Very mild Narcosis?

Hey Gang,

Great day diving today. Vis was OUTSTANDING, 70+ Feet a lot of the time. (considering the quarry usually is 20 Ft.). First dive was down to 95 feet (personal new max depth), we were on a search to try and find a dive light dropped a week before. No luck finding the small dive light. but the dive itself was a great learning experience.

1. At 47* I was not uncomfortable for the 10 -15 minutes or so we were down at wearing a 5mm with hood and gloves.

2. My regulator gives me air without any effort at all, as opposed to my first (bad) dive to 80 feet with a rental unit. I really felt like I was having to "Suck" the air out, and that caused me a lot of stress.

3. I think I may have had a very light experience with Narcosis. My thought process didn't seem impaired (of course without more experience it's hard for me to make that call), but I noticed that my bubbles had a "Tinny" noise, but when I came up a bit the sound was normal. Could that be a narcosis symptom?

Had a great set of dives today, looking forward to tomorrow.

Stay Safe.

Steve

When me and my son go down to 70+ sometimes to 90-95ft we do something like a math problem. I hold up some fingers and he holds up the same +1 and back to me. For example I hold up 4 he has to hold up 5 then I will hold up 6. We also do a DUI test. Tap each finger with the thumb then back again 2x. Takes a few seconds but worth it.

I believe nitrogen narcosis is not black and white. It isn't like you go to 88 feet and you are fine but if you go to 89 feet and your are narc'd. The moment you start nitrogen loading you are probably experiencing some level of narcosis. So if you did a math problem on the surface it might take 2.30486 seconds to solve it. At 30 feet it might take 2.30683 seconds. In other words, you are a 'little' narc'd but nothing worth worrying about.

The longer you are at depth might make a difference. The colder the water it might make a difference. The lower the visibility it might have a difference. I have noticed dive buddies acting a little narc'd around 70 feet. I would say at 95 feet you were probably experiencing narcosis. Some people get totally happy or start doing weird things. For example, had one buddy who started sinking faster as his wetsuit compressed. Proper thing to do would be add a little air to the BCD. He dumped all his air and sat on the bottom of the sea. We were just lucky max depth was 131 feet. When I went down to get him I had this paranoid feeling wash over me. When I got him back to 70 feet he from being dopey looking to alert. He had this look like, "What is going on? Where am I?" He had no memory of going to 131 feet.

TN-Steve:

Hey Gang,

Great day diving today. Vis was OUTSTANDING, 70+ Feet a lot of the time. (considering the quarry usually is 20 Ft.). First dive was down to 95 feet (personal new max depth), we were on a search to try and find a dive light dropped a week before. No luck finding the small dive light. but the dive itself was a great learning experience.

1. At 47* I was not uncomfortable for the 10 -15 minutes or so we were down at wearing a 5mm with hood and gloves.

2. My regulator gives me air without any effort at all, as opposed to my first (bad) dive to 80 feet with a rental unit. I really felt like I was having to "Suck" the air out, and that caused me a lot of stress.

3. I think I may have had a very light experience with Narcosis. My thought process didn't seem impaired (of course without more experience it's hard for me to make that call), but I noticed that my bubbles had a "Tinny" noise, but when I came up a bit the sound was normal. Could that be a narcosis symptom?

Had a great set of dives today, looking forward to tomorrow.

Stay Safe.

Steve

Click to expand...

Yes the change in the sound of the bubbles is a classic sign of narcosis.

keller34:

When me and my son go down to 70+ sometimes to 90-95ft we do something like a math problem. I hold up some fingers and he holds up the same +1 and back to me. For example I hold up 4 he has to hold up 5 then I will hold up 6. We also do a DUI test. Tap each finger with the thumb then back again 2x. Takes a few seconds but worth it.

Click to expand...

I like that DUI test... that's a way I could probably do a self check.

dumpsterDiver:

Yes the change in the sound of the bubbles is a classic sign of narcosis.

Click to expand...

Thank you. That's good for me to know.

Steve

Sorry to use this post for this, I hope it is alright.

Some short history of my diving so you may understand what I,m asking

I'm very new to diving, but for some reason I feel more confortable in the deep, ( it seems to me that I control better my breathing deep down, don't ask me way ), in my advance course the instructor took me to 39.6m and make me answer some questions on the dive board, everything perfect, but been a rucky and normal build body I have some questions regarding narcosis, I know it have to do as well with the amount of time you spend at dept, but most of the time I go between 22 and 25m until my DC rings the alarm or I see that I,m 4 min to DECO, then I slowly ascent but keep my dept between 13 and 17m, I make good use of air so It takes some time to reach the half thank rule.

In my last dive we relocate the anchor the Dive center use, because I ask my instructor to do something more interesting than just keep the anchor to the right bouyancy and go up and down with it ( search and recovery day class ), the instructor told that since I like to dive deep we will relocate the anchor, and I did to 37.4m, we spend some time there since we spoted a sting ray in the sand and I had to loose the knots on the anchor, in none of the situations I had any feeling of happyness nor drunkness nor nothing, but my instructor tell me that between 25 and 35 he find that some people get in to that.

I know it is different for everybody but, will it take longer for a new person in diving to kick in the Narcosis or will I be more suceptable in the long run ?

If I'm not feeling any effect and I just go up because my DC tell me to do so, is it likely that it may happen in any moment or I just my body tolerate nitrogen a little better ?

I think you just think you're not suffering from narcosis. Feeling more comfortable seems to be part of it. That sounds like classic narc to me. Many people claim to drive better when they're drunk. I think this is it.

As for your advanced instructor making you answer questions....did he time you? It's not just inability to answer (very rare) but being slow in your answers. For example, you can do 10 math problems in 30s at the surface. It might take you 90s at 40m. It might take you 45s at 40m. Either way, your math might be right......but it's slowed you down.

It may be the case, that I'm narked that is why I breath better at dept, Really don't know, yes instructor timed my, he said I did alright but I didn't ask in what time I did it.

I was told, that you have a sensation of happyness, drunkness, and maybe other type of sensation, but the thing is I just feel normal ( no I'm not drunk all day )

When I'm desending I use a lot of air or to frase it differently I breath a lot faster than when I'm deep, like I mention I'm a rucky and don't know what Is normal in what is not underwater, maybe I'm already narked when I hit 10m but it stay the same the complete inmersion, don't feel anything different in me beside that I can control my breathing better when deeper

Narc is often hard to tell. I remember being shocked at how hard it was to convert my gas reserves from PSI to Bar using mental arithmetic at 120 feet, even though I felt fine.

The only time I remember not remembering anything on a dive was more like 180 feet. I had a photo of something very specific that I had no recollection of seeing, much less photographing.

Very scary

For the moment I recolect everything I did and hope to continue like that, my instructor as well mention me that situation of not remembering what happen or gaps