Shallowest that you've been Narc'ed?

What's the shallowest depth at which you've noticed that you've had signs of Narcosis impairment?

Notes:

1) if not on air, please use your air equivalent depth, based on your Nitrogen fraction only.

2) note that I've left the degree of impairment up to your discretion. If your degree of impairment was important (or not), just say so in the thread.

3) remember: this is "shallowest ever", not what you consider normal, etc.


-hh

While I've been trying to pay attention to how I was feeling, I have yet to notice myself feeling narced. Now, this is not to say that I haven't been, just that I haven't noticed the symptoms as they're traditionally described. I've been down into 120s numerous times, both in warm & cold water. I'm sure it'll catch up with me one of these days, though.

-Roman.

-hh once bubbled...
1) if not on air, please use your air equivalent depth, based on your Nitrogen fraction only.

Click to expand...

I'm not going to bother with that. My narcosis experiences were in the same depth range, and calculating out equivalent air depth will mess up the results... O2 is as much, if not more, narcotic than nitrogen.

My experience is that I double and triple check everything once I get down to about 90 feet. My humorous narcosis stories are generally resulting from depths in the 110-125 range.

Friends of mine, however, will submit that I get narc'ed on the surface.

But the trouble is, I sort of need my buddy to make the judgement. The deeper I go the more relaxed I feel. I can't really tell when it gets to the point of acting goofy, or deviating from the dive plan, unless my buddy says it was a problem.

Jim

Everyone begins getting narced as soon as you begin to raise PPN2...i.e. when you get below the surface. This is like asking someone "what's the fewest drinks it's taken you to get drunk?" *Everyone* has some impairment when they are below water. Reflexive behaviors can lead us to believe that we are not (just as some can act completely sober when drunk), but the minute something unexpected occurs, it will always take longer to deal with than on the surface.

I have *noticed* my own narcosis as shallow as 50 fsw. It's the little things...I usually find myself staring at my pressure gauge for a few seconds to figure out that I have 1700 psi, not 1200 psi.

1 ata and half case of beer

I havn't been narc'd yet - I've done almost 100 dives with the deepest to 37m. On that dive I was watching my depth as I went down, looking around and paying close attention to what was going on - expecting something to happen - nothing did.

I guess this doesn't mean I wasn't narc'd as I didn't try doing maths while there, what would you call the common symptions that would tell you you are narc'd?

Sometimes it takes something not quite so obvious to let you know that nitrogen does mess you up.

Once on a night dive, I was at about 35ft, my buddy at about 45, and I was having a problem with one ear.
All I could see was the glow of his light, and my light did not illuminate him directly.
I signalled "attention" and his light swung in my direction.
Just as if he were right in front of me on a daytime dive or a dive with better viz, I indicated with the hand signal "something wrong" and pointed to my ear... like he was going to see it.

Right after I did it, I realized that there was no way that he could have seen me, and by that time he was in front of me.

Narcosis is not something that suddenly hammers you.
It comes on slowly, like the impairment from sipping a beer. After a 6-pack, you may not realize how messed up you are until you try to stand up.

At 120ft, you may not realize how messed up you are until your reg blows a hose and your buddy has his head shoved in a hole grabbing a bug.

We are all "narc'd" as soon as PPN2 > 0.79, it's just the degree that varies, and like the impairment from alcohol, it will vary from day to day based on rest, comfort, and other conditions.

I wouldn't think twice about heading to 130 in Cozumel on air.
I would really prefer to have mix at 80-100ft at Catalina.

Ok with the beer I can relate, and maybe I have been narc'd past 30m but as yet I'm not aware of it.

Some of the friends I've dived with were taken to 40m with an instructor to experience narc'ing when they were quite fresh. Seems like a strange thing to want to do when you fresh to diving but then the idea is to learn from others and not make the same mistakes - right?

2 Ft.