What was your deepest and...

[BDSC]

That statement makes me think you really should be thanking God you all survived the dive. Going to 200 feet on a whim is bad enough. Going to 200 feet without a plan is suicidal.

Couldn't agree more. That dive was probably 15 years ago or so when I would do some things and take some chances I wouldn't do now. Our only plan was to check with each other every 50ft until we reached 150ft and then every 25ft after that. And that wasn't much of a plan. If pretty much anything had gone wrong, we would have been totally screwed.

 

[boulderjohn]

The current (July) issue of Dive Training has an article on narcosis that includes information I had never heard before. On pages 49-50, it describes a study that suggests that your attitudes and beliefs about narcosis influence the degree to which you are affected. Three different groups were trained extensively about narcosis and its effects prior to a test situation, but the three groups were given very different training. Their performances on the same test tasks correlated with what they had been taught. At one extreme, those who were taught that the effects of narcosis were unavoidable and extreme were unable to perform the tasks at depth. At the other extreme, those who were taught that the effects of narcosis were overstated and controllable through willpower were able to perform the tasks well.

 

[diverdwn71]

137 feet in the Molikini Crater getting a pic of a White tip reef shark.

 

[Blackwood]

The current (July) issue of Dive Training has an article on narcosis that includes information I had never heard before. On pages 49-50, it describes a study that suggests that your attitudes and beliefs about narcosis influence the degree to which you are affected. Three different groups were trained extensively about narcosis and its effects prior to a test situation, but the three groups were given very different training. Their performances on the same test tasks correlated with what they had been taught. At one extreme, those who were taught that the effects of narcosis were unavoidable and extreme were unable to perform the tasks at depth. At the other extreme, those who were taught that the effects of narcosis were overstated and controllable through willpower were able to perform the tasks well.

That doesn't surprise me, but is cool nonetheless.

 

[DevonDiver]

My deepest air dive was 256ft, with 25 minutes bottom time on a wreck in the Gulf of Thailand. I did four dives like this over the space of several days on the same wreck. I experienced some amnesia of the dives and definite perceptual narrowing.

 

[gcbryan]

The current (July) issue of Dive Training has an article on narcosis that includes information I had never heard before. On pages 49-50, it describes a study that suggests that your attitudes and beliefs about narcosis influence the degree to which you are affected. Three different groups were trained extensively about narcosis and its effects prior to a test situation, but the three groups were given very different training. Their performances on the same test tasks correlated with what they had been taught. At one extreme, those who were taught that the effects of narcosis were unavoidable and extreme were unable to perform the tasks at depth. At the other extreme, those who were taught that the effects of narcosis were overstated and controllable through willpower were able to perform the tasks well.

Some people can't be hypnotized while others can be made to cluck like a chicken.

 

[Diver0001]

My deepest air dive was 256ft, with 25 minutes bottom time on a wreck in the Gulf of Thailand. I did four dives like this over the space of several days on the same wreck. I experienced some amnesia of the dives and definite perceptual narrowing.

My god. At that depth there's a good chance that there *was* no wreck and you only thought you saw one...

R..

 

[Noboundaries]

Chasing depth for divers reminds me of chasing altitude for pilots. Flying at higher altitudes just gets boring because there's so much less to see, but there are advantages to flying there for distance and fuel consumption. I always had much more fun flying in the dirt and watching the world wiz by my cockpit.

Diving is kind of similar. Unless there's a reason to go deep, most of the interesting stuff to see is at the shallower depths.

 

[DevonDiver]

Mapping the wreck was fun..... it took many dives even to gain a basic appreciation of the layout and structure. Narcosis on the bottom, plus long hang times on the way up, meant that very little information survived to be drawn on to the (slowly) evolving map.

Even with experience, and progressive build-up to those depths, I have to agree that the narcosis was substantial for me...and would have been debilitating if a serious incident had arisen. My core functions, dive discipline and awareness of depth, time and plan were fine throughout - but any problem solving was like walking through mud.

However, it was exploration of a virgin wreck and that involved some personal decision making as to my level of risk exposure. There was excellent surface support, including standby divers, and I was with a bunch of divers who I trusted and was confident in their abilities at those depths and using air.

 

[Meng_Tze]

If someone wants to do deep dives, let them go! Get the training, build up experience and have a go at it. All this talk about 'there is nothing to see' etc, is all subjective and a bit patronizing.

Some people want to do things because they can, or because they like the challenge, or whatever the reason. As long as you know what you are doing (training and experience), plan carefully and accept the risks................