Is the severity of narcosis greater when diving cold water?

[Vicko]

Yes it is. Even if the effect is not physiological cold water diving demands more gear, and more gear brings task loading.

 

[davehicks]

Yes it is. Even if the effect is not physiological cold water diving demands more gear, and more gear brings task loading.

Are you a cold water diver? I am extremely comfortable in my dry suit, CCR, camera and lighting setup. With experience you get past any task loading.

It's like when you start driving a car. At first it is very stressful to merge on the freeway. You may feel overwhelmed. After a couple of years, you are applying mascara while eating a burrito as cross 5 lanes of traffic.

In any case, it has nothing to do with narcosis.

 

[Scubagermany]

And a very short dive.

Hyperventilation is a symptom of hypercapnia (and IPO/IPE -- Immersion Pulmonary Oedema). On a rebreather, hyperventilation can cause CO2 breakthrough. Hyperventilation underwater is a bad thing, possibly requiring rescue.

First: my post was not a recommendation to hyperventilate.

Secondly: Hyperventilation is not a symptom of hypercapnia, it is a result of a hypercapnia that the body uses to reduce the high CO2 level in your blood.

Thirdly: As far as I know conclusive pathogenesis of IPE is as yet not understood.

 

[Vicko]

Are you a cold water diver? I am extremely comfortable in my dry suit, CCR, camera and lighting setup. With experience you get past any task loading.

It's like when you start driving a car. At first it is very stressful to merge on the freeway. You may feel overwhelmed. After a couple of years, you are applying mascara while eating a burrito as cross 5 lanes of traffic.

In any case, it has nothing to do with narcosis.

No amount of experience helps with task loading under narcosis. Muscle memory will help to keep you swiming but have you ever tried to dive your rig to 50-60m on air? I can almost guarantee that your photos will be a bit more blurry than you believed them to be underwater.
On the other hand someone at a tropical destination in a tshirt and doubles doing 50m on air will have a lot less problems to solve, leading to a much lesser impact of narcosis on his dive.

 

[rgkv]

That kind of delayed processing is absolute classic narcosis. So you have experienced it without realizing it.

I dont understand why you think it was delayed processing. The thought of leaving my dive buddy was always on my mind. It being something we shouldn't do. Its was just after a minute or two that I thought it was enough, leaving him with someone else to watch. I cannot argue that I wasnt narked but it's like, everything you did was because your narked. As if I wasnt narked, I wouldnt even have thought about my buddy

 

[Still Kicking]

I dont understand why you think it was delayed processing. The thought of leaving my dive buddy was always on my mind. It being something we shouldn't do. Its was just after a minute or two that I thought it was enough, leaving him with someone else to watch. I cannot argue that I wasnt narked but it's like, everything you did was because your narked. As if I wasnt narked, I wouldnt even have thought about my buddy

I can only go by what you wrote. I wasn't there. Lol.

Narked doesnt mean you can't think. It means you think slower and you may not make the same decisions you would with a clear head.

But yeah, you definitely were not narked. Is that better?

 

[rgkv]

I can only go by what you wrote. I wasn't there. Lol.

Narked doesnt mean you can't think. It means you think slower and you may not make the same decisions you would with a clear head.

But yeah, you definitely were not narked. Is that better?

I admitted that I must have been narked, just that I had no problems with it

 

[davehicks]

No amount of experience helps with task loading under narcosis. Muscle memory will help to keep you swiming but have you ever tried to dive your rig to 50-60m on air? I can almost guarantee that your photos will be a bit more blurry than you believed them to be underwater.
On the other hand someone at a tropical destination in a tshirt and doubles doing 50m on air will have a lot less problems to solve, leading to a much lesser impact of narcosis on his dive.

Okay, whatever. Narc'ed is narc'ed. Dive within your personal limits.

 

[Still Kicking]

I admitted that I must have been narked, just that I had no problems with it

It's never a problem until it is a problem. Saying you are one of the "lucky ones" who doesn't get narked or you are able to "handle" narcosis may work fine until things go sideways at depth and you have to deal with an unfamiliar or complex situation. Plenty of people have paid a high price for that assumption.

There used to be a common belief that going deep on air would acclimatize divers to narcosis but people who still think that tend to be members of the Flat Earth Society.

 

[Bob DBF]

No amount of experience helps with task loading under narcosis.

Experience will teach you to focus on needed tasks, instead of the one you are doing, as your focus narrowes. Ones ability to task load while narked is quite low, and one should head up, before it is nonexistent.