Narcosis incident

Ok - who's been narced and did it ever get you into trouble, cause you to do something unsafe?

I had an incident in Indonesia last year. I was on a liveaboard. On one dive, I admit I wasn't paying enough attention to my depth. I was fiddling with some gear during the descent, we'd done the same dive the day before and were going to do it again at the same depth, so I was just following the group down. When I reached the group, I realised we were at 36m which is too deep for my camera and wasn't in the dive plan. I signalled to the DM I wanted to ascend a bit. So we did slowly, to about 28m, and continued the dive. However, included in the plan was a coral outcrop we were to look at (hadn't done this in first dive). The DM led us over to it, I looked at my gauge and saw that somehow, we were back to 36m.
To cut the rest of it short, we ended up doing an unplanned deco dive and I had only just about enough air for the stops.

I learnt a lot from that dive - I trusted the DM too much, the liveaboard's dive plan for that site was totally wrong, I didn't pay enough attention during the dive, I proably did lots of things wrong. However I believe I was well and truly narced - I'd never been to 36m before and I remember just not being able to read my computer or think clearly. I've decided not to dive below 30m in future.

There is alot to be said for being self reliant. At least you relized you were to deep and did the right thing. Sounds like you also relized that their planning was all wrong. Good lesson in planning your dive and diving YOUR plan. I dive mainly in cold freshwater and it seems that getting narced is a lot easier. The worst time I remember being narced I hade this burning desire to take the reg out of mouth. Some reason I did not but I remember telling my self I don't need this. My dive buddy hears voices when he gets narced. When you ascended to the 28m, did everything clear up? If so, you may have been right. Sounds like you did make same mistakes but it also sounds like you were aware of them. As long as you learn from them, then it is a positive thing.

I also scared the crap out of Walter. Walter, Donna, and I dived on the Duane several years ago (my first dive on the Duane) with several other divers. Walter was leading the dive. There is a place that you can swim through the superstructure and go from one side to the other. We did that and I know I saw Donna say that she was not going to do the swim through. I also saw her sign to Walter that she would wait outside the wheel house for us to go up the ladder and out the wheel house windows. To this day, I still remember seeing Donna swim through the superstructure. She didn't. Walter had me lead the divers up the stairs to the wheel house. I waited in the wheel house for everyone to swim through the window to go out for our ascent. Donna never came into the wheel house and I got worried, so I re-traced myself back down the stairs, throught the superstructure and back to the waiting divers (waiting for stupid me). Walter was furious with me. It took me about a year before I really came to an understanding to what actually happened. I was severely narc'd and had no clue. It happens to everyone. You just may not realize it.

WHAM! List of dumb things done while narced: 1) Detached drysuit inflator hose to "check it", 2) Dove to 130' on EAN32 to "see what was down there"

I do a lot of solo diving so I am constantly on the lookout for narcosis. Any time I feel a slight bit funny I ascend to shallower water until I return to a normal state. While at depth I periodically do mind games:recite birthdays, ssan's or do basic math problems. If you find you do them real slow (note: this requires you look at your watch) then you are being narced and not knowing it. Another thing I do is try to task load myself: Simulate a reg change then simulate a valve drill, snap your primary light to harness, detach backup and employ it. If you do a series of drills like that and it makes you feel uneasy then you no you are suffering from narcosis. The only times I have felt the onset of narcosis was when diving in 60 degree lake water in vis that turns to pea soup so I would definatly say that conditions worsen the effects of it.

"You should stop looking at your depth, look at the sharks...... OOO!! SHARKS!!!! You should stop looking at your depth, look at the sharks....."

Yeah, narc'd.

Rachel

We did a planned deco dive on the Monrovia in Lake Huron to get a porthole ring and window. The porthole assembly was just inside a doorway on the level just below the wheelhouse 130 ft. My job was to hold the light and have the tools ready for my partner and keep track of time. This dive was done in the early 80's- pre-computer, so we used a watch with a movable bezel. I set the hands at 12:00 for easier reading. We planned to stay 30 min. Here's where it got wierd for me. When the big hand got to the 4 (meaning we had 10 min left) I could not mentally arrive at the conclusion that we had 10 min. left!! I stared at the watch trying to conclude as to how much time we had left, and I couldn't do it! It took me a good 20-30 sec. of hard concentration to finally arrive at the conclusion - "10 min. left" It was wierd because I really knew what was happening, but still couldn't think right.
At 30 min. we left, did our stops, and surfaced with the window portion of the porthole. We got 7 of the 8 bolts off for the ring-the 8th one started spinning and we ran out of time. That was my first and only narc experience.

Barracuda2

was on a narc'ed diver. He stopped moving started to sink and descended to 163' where I caught up with him and pulled him up. He came alive around 110'. His first comment on the boat was something close to "Narced? What are you talking about? I didn't feel a thing!" People who get narced early don't scare me... they are in tune with reality. People who -THINK- that they are immune to narcosis are the truly dangerous ones, and they will argue to their death that they don't get narced.

Whether you feel it or not... YOU ARE NARCED BY THE TIME YOU HIT 100'. Deal with it.

Pete, I would say that most (really all) divers are experiencing the effects of Nitrogen Narcosis below the depth of 80 ft. There is a difference in the level of the effect and severity for different divers, but it's there. There are those that will never believe that. They are the people that scare me.

NetDoc once bubbled...

Whether you feel it or not... YOU ARE NARCED BY THE TIME YOU HIT 100'. Deal with it.

Click to expand...

Well, let me tell you a story, and maybe you can explain it. Im not saying im immune. Far from it, but last week I was in Roatan doing my deep diver certification and my instructor and I went down to 145' to do a puzzle. (we didnt plan on 145, it just worked out that way becuase we were looking for a nice flat sandy spot to stop and do the puzzle.) When we got there, I passed the bottle to him I was carrying from the surface that was half filled with air (so we could both look at the effects of pressure). Then we compared computers to see if there were any differences in depth. Then he pulled out the objects to show me the effects of color at depth. After that he pulled the puzzle out (a pile of pvc parts that were to be assembled to make a square that was joined through the middle. I had never seen the pvc before this time. I put the puzzle together in 28 seconds. I didnt feel confused at all. I remember thinking to start with a corner, and that there probably wasnt enough pieces to do a big sqaure, so I need to use a straingt, then a T then a straight, etc. to make my square. After I made the puzzle we moved up to around 130 feet , the instructor let the bottle go and we watched it ascend to the surface. We slowly worked our way up, did a safety stop and on the surface found the bottle. After we got back to the dock, he had me put the pvc puzzle together again. I started out the same, but somehow screwed up a few pieces, had to take them apart and start again. It took me 43 seconds to put the same puzzle together on land. He asked me if I worked with pipe alot since I didnt have any problem at all with the puzzle. I said no, that I put together some pvc stuff in the past (sprinkler systems, etc) but not on a daily basis. He laughed about me taking longer on land than under the water and told me I should see a doctor. Im not saying I was immune to it at all. Im sure I was experiencing some sort of narcosis, but it sure didnt feel like it. Ive got about 20 dives around 100' + and never have I felt what some others describe as giddy, reckless, hullicinating or as one of my friends put it, "like you smoked a big fatty". Im far from a expert on the subject, but I think the range of peoples effects from it vary alot more than we think. The only theory I can come up with for doing so well with the puzzle is that Im very mechanically inclined (my main hobby is stock car racing, so im always fabricating something in the shop, working with steel, etc) Any other theories or comments someone wants to add?