Nitrox Question

[gcbryan]

I might suggest that gcbryan and doctormike ask maranda about her diving in detail. She claims to dive 30-40 ft with DCI-like symptoms, but perhaps she might occasionally hit 65 ft while spending most of her time at 50 ft? Just an idea...

I'm no expert but there are many things going on in a newer diver since everything is so new. TS&M makes the (good) point that once you are slowing your ascent and after you have a little more experience these things generally go away. TS&M mentions that for her she started using Nitrox and a slower ascent schedule and the tiredness went away. I generally still use air but did change long ago to a slower ascent schedule and that tiredness went away with me as well.

If I do 3 dives in a day in cold water (PNW) then I'm still tired but there are other factors in cold water. I think I have read where TS&M also tries to eliminate that third dive in cold water for similar reasons.

 

[Crush]

I'm no expert but there are many things going on in a newer diver since everything is so new. TS&M makes the (good) point that once you are slowing your ascent and after you have a little more experience these things generally go away. TS&M mentions that for her she started using Nitrox and a slower ascent schedule and the tiredness went away. I generally still use air but did change long ago to a slower ascent schedule and that tiredness went away with me as well.

If I do 3 dives in a day in cold water (PNW) then I'm still tired but there are other factors in cold water. I think I have read where TS&M also tries to eliminate that third dive in cold water for similar reasons.

Those are all excellent points.

Early on in maranda1389's post history (a few moons ago) she had indicated being apprehensive and stressed about diving - her SO may be more into it than she is. This may or may not have abated in the intervening weeks and months. TS&M may be onto something - stress may be the larger issue at play here.

If I do three dives in cold water, it has been a full day of work for me. Three day dives and a night dive and I can sleep until noon the next day. I feel tired, but unlike maranda1389 I don't "feel like crap."

PS: I don't dive nitrox.

 

[maranda1389]

I suppose I should rephrase myself. Tired, worn out, beat... those are probably better words to use than crap. I don't feel sick or anything just very tired. Last time I did 3 dives in cold water and I was SO tired. It tends to happen when I do multiple dives and when I am cold, Like when I do a surface intervle and then get back into a freezing cold wetsuit then do a dive, I am usually very tired after a dive like that.

 

[gcbryan]

If you are doing 3 dives in PNW waters in a wetsuit you should be very tired!

 

[maranda1389]

I might suggest that gcbryan and doctormike ask maranda about her diving in detail. She claims to dive 30-40 ft with DCI-like symptoms, but perhaps she might occasionally hit 65 ft while spending most of her time at 50 ft? Just an idea...

Oh trust me, I NEVER got to 65ft or even 50ft! Aside from my one dive in OW that required me to go to 60ft I have not done it since. I don't EVER go past 40' unless my fiance's AND my computer is lying....

If you read my previous posts, you will see that I am actually quite anxious past 30 feet of water.

 

[knowone]

I've read your previous posts perhaps you should too and some others and some answers.

 

[maranda1389]

I've read your previous posts perhaps you should too and some others and some answers.

Um, ok? I don't understand what your getting at but thanks? If your refering to my last reply, that wasn't even directed at you and it wasn't rude either.

 

[Marek K]

Um, ok? I don't understand what your getting at but thanks? If your refering to my last reply, that wasn't even directed at you and it wasn't rude either.

Don't worry about it. Knowone's post are often...cryptic.

 

[TSandM]

maranda, I do agree with the folks above -- three dives in PNW waters is a lot of diving. I can do four dives a day in Los Angeles, with temperatures in the high 50's or low 60's, but in the Pacific Northwest, I very, very rarely do three in a day, and when I do, it's two during the daytime, and a LONG surface interval to rest and warm up, and then a night dive. And then I'm tired.

Diving is actually a fair amount of work -- not so much underwater, as the struggling in and out of exposure protection, hauling tanks and assembling and disassembling gear, loading and unloading the boat or car. And being cold is tiring, too. When I spend a day at the barn in the wintertime, it saps me.

That kind of fatigue will get better as you get more accustomed to the work involved, but past a certain point, you're just going to be tired from a full day of diving. Good ascent strategies will eliminate some part of it, but the rest will still be there.

 

[Tigerman]

Diving sure is a lot more tiering than what it looks like on TV, aint it?