Narked!

[art.chick]

After 3 years of diving, I finally know what is like to get narked. I was a t 100' exactly in cold water. I had slept too little the previous night & was diving safety along with an instructor & an advanced student. I was amazed at the light-headed effect. I kept my focus on holding my reg in my mouth because I have heard stories of divers spitting it out at depth. Nonetheless, I felt it important to complete the dive, partly to stay focused on proceedure in case things got more confusing & I tried to ascend too rapidly. The effects lessened as I ascendied, but did not disappear until we reached 40'. I told the instrucotr & described the drunken, spacey feeling, & he just laughed & said, "It feels different at different times." I am curious about other divers' narked sensations & episodes.

 

[danceswithoctopus]

My first experience with Nitrogen Narcosis was on my AOW deep dive. My buddy and I got separated from the Instructor and his buddy (bad, bad instructor). We hit 80 fsw and my buddy grabbed me. This is like my seventh dive, right? So he grabs me and the look in his eyes is something I'll never forget. He signals to me that he's low on air. We've been down for about five minutes so I know better. I grab his guage and it says something like 2500psi. I show it to him and he maintains that he's low on air. The guage is staying steady, so I signal that I think he's narced and that we should ascend. We do. And at about 80fsw the switch clicks back and he indicates that he is okay.

 

[Dee]

My first noticable experience being narced wasn't fun. We were on a wreck dive and had been to 128ft for a short time. As we started ascending on the anchor line, around 80 ft I got confused as to what my computer was telling me. I read it as telling me I needed to do a deco stop at 80 ft. for 10 min. Part of my brain was telling me that couldn't be right but the other part was telling me not to ignore a deco stop. My buddy was above me a few feet and could tell I was confused and motioned me to ascend with him. Since I trusted him more than my confusion, I followed him up. At 65ft I was fine and could tell my deco obligation was 1 min. at 10 ft.

I never felt light headed or euphoric as some people report, just confused.

 

[budgy]

How do you define nitrogen narcosis?
I am an air diver and the divers high occurs occasionaly, I don't think my feelings of euphoria are depth induced, so I like to attribute them to the occassion; particularly when I am out diving some superb dive sites with good viz and plenty of marine life.

 

[DennisW]

Everyone that dives below about 60 ft gets Nitrogen Narcosis. 60ft? maybe it's a little deeper, but I know that I have felt the affects below 60 ft. The problem is that usually, you do not know that your being affected and you can do stupid things. I remember once when I did a really big stupid that scared the bejeezus out of Walter. Me, hell, I was just fine. It took me about a year before I finally realized what had happened. Some people will tell you they are never narc'd. Those people are ignorant and unfortunately, dangerous to themselves and others as well.

 

[Rockhound]

The max depth of whole lot of my dives have necessarily been in the 80' to 120' range, but mostly around 100'. I've always understood the risk of some narcosis at 100' or so, but had never heard or witnessed anyone becoming narc'd at shallower depths, or in having the effects hang on much above 80 or 90' after initiating them deeper.

Way back "when", on a deep training dive to 150', I felt the effects of HPP Nitrogen. Mostly I felt a little "slow", forcing myself to look at my depth gauge/computer every few seconds to confirm I was reading them correctly. The effect went away around 120' and I felt fine (well, I reckon, but maybe I was narc'd and didn't know it, eh?).

I haven't had the desire or need to go to that depth since. I do limit my max depth at Lake Travis to 100', but mainly because it is so dark and spooky that I'm afraid if I did get narc'd, it would cause me to become overly apprehensive. As it stands, I enjoy the feeling of being deep in very dark water, but I think one bad episode would ruin it for me from then on......

 

[Liquid]

When I worked as instructor, I used to know myself and my behaviour so good, that I spotted the beggining of Narcosis as early as 20M. The first affect it has on me is on my feeling of time, so whenever I feel it starts I keep my watch infront of my eyes.

As for stronger experiences- I had a few experiences with Narcosis during deep dives. It's the same as taking drugs- makes you feel high (in short- feels great). Whenever you get lower than 40M it strikes strong. very unrecommended to everyone but the most experienced divers (I did it when I had over 1000 dives, and knew I am a capable diver. alwais with a buddy as experienced as me or more).

 

[capnvik]

Today's deep dive once again gave me the feeling of lightheadedness & being unfocused. We were at 88'. Guess the diver who said I've probably gotten narked all along but just noticed it until recently.ut: