What's the shallowest you have been Narc'd?

[gcbryan]

Taking into account pressure is part of the narcosis equation, does, say, 90 feet below the surface become effectively more than 90' if a high-pressure front (the weather) is above the diver's area?

I know we had some deaths a while back from what turned out to be a much higher pressure at a shallower depth in some form of flowing drainage basin. Some form of news reported a few rescuers died, after one another, after not realizing the effective depth was much higher. This isn't exactly the same situation, but it illustrates the effect of changing pressure.

This makes no sense.

 

[K9trnr]

I once had it at 95 feet. I lifted my digital camera to take a picture two times before I realized the reason I was only seeing red was that the red lens cap was still on. It wasn't major, and I didn't catch it as narcosis until I surfaced and thought back over the dive.

Then there was the time my dive buddy tried to hand his octopus to a fish because he saw the fish didn't have a reg in its mouth...

 

[jjs]

This makes no sense.

It almost does, perhaps Mambo was trying to say that the change of pressure due to weather paterns is similar to the effect of altitude on decompression tables.

Narcosis is effected by CO2 enormously, being out of breath and breathing rapidly imply that the diver has some CO2 build up.

 

[lamont]

I don't get the "good feeling" narc' ...

I get warm fuzzy narcs all the time. We run down to 110 and I start thinking to myself "here sharky, sharky, shark..." and I know I'm happy narc'd...

Only time I've actually seen one was on 30/30 at 100 and it was way too big, way too close and I was way too sober....

It helps if you're warm at depth -- cold and dark tends to produce the more paranoid narcosis...

 

[lamont]

I have a higher nitrogen tolerance, as I rarely perceive the effects. However, once I start descending past about 140ft, I begin to have tunnel vision. Deeper dives will bring on numbness of the jaw/lips, and increased tunneling, and euphoria.

I have never noticed any decrease in competence, or motor skills, but as stated before, I am sure it is there.

You don't have a higher tolerance, you're just ignoring the effects when you're shallower...

 

[Doc Harry]

It's not just depth, it's a combination of depth and task loading.

For me:

No task loading at 140 feet = No perceptable narcosis

Heavy task loading at 100 feet = Very perceptable paranoid narcosis

Personally, I haven't noticed any narcosis shallower than 100 feet

 

[captndale]

I have a higher nitrogen tolerance, as I rarely perceive the effects. However, once I start descending past about 140ft, I begin to have tunnel vision. Deeper dives will bring on numbness of the jaw/lips, and increased tunneling, and euphoria.

I have never noticed any decrease in competence, or motor skills, but as stated before, I am sure it is there.

What you describe above are extreemly severe symptoms of narcosis. That you do not recognize them as such is disturbing. With the described symptoms, you are near passing out!

 

[KidK9]

My fiancee just got narcd at 75 fsw while in the Bahamas and we were just talking about this concept last night.

I do disagree with the analogy that nitrogen narcosis is anesthesia. Anesthesia is lack of pain reception and the direct translation is "controlled death". Nitrogen narcosis is in no way controlled or controlled death, and to my knowledge does not cause a lack of pain perception.

 

[creamofwheat]

Heh...on one dive, I got narked at 80fsw. It was a night dive, on a really, REALLY creepy wreck that I had never dove before (I still get creeped out diving that wreck, even in the daytime...when you put one finger on it, and see a bit of it break off as a result of a very soft one-finger touch...that's creepy) Anyway, I was very narked. I kept on thinking I was running out of air, so I checked my SPG every 30 seconds. I was full of anxiety for the entire dive. I had "dark nark" as I like to call it (it was a cold water dive as well). Not my most fun dive I've ever done.

Then there was that time I was at 130fsw, and the only thing in my head was "dododo, do...do do...do do do....dodo...do..." singing. I was SINGING in my head, not paying attention to anything around me. I eventually looked at my no deco time, saw I had about 2 minutes left, and signalled to buddy that I needed to go up a bit (my computer is more conservative than his). The narcosis lifted once I hit about 110-100fsw.

Then there are those dives to 110-120fsw where I havent felt a darn thing. (But as we all know, probably narked anyway )

Narcosis is a very strange thing. I don't really understand what brings it on, but sometimes it's there, and sometimes it's not.

 

[lamont]

I do disagree with the analogy that nitrogen narcosis is anesthesia. Anesthesia is lack of pain reception and the direct translation is "controlled death". Nitrogen narcosis is in no way controlled or controlled death, and to my knowledge does not cause a lack of pain perception.

The effects of nitrous oxide and deeper narcosis are the same and done via an identical biochemical mechanism. If you're getting so deep that you notice the numbness and tingling, you are very narc'd. At 300-400 fsw (or shallower depending on tolerance) you will lose consciousness and "controlled death" becomes very apropos.