Narcosis

[CaptnJack]

Not to pile on and repeat too much I will offer a different story...

I am a darn good cave surveyor in warm water even at ~95ft. This involves measuring and recording depth/distance/and azimuth and not making any errors in reading the compass correctly (not 180deg backwards for instance), counting knots, estimating distances shorter than 10ft, and recording all of these details in wetnotes (legibly). Our survey of the Chamber of the Ancients for cave2 class in MX (79F gin clear water) is still one of the most mathematically precise ever done. Loop error is like plus-minus 8"

In cold water I am terrible at even 65-70ft. I made so many mistakes last year in Wet dream that we had to redo the entire dive (with 25/25 trimix instead of 32%) to fix them. A combination of the water (50F), the shitstorm of silt raining off the ceiling, dry gloves, and that we had scootered 1500ft back into this brand new cave with 3 stage bottles made the routine non-routine. Any kind of novelty was beyond my mental capacity. I wasn't dangerous, all the gas/depth/time/propulsion/buddy issues were fine. There was just no capacity left to get the numbers measured/counted and recorded correctly. The crazy nonsensical survey plot I generated on 32% was AMPLE evidence that I was over capacity and too narced to get good data on 32% in those conditions.

[kdupreez]

Another interesting video on Narcosis in diving..

This video has some clips from a diver going through a deep diving class.. Whats really scary to me is that some agencies still require you to complete a deep air cert before you are allowed to do Trimix classes..

This diver (a grown man) was almost in tears after his deep air dive due to how unsafe he felt at these depths (at min 4:00 in the video).. if things went slightly south on this dive, it could have been game over for him.. And he was REQUIRED to go through this traumatic and potentially fatal exercise to be allowed into the trimix club... scary..

[youtube]http://youtu.be/JvXhXL2DWKk[/youtube]

[olalladiver]

Thanks...

Yeah, it's the insidious nature ... that one can be so affected and NOT KNOW IT, that I find scariest... If I'm in control of my faculties, I can problem solve...

If not...

[spatman]

Thanks...

Yeah, it's the insidious nature ... that one can be so affected and NOT KNOW IT, that I find scariest... If I'm in control of my faculties, I can problem solve...

If not...

The more you dive, the more you begin to recognize the early signs of narcosis. For me, I can tell I'm starting to get narked when I look at my gauges and 5 seconds later realize I didn't register what they said.

And thanks, Koos, for expanding on the problems associated with co2. There's only so much patience I have for typing on my phone.

[CaptnJack]

Another interesting video on Narcosis in diving..

This video has some clips from a diver going through a deep diving class.. Whats really scary to me is that some agencies still require you to complete a deep air cert before you are allowed to do Trimix classes..

[youtube]http://youtu.be/JvXhXL2DWKk[/youtube]

I love how they say they don't know how to prevent it lol
Yet trimix has been around a long time commercially and now going on 20 years recreationally.

Not doing 200ft dives on air would also be preventative...

[pensacoladiver]

Maybe my TDI instructor cheated, but I was not required to do extended range before Trimix.

On a side note, I did extended range anyways as we were in nice warm blue water.

Albeit, a bit on the smart ass side, I would say that no one is REQUIRED to do extended range before Trimix. If you don't want to do it, find another certification agency.