Collecting Narcosis Stories

[Griffo]

On a recent dive I'm pretty sure the wife was narked to all buggery. We were at about 130ft and I noticed her looking at her computer. For about 2 minutes. Not moving, just finning slightly to hold against the current, and staring at her computer. I signalled to her to come up a few meters, which she did, and after the dive she asked why I had been so insistent that she ascend. I told her that she was narked and was staring at her computer. She remembers looking at it, but insists to this day that it was only for a few seconds. Wish I had video!

The only time i've known that I was narked was a dark nark. They are not fun, not fun at all. I was sure I was going to meet some ill end underwater. Luckily my instinct was to get to the surface (but slowly, I was also scared I was going to get bent) and half way up I suddenly realised that it was all in my head.

---------- Post added August 22nd, 2013 at 06:22 PM ----------

The first time I noticed I was narcing I was leading a dive as a divemaster in Mozambique. The dive was at about 24 meters.

Narced at 24m? I was under the impression it only really sets in 30m+. Well everyone's different I suppose.

The wife of a friend starts giggling like a little girl at some really shallow depth (18m / 60ft from memory) almost every time. She only dives very shallow dives

 

[supergaijin]

I feel narcosis from around the 25m mark if I watch for the symptoms.

Early in my career, leading a group we descended directly to around 22m, gave 'OK's all around and then started swimming along a wall. One diver stayed put, so I swam back and signalled and received the OK signal. Swam a couple of meters, looked back and still no movement. The diver showed no 'bad' traits- good buoyancy etc. and responded to signals.... but didn't move.

I took her by the tank valve, swam a bit and as we were ascending it dawned on me that she had been narced at that fairly shallow depth. Later it dawned on me that I also was narced at that same depth as I didn't recognise the signs of her narcosis- only later at a much shallower depth. Insidious by nature.

A deepish fun dive in the Philippines turned in to a deeper dive when one diver saw a shark below us at Pesacdor Isl, Moalboal. I descended maybe 15m and it felt like I had been punched in the head. I knew I was narced and bad. As this was early in the dive I felt confident I had enough gas remaining. Looking at my combined consol (depth and air guage) I couldn't work out which was which. Again, knowing I was narced, I concentrated really hard- then I noticed that my arms were about 8 feet long. Completely off my face I managed to swim up until I got back my senses at about 30m and continued the dive.

With experienced divers, I sometimes feel the urge to extend the dive time beyond what 'a reasonably prudish person would do'. It's sometimes hard to drag myself away from some beautifully relaxed shark dives at around 30m.

“I am personally quite receptive to nitrogen rapture. I like it and fear it like doom --- l’ivresse des grandes profondeurs has one salient advantage over alcohol: no hangover. If one is able to escape from it’s zone, the brain clears instantly and there are no horrors in the morning. I cannot read accounts of a record dive without wanting to ask the champion how drunk he was.”
---Jacques Cousteau, in The Silent World

 

[Diver0001]

:admingreet: The blonde puts in her appearance....

My experience with Narcosis have been dry dives. I was lucky enough to do a 30 and 50M Chamber dive for the experience.

The Chamber Tech said those who tend to be effected by alcohol easily tend to get narced easily too. I was the exception to that rule.

In the 30M dive there were a couple young buck DM's so off their faces I had to set up and put their bib systems on for their O2 delivery. I don't think I was hit at all. The 50M was a different story. The "dive" was on tape. I thought I was doing pretty well working on my assigned paperwork. I was so focused I never heard the Chamber tech tell us to put the paperwork aside.. twice! It is handy to know that when I get Narced.. I get tunnel vision so much.. that is really a concern for someone who has a camera!

Something else the chamber tech mentioned that was interesting. A lot of people who find their regs "breathe wet" at depth are often suffering the earlier stages of being narced. Their muscle tone has relaxed and they may not be holding the reg in their mouth well enough to avoid pulling some water in when they breathe. Interesting thought!

I would definitely recommend a chamber dive for people who would like to explore the feeling of narcosis. In the dry environment I was able to feel the effects of narcosis MUCH better than I do under water. Diving in the chamber gave me a much clearer understanding of how it feels which makes me more attuned to the feeling underwater than I was before that.

R..

 

[victorzamora]

So, my first post-OW-cert dive was with my instructor to 132ft. Well, it was to 130ft....but I rolled a little so my depth gauge could hang lower . After a 2min bottom time, we ascended to about 90ft. Clearly still messed up, and not looking for it, I started looking at this rock that the military there had used as target practice. It was GORGEOUS. I felt like I could, just, sit.......forever. I loved that rock. I really did. I just **COUGH**ACK!!!**SPLAT!!**

I lost focus, my lips stopped sealing around my reg and I took a HUGE inhale of water (okay, probably just a drop....but it felt like I had inhaled the entire lake). I slammed my hand onto my reg and mask (think Giant Stride entry position) and checked my SPG. With every breath, I saw that thing drop as I apparently tried to cough my lungs through my reg. I grabbed the instructor, gave a big "thumbs up" and he signalled back with a "thumbs up". We ascended. The surface was RIGHT there, and that punk was trying to drown me!!! Can you believe that??? The instructor was HOLDING ME UNDERWATER!!! HOW DARE HE.......try to hold me to my safety stop? Yup, he gave me the safety stop signal (three fingers up into the downward-facing palm of your other hand). I saw it, once he wrestled me back to 15ft and had the use of both hands.

Back on the boat, we discussed narcosis management techniques and that awareness was the key. He provided me with the entire trip for free. It was him, 2 DMC's, and me. He dove 1-on-1 with me to show me narcosis. He was very attentive, and he made it a point to show me that with proper training, proper techniques, and proper mental awareness, scuba diving can transform from dangerous to reasonably risky. On the next dive, he took me to progressively deeper depths (starting at 70ft) and had me do little stuff to check my acuity. I finally learned the feeling of narcosis. That was 9.5 years ago, (and I took a 5 year hiatus) and I still remember his little routine. Surroundings, depth, surroundings, air, surroundings, buddy, surroundings, depth......I haven't had a problem since. I still feel sluggish starting at about 100ft, but even at 110ft I'm pretty good. I'm anxious to do a deeper dive with a timer and some task-loading to see what I can do. I find I get VERY philosophical at depth. What is the meaning of all of this? What's the meaning of life? Why do I let worldly issues bring me down when there is so much good to be seen?

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I had pretty much the same thing happen with a student last week, except we were in the deep end of the pool. Maybe it wasn't narcosis.

There's a big difference (or should be) between reactions at the OW level ... particularly during the confined water phase where people are just getting introduced to basic skills ... and AOW, where people have been certified and (in my classes, anyway) have some real-world dives under their weightbelt.

Often people will fail to respond because they don't understand what's going on, or what the expected reaction should be. In this case, however, I'm certain she was narc'd ... during a subsequent deep dive, when I gave her the turnaround signal (with the expectation that she would lead us back to the upline), she stared at me for a few seconds, then turned around and resumed going deeper.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

---------- Post added August 22nd, 2013 at 05:39 AM ----------

On a recent dive I'm pretty sure the wife was narked to all buggery. We were at about 130ft and I noticed her looking at her computer. For about 2 minutes. Not moving, just finning slightly to hold against the current, and staring at her computer. I signalled to her to come up a few meters, which she did, and after the dive she asked why I had been so insistent that she ascend. I told her that she was narked and was staring at her computer. She remembers looking at it, but insists to this day that it was only for a few seconds. Wish I had video!

It's often the case that your buddy will know you're narc'd before you do ... I look for changes in breathing pattern, which are sometimes indicated by someone having more difficulty than usual with their buoyancy control.

The wife of a friend starts giggling like a little girl at some really shallow depth (18m / 60ft from memory) almost every time. She only dives very shallow dives

One of the important messages in any deep class should be that some people just shouldn't dive deep.

That said, I have a good friend who dives a rebreather and often goes to very deep depths who likes to giggle during the dive. It's not because he's narc'd ... it's simply that he's having the time of his life ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[PsyWulf]

I had pretty much the same thing happen with a student last week, except we were in the deep end of the pool. Maybe it wasn't narcosis.

Happens when you are absolutely not expecting to need to use the skills right then and there. We had the same in EFR,you'd see somebody lying down and think nothing of it till the trainers ask why the hell you aren't checking them for injuries!

 

[fjpatrum]

I giggle on every dive, at least once. I'm just too delighted to be breathing underwater I guess. I haven't been narc'd that I'm aware of but I've only done a couple drifts to ~28m and most of my diving has been above 18m.

This is a great thread for learning the different reactions people have though. Thanks.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

My wife had never been below 130. just the two of us were diving on a wall off Crooked Island, Bahamas.

I decided (and she wanted to do so as well) to drop down really deep and check it out for a few moments. Neither of us had redundancy, just single 80 tanks, but there was no current , the water was 150 ft visibility and we were going to stay very close.

We drop down pretty quickly and stop around 175 ft, that was our goal I guess. We both hit our inflators to level off and I do so.

We both have excellent control of buoyancy (normally) but....
She hits the inflator and is still sinking, she is vertical and swimming up slowly to hold position. I immediately realize this is not good. She hits the inflator again and I notice that bubbles are just coming out the top of her BC.

She has absolutely NO CLUE, she should have realized that she had already put way more air in the BC then would be necessary to attain neutral condition. But she just stays there kicking, looking at me with a retarded look on her face and occasionally adding air. She is not worried, and is unaware of any problem. We are suspended over the wall in 1000 ft of water!

I swim over real fast, grab her BC, inflate my BC and physically drag/float us up the wall to the top around 80 ft or something. What are the chances that the BC OP valve would unscrew at the very worst time possible? She had zero clue what the hell I was doing and I never wasted any valuable time trying to explain the situation at depth.


I never took her past 135-140 again..

 

[aprivetera]

Two stories for you:

Me first: Since we dive here in a lake where the visibility is better deeper than shallower, we usually plan to go to 35m (using air) down to one of the drop off points of the wall. About 1 in 20 dives when I stop upon reaching the bottom, everything gets really s l o w and I get this sinking feeling that I need to go straight to the surface. Like right then and there. Realizing that it is the narc talking, I usually go up about 5m and stalk the group from above. By the time they make it up to me I am feeling much better. The frequency has decreased recently. Maybe it's just me.

Now for stories about others: We have another dive site here called "Vertigo Wall" (it is literally a sheer drop off at maybe 70°-80° angle from the base, hope you all understand that estimation) where it seems that about 20% of people that we take there have some sort of panic attack/vertigo sickness/narcosis upon entering the 25-30m mark. I have learned to be very observant upon reaching this mark and be attentive to others to make sure everything is ok. It could be a mix of the thermocline that hits at about the 20m mark, the sheer slope of the wall, or maybe just narcosis. Funny enough - considering the story above - it has never happened to me. Weird!

 

[KK2242]

On my second deep dive, we were diving the Guam's Blue Hole. The top of the bottom of the hole is right around 130'.. Anyways, my task was to unlock a combo lock once we down at 130'. This was my first time at this depth but as we went down the hole, I thought to myself, hey, this isn't so bad. I don't feel narc'd at all. We leveled off and the instructor motions to start the task. I remembered the combo so dialed it in and nada. It didn't open. I kept trying but it still wouldn't open. After about my eighth try, I was starting to get super frustrated and tunnel vision was settling in. To top it off, I had to keep stopping to clear my mask as it filled up.
Needless to say, I was as mad as could be. I was so set on getting that lock unlocked, that I sank to 134" twice, each time the instructor pulled me back up to 130'. He let me sink the second time to see if I would noticed and swim up. I was aware I was sinking; however, I was completely consumed with getting the lock off so I could fling it as far from me as I could if I only could get the infernal thing off me. Yes, I was quite furious. Then the instructor comes over unlocks and locks it back onto my bcd. According to the rest of the group who was with us, I gave the instructor a glare that could kill. It was only when I was shallower, that I wondered why I had been so furious over a silly lock.

A story about a fellow diver (who also said that he had never been narc'd before): We're doing dive 3 of our wreck specialty so the plan was to go down to the deeper cargo (at about 100') where we would do a practice line set up. My buddy already had the reel so we decided he would set the line and I would reel the line in. So he ties off his first point and moves to swim deeper into the cargo hold. I noticed he did not have a second point tied off at the entry point so motioned that he needed two tie off points. He just stares so I motioned again that we needed two tie off points. He nods his head and signals ok, unties the line and wraps it TWICE around the beam he was using before continuing into the hold!
I didn't feel narc'd but as I was untying our 2nd to last tie off, I passed the reel through the loop and...huh? It was still tied. I passed it back through thinking I did something wrong. I still had 8 minutes for that depth and thought to myself that I had plenty of time, I just needed to slowly think this through. So I spent the next few minutes passing the line back and forth through the loop, staring at it it, and repeating but remained completely stumped. Strangely, my computer still read 8 minutes??? I am sure my instructor had a good laugh before coming over to help me. It only took him starting to pull the right befuddling line before..."light bulb"...took back over and proceeded to the first tie off.