It is really unfair to castigate PADI for something that they never said or did.
Altitude effects on narcosis have not appeared in ANY of their training materials.
The only known instance of confusion was a temporary error in old versions of the Skills and the Environment theory exam, where the question asked was,
"Special procedures must be followed when diving at altitude because:
a. nitrogen narcosis may occur at shallower depths.
b. the ambient atmospheric pressure at altitude is less than at sea level.
c. actual depths must be converted to theoretical depths to find no decompression limits on the RDP.
d. all of the above are correct."
Because b and c were deemed correct, the answer to the question was given as d. I believe the question was quickly reworded to clarify that b was the correct answer.....and d was not a reason for the special procedures, but rather WAS the special procedure. It was not a case of PADI misunderstanding narcosis at altitude, but rather a case of an ambiguous question and error in the answer key.
It was also 13 years ago, for heaven's sake!
Altitude effects on narcosis have not appeared in ANY of their training materials.
The only known instance of confusion was a temporary error in old versions of the Skills and the Environment theory exam, where the question asked was,
"Special procedures must be followed when diving at altitude because:
a. nitrogen narcosis may occur at shallower depths.
b. the ambient atmospheric pressure at altitude is less than at sea level.
c. actual depths must be converted to theoretical depths to find no decompression limits on the RDP.
d. all of the above are correct."
Because b and c were deemed correct, the answer to the question was given as d. I believe the question was quickly reworded to clarify that b was the correct answer.....and d was not a reason for the special procedures, but rather WAS the special procedure. It was not a case of PADI misunderstanding narcosis at altitude, but rather a case of an ambiguous question and error in the answer key.
It was also 13 years ago, for heaven's sake!
