BC pocket made me realize I was narc'd. This was during the Deep dive of my AOL cert The next time I went that deep (and actually to 134) in the Devil's Throat in Cozumel, I was consciously looking for signs, but couldn't come up with any, even after the dive was over. I was aware of my depth, dive time, NDL, etc the entire time. I even had my reg kicked out of my mouth at 130' and recovered it with no trouble.

 

[Dan]

Still don't know how I would react, yet.

The deepest I have been was 44m. Went down to 44m to get a better picture of Mola2 while my DM guide was watching me from 40m. I just felt everything was calm & peaceful. Visibility was superb (30m+) I was there for probably a minute & then I turned around & ascent.

 

[Storker]

My most obvious symptom is checking my gas, then a few seconds later realizing that I don't remember what my gauge said. Could just be old age though ...

That reminds me of a story I heard (read?) from this guy who went down after another diver who had an uncontrolled descent. Finally caught up with the victim, arrested the descent, pinned the victim against the wall, checked the comp and thought "oh, sh!t, this is bad!". Ten seconds went, he checked his comp again and thought again "oh, sh!t, this is bad!". Another ten seconds, lather, rinse, repeat. His buddy came down to them, gave the thumb, and the guy realized "Hey, good idea! Let's go up!".

I've never been there, but I can vividly imagine myself being just as rational. And AFAIK, I'm younger than you are...

 

[Jerome O'Neil]

I get a ringing in my ears and the noise of my own guts begins to resonate in my head. Then I get giddy. I'm probably lucky I don't get one of those oyster tastes, or I may never surface.

/ If the river were whiskey and I were a duck, I'd dive to the bottom and never come up....

 

[AJ]

40m at a German lake (Hemmoor). Felt very much in control until my SW Petrel showed something new, something I had never seen before. It flashed yellow '21/00'. It took me a while to figure out what was wrong. Then I knew I was narced.

Strangely enough I did not feel narced in any way. No smell, no feeling of doom, no crazy behaviour, just slowing down of mental processes which can be very dangerous at that depth. I consider it a valuable experience because I now recognize the symptoms.

 

[Storker]

40m at a German lake (Hemmoor). Felt very much in control until my SW Petrel showed something new, something I had never seen before. It flashed yellow '21/00'. It took me a while to figure out what was wrong. Then I knew I was narced.

My buddy had a similar experience at around 30m. Not very experienced, only a few dozen dives. Buoyancy control a little less than optimal, so his Suunto beeped at him for doing a short, fast ascent of a couple of meters. His thinking was "Somethings' beeping... (ten seconds) Oh, yeah, it's probably the comp... (ten seconds) Oh, the comp's beeping... (ten seconds) Better check the comp then..." He never understood what the issue was until we got a little shallower.

What kinda miffed me was the guide saying later that there's no way you'll be narked at "only" 30m.

 

[drbill]

Back when I was doing as many as 350 dives a year to depths of up to 200 fsw on air, I had little noticeable narcosis. I knew it was minimal because I could locate specimens to film, frame them properly and follow their movement. I was diving very similar profiles during that period and knew how long my gas would last so only on occasions when I filmed longer at depth than usual did I have to check my SPG. During that period in my diving career I believe my body had acclimated to elevated levels of nitrogen in my tissues.

After I stopped the repetitive deep diving and cut back to about 100-150 dives per year, things changed. I found myself noticeable narced on occasion at depths as shallow as 100 fsw. I lost my orientation and was a bit confused. On one dive to 151 fsw to film animals entrapped in a squid boats net, I was as narced as I've ever been. I was still aware of that fact and knew if I ascended to a shallower depth it would go away. Today my max depths are almost always within recreational limits and I haven't been noticeable narced in several years.

As a scientist, I found the difference in tolerance to narcosis during these two periods to be very interesting.

 

[Chris H]

I didn't truly understand how narked I was until I took my Trimix class and realized how narked I wasn't. I use helium for all dives deeper than 100ft, and many dives shallower than that.

 

[rhwestfall]

I spent nearly two (instructor verified) minutes at 130' trying to get my lift bag out of the pouch on the bottom of my plate to shoot and do DECO (training class). Couldn't get the darn pouch open. Kept trying, and trying, and trying. Instructor finally tapped me, and gave the thumbs up to abort, and begin an ascent (so I get to do it free - oh yeah....). Hovered the best I've ever done, and held my stops perfectly. Got on the boat, looked at my problem, and realized the opening was on the other side.... had done it plenty of times in the pool & quarry... yep, brain was not all there....

There are also many instances where I have footage of things I really don't fully remember seeing....

Yes, I'm a candidate for He.... Attempting to finish the class this spring/summer....