what is your take on this??

[DennisW]

Pam,

Yes, you were experiencing the effects of Nitrogen Narcosis. Everyone get's "narc'd" when they dive. Sometimes it effects you worse than other times. Hyperventilating only makes things worse. Ascending to a shallower depth helps. I've had the same sensations and it is not pleasant. Ascending will reduce the level of narcosis. If you are wearing a wet suit (front zipper) unzip it a bit. It may not really help, but it makes me feel less constricted, so psychologically, it helps me.

Scott had a great explanation in his post. And yes, you can dive that deep on air, but the narcosis will be severe, especially if you aren't used to diving deep.

You did the right thing to ascend and relax.

 

[Walter]

Thanks for your input Scott. I appreciate it. I didn't think that I was narc'd, because I wasn't confused during the dive. I was consciously trying to slow my breathing, and calm myself and had no problem focusing on my guages etc. So can narcosis make your body react that way, even though you aren't in a confused state?

Thx.
Pam

Pam,

Everyone is narced on every dive, every time. The deeper we go, the more pronounced the effects. Sometimes we can feel the symptoms, sometimes we can't. You had your friends dream in the back of your mind and narcosis worked with it to change the normal good feeling of narcosis into a bad feeling. Any time your gut tells you to do something safer than planned, follow it. You were right to ascend to a shallower depth.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Pam,

Everyone is narced on every dive, every time. The deeper we go, the more pronounced the effects. Sometimes we can feel the symptoms, sometimes we can't. You had your friends dream in the back of your mind and narcosis worked with it to change the normal good feeling of narcosis into a bad feeling. Any time your gut tells you to do something safer than planned, follow it. You were right to ascend to a shallower depth.

I've never had a good feeling while narced. I'm a dark narc kind of guy. LOL

Pam, IMO, you give give some thought to the kind of dives your willing to do and with whom. When you're not feeling right is not the time to be seperated from your team as you were outside while they were inside.

In addition to narcosis, dispnea is also something that divers experience which is sometimes made worse by poor breathing technique or working too hard because of poor buoyancy control. The CO2 build up increases the narcosis which, in turn, increases the dispnea which increases the...you get the idea.

 

[Charlie99]

Let me share my limited knowledge.

The long answer is that the max P02=1.6 occurs at about 185 feet on air. However, nitrogen narcosis is usually the limiting factor.

And some of us are narc'd at sea level. 1.6ata ppO2 is about 218' on air.

 

[Doc Harry]

1.6ata ppO2 is about 218' on air.

Yup, thanks. I was wondering after the post if my numbers were correct.

I must have been thinking 1.4 ata at about 185 feet

((185/33)+1) x 0.21 = 1.4

 

[Charlie99]

Yup, thanks. I was wondering after the post if my numbers were correct.

I must have been thinking 1.4 ata at about 185 feet

((185/33)+1) x 0.21 = 1.4

Just remember, that you are narc'd at any depth, and that 0.79ata ppN2 narc will get you everytime.

My wife swears that I'm narc'd at sea level. I tried trimix for a while. While my thinking processes may have improved, the donald duck imitation spoiled any chance of my comments being taken seriously. :banana:

 

[Web Monkey]

It could be narcosis, it could be an equipment problem, it could be a lot of things, however none of this matters.

If you were feeling that something was or might have been wrong, it's time to abort the dive, or at least ascend to a more comfortable depth.

It's recreational diving. If it's not fun, don't do it. It's your life and you don't owe anybody an explanation for calling a dive, ever.

Terry

Anywhoo....felt very rushed getting ready on the boat and into the water and felt some anxiety for whatever unknown reason. For a brief second, the thought occurred to me as I was wondering why I felt anxiety...."what if my friend was really dreaming about me? what if I'm the one who dies on this dive?". Stupid I know.

So...as I'm descending, I'm trying to slow my breathing and relax. Swimthroughs have always been my favorite. We get to the swimthrough, and I'm just not feeling right. I felt like I was hyperventilating. And then the DM brings us deeper, and into a narrower spot. And I just felt like I couldn't catch my breath at all. I felt like I was overbreathing my regulator or

 

[Ayisha]

I've done Punta Sur (Devil's Throat), and I must say that I'm surprised at your dive profile. First of all, it's on the edge of recreational diving, and this can be verified by all the deaths there over the years.

When I did it a couple of years ago, we had some rules given to us. We had to make a fairly quick descent to about 80 feet. When we got to the opening of the tunnel, if we did not have at least 2000 psi minimum, we were to not enter the tunnel. If we missed the tunnel, due to slow descent, we would also abort, as there's no fighting to go back against the current. We entered the tunnel at 80 feet and went through it, sometimes steeply, coming out at 120 feet. At this point, we did a short multi-level dive, and made our way up slowly, pretty much reaching our NDL's. We certainly did not go to 130 or 140 feet.

I'm surprised that your DM planned for you to go deeper and do more "swimthroughs" after this kind of dive on air and single tanks. I guess since the most challenging part of the dive was over, he still thought you had enough air for you and your buddy to ascend safely and do a safety stop. Still, that must have been pushing the NDL's and air supply. I would not like to be alone at 120 - 140 feet while my buddies went through a swim-through. The dive should probably have been called then.

Many people would not do Punta Sur because of the depth and being in a tunnel for 40 feet without escape except at the end in single file, let alone go deeper and do more overhead environments. What I'm saying is that in the best circumstances, this dive could give people the creeps. Like the others said, if your gut is telling you not to do the dive, then don't!

 

[pm3009]

Thank you everyone for your input. You've been very helpful !! If you want to hear something REALLY scary.... A different DM took us into Devils Throat a couple days after completing our open water dives 4 years ago when we first got certified. Had I known then, what I know now, I never would have gone. We just trusted the DM to take us on safe dives.

 

[Ayisha]

That IS scary. But unfortunately it happens too often that newbies get taken on dives that they may not have all the info about or the training or experience to handle. I'm sure most of us have done "trust me" dives. Probably not many of us rec divers have the training or equipment that this site justifies, yet we do it, too. This site is awesome, and the coral inside the tunnel is beautiful. Coming out of the tunnel to what is apparently a 1200 foot drop was breathtaking. I knew beforehand that it was more risky, but I would probably do it again too. However, like the first time, I would make sure that my buddy is one that I have a lot of confidence in and is extremely reliable and self-sufficient (ok, not in a techie way). Same for the DM. And if I'm not feeling completely confident and somewhat crazy that day, I'm not doing it either.

I just realized that I must have made a mistake in my previous post. You enter the tunnel at 80 feet and exit at 120 feet, so I figured the tunnel was 40 feet long. But actually, it doesn't go straight down, sometimes it's quite flat, sometimes it drops sharply, so the tunnel's stretched out way more than 40 feet. Does anyone know how long it actually is?

So pm3009, did you figure out what you think it was? Narcosis exacerbating your pre-existing anxiety or ... ?