Un-Nerving Diving Experience....
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SOB=shortness of breath
You said, it happened each time just as you passed through the tubes and cleared up soon after exiting them?
Have you ever experienced any claustrophobia in the past?
That might possibly have been a contributor to the overall effects you felt.
between "knowing" you had the beer (wether or not it had any real physiological effect at all), whatever else was on your mind during the dive and a possible CO2 buildup, maybe you just spooked yourself out a bit.
Diving is 90% a mental sport.
The work part that's left over is mostly luggin the darn tanks around...
Have you ever experienced any claustrophobia in the past?
That might possibly have been a contributor to the overall effects you felt.
between "knowing" you had the beer (wether or not it had any real physiological effect at all), whatever else was on your mind during the dive and a possible CO2 buildup, maybe you just spooked yourself out a bit.
Diving is 90% a mental sport.
The work part that's left over is mostly luggin the darn tanks around...
RichLockyer
Guest
Had exactly the same feeling happen on my first dive below 100ft.
Sitting there at 105 while my buddy was checking out a rockfish, I felt the same feeling you describe.
I thumbed into my palm, indicating that I wanted to ascend but not call the dive. We came up to 90ft and I was fine. We continued the dive, and back as deep as 110, no problem.
During my wreck class a few weeks later, while the instructor was working drills with another student, I sat there on the bottom of the pool at 18ft and tried to see if I could tell what had happened.
Surprisingly, I was able to duplicate the feeling minus the borderline panic... it was the exhalation effort that I became aware of. That, combined with the narcosis, freaked me out.
I've TRIED to overbreathe my Apeks regs at various depths and it simply won't happen... but my problem was that I felt the extra effort that it took to evacuate my lungs was a problem.
Sitting there at 105 while my buddy was checking out a rockfish, I felt the same feeling you describe.
I thumbed into my palm, indicating that I wanted to ascend but not call the dive. We came up to 90ft and I was fine. We continued the dive, and back as deep as 110, no problem.
During my wreck class a few weeks later, while the instructor was working drills with another student, I sat there on the bottom of the pool at 18ft and tried to see if I could tell what had happened.
Surprisingly, I was able to duplicate the feeling minus the borderline panic... it was the exhalation effort that I became aware of. That, combined with the narcosis, freaked me out.
I've TRIED to overbreathe my Apeks regs at various depths and it simply won't happen... but my problem was that I felt the extra effort that it took to evacuate my lungs was a problem.
This spring I was doing a "dive bomb" run on a reef to spearfish - its one of my common spots, been there a dozen times before - but its deep (110-115' to the bottom, 100 to the top of the reef) The surface current had been particularly bad, and I had to work to get to the anchor line to get down at the surface, so my respiratory and heart rate was above my usual.
Anyway, I got down there, it was cold (~58F at the bottom - cold for around here!), kinda dark as it was overcast, and I had just done the "compress fast" deal.
I got that "closing in" feeling - it was not a good thing at all - and was mostly-solo (spearing, 'ya know.)
Anyway, it was one of those mental battles - I knew I couldn't blow back to the surface at that speed, but that was what my mind WANTED to do....
So I came up about 30', sat there for a few minutes in view of the anchor line, and just conccentrated on relaxing - breathe slowly and deeply, look at the fish below me, concentrate on selecting an area of the reef to attack, load the speargun....
The feeling passed, and I went back down and finished the dive - without problem.
I believe it was mostly-narcosis induced - I've TRIED to overbreathe my reg, like Rich has, at depth - can't be done. But boy it did feel like I was that day..... at least for a couple of minutes.
Anyway, I got down there, it was cold (~58F at the bottom - cold for around here!), kinda dark as it was overcast, and I had just done the "compress fast" deal.
I got that "closing in" feeling - it was not a good thing at all - and was mostly-solo (spearing, 'ya know.)
Anyway, it was one of those mental battles - I knew I couldn't blow back to the surface at that speed, but that was what my mind WANTED to do....
So I came up about 30', sat there for a few minutes in view of the anchor line, and just conccentrated on relaxing - breathe slowly and deeply, look at the fish below me, concentrate on selecting an area of the reef to attack, load the speargun....
The feeling passed, and I went back down and finished the dive - without problem.
I believe it was mostly-narcosis induced - I've TRIED to overbreathe my reg, like Rich has, at depth - can't be done. But boy it did feel like I was that day..... at least for a couple of minutes.
kwesler
Contributor
I ALWAYS get the dark narc, never the happy kind...
I get it as shallow as 60'. The only thing that seems to help is to keep my descent relatively slow. I am 5' 10", 160 and a non-smoking, runner and weight lifter.
Ken
PS. And I usually am on Nitrox!
I get it as shallow as 60'. The only thing that seems to help is to keep my descent relatively slow. I am 5' 10", 160 and a non-smoking, runner and weight lifter.
Ken
PS. And I usually am on Nitrox!
One other possibility.
Tank valve is not in the fully open position. In these cases often the reg perfoms fine at the surface. As you descend your air demand (per breath) increases as pressure increases. At 66ft each breath from your reg is taking 3 times the amount of air from your tank as it would at the surface. Now add in a slight amount of exursion, or claustrophobia, and you are breathing "harder". With the valve not fully open, the demand for air can exceed the valves capacity. Thus the feeling that you can't get enough air.
Now I know your next question. When you returned to 60 ft you were fine.
Perhaps after reuniting in shallow water, and calming down a bit, you headed back down in a more relaxed, slower fasion. Being careful NOT to work too hard.
You may never really know for sure. Just a little FYI.
Andrew
Tank valve is not in the fully open position. In these cases often the reg perfoms fine at the surface. As you descend your air demand (per breath) increases as pressure increases. At 66ft each breath from your reg is taking 3 times the amount of air from your tank as it would at the surface. Now add in a slight amount of exursion, or claustrophobia, and you are breathing "harder". With the valve not fully open, the demand for air can exceed the valves capacity. Thus the feeling that you can't get enough air.
Now I know your next question. When you returned to 60 ft you were fine.
Perhaps after reuniting in shallow water, and calming down a bit, you headed back down in a more relaxed, slower fasion. Being careful NOT to work too hard.
You may never really know for sure. Just a little FYI.
Andrew
RichLockyer
Guest
My personal experience is that nitrox doesn't do jack for narcosis. My buddy disagrees.
Now compare the experiences here to the "deep air" thread where one guy in particular is claiming that air is perfectly safe to 210ft, and that "tech diving" isn't for everyone.
1) A dive to 210ft is tech diving, even if you are on air, unless you're doing a bounce without incurring deco just to say that you were there (and that's even more stupid... big 'nads have no place in diving).
2) Adding helium to the mix for a no-deco dive within traditional recreational limits is not "tech diving"... it's smart diving. NAUI, IANTD, GUE, and TDI have all realized this and are offering training in "normoxic/hyperoxic" trimix. It's no different from diving an equivalent nitrox mix, except that you don't get (as) narc'd. You can use the same tables or computer profiles.
"Tech diving" has long been understood to be diving incurring a planned decompression obligation, possibly planning a switch to a different gas mixture for the ascent.
WJL
Contributor
The feeling that you need to take another breath is triggered by the amount of CO2 in your blood. When the CO2 gets to a certain level, your body tells your brain that you need to inhale again. As the CO2 gets to higher levels, you can experience a sensation of "shortness of breath" and that you can't get enough air out of your reg, even though the reg is working just fine. It is easy to get into a panic state when this happens, because the basic parts of your brain involved with breathing are also closely connected with strong basic emotions like fear. The lizard part of your brain just wants to get out of the fundamentally alien environment you are in and breath good ole air in huge gasps like the lung-equipped animal you are.
If you built up CO2 in your blood, as you might have swimming through the tubes, that could trigger the symptoms you described. When you ascended and slowed down your metabolic rate, the CO2 was scrubbed out of your red blood cells more efficiently, the CO2 level in your blood decreased, and the"need to breathe" feeling caused by elevated CO2 went away. At least that's my opinion.
If you built up CO2 in your blood, as you might have swimming through the tubes, that could trigger the symptoms you described. When you ascended and slowed down your metabolic rate, the CO2 was scrubbed out of your red blood cells more efficiently, the CO2 level in your blood decreased, and the"need to breathe" feeling caused by elevated CO2 went away. At least that's my opinion.
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