rockjock3:
Your study stated narcosis CAN have effects as shallow as 30. He might not have had problems at 87 because he had no problems and he might not have had problems because it wasn't effecting him.
I occasionally dive to the 125fsw range and have no problems. I have helped people that did have problems though. Narcosis affects everybody differently and at different depths. I have not personally had any problems that I had to handle with myself, but I have been diving with people that developed problems that I had to handle for them.
I do know what being narced feels like also, as the only time that I felt it was when I dove to about 105fsw once. The water was cooler than normal (about 72 F versus 77-82 F) and I didn't feel 100% that day either. I handled it though and ascended slightly to relieve the effects. I then went back down and had no problems.
I made a bad translation of the article. It in fact does not state it
CAN but that it
DOES have effects even at 30 ft. Sorry about that.
Narcosis is not always an effect you can sense but at depth, everyone have narcosis in a form or another. Narcosis is not always a "drunk" effect. It can be paranoia, unfounded fears or most of the time, just slower thinking process and less awareness.
My deepest dive on air was at 171 ft. I did not feel any narcosis effect, I did not feel drunk or paranoid or any other. During this dive, at the bottom, I had a freeflow and then my mask got bumped and so flooded. We did all the correct procedures but I can tell you that even the simple thinking process to clear the mask took much more time that on surface. It was like in slow motion. Try doing simple math or other tests at 30 ft and then at 100 ft. You will see that the time to resolve it is much longer at depth.
Most of my dives are below 80 ft in cold 40-45 F waters (I so envy you with your 72 F waters
), a good proportion are below 100ft and did many below 130. I only "felt" narcosis once, at only 90ft. I could not stop laughing and a little voice in the back of my head said: you are experiencing narcosis, be aware. Ascended a bit and it went away. So I could say I experienced Narcosis only once. But I know that rapidity and efficiency are affected at depth even if you dont notice it and that is also a narcosis effect. It does not mean it always have a debilitating effect, it can strike at a different degree and in different ways. But it is always there.
So the diver in our example had no problems not because it wasn't effecting him but because it had no debilitating effect on him and he did not have any major problems to resolve. If you consider narcosis only the effect of losing awareness and feeling like being drunk, I agree that it does not strike that way all the time (not even often) but narcosis is much more than that.