Do you think Nitrox is a deep diving gas?

[mark99]

Actually I believe most decompression chambers keep people at 2.8 ATA O2, and most have no problem. The difference there is, though, that if they have a seizure they won't drown.
I don't think I'd have a problem going to 2.0 for a short while to help a buddy. The training agencies have to be more dogmatic than practical; they never know how inexperienced divers will deal with "gray areas".

 

[Reg Braithwaite]

Howard, we are in violent agreement about estimating the risk of a seizure using the generally accepted tables for exposure. My understanding is that deco chambers have a slightly different risk scenario because you are not going to spit your mouthpiece out and drown if you have a seizure. Likewise, if you are in a chamber and suffering from DCS, the treatment plan weighs the risk and consequences of toxicity against the risk and consequences of prolonging your exposure to DCS. Is that true? If so would that play a part in a deco chamber being willing to dial the PPO2 up to 2.0?

 

[Thalassamania]

Just to give you an idea of how much room there is in oxygen exposure, in the old days when oxygen tolerance tests were required prior to rebreather use we used to go to a ppO2 of 2.82 in a chamber, most all of us tolerated it rather well. The scare tactics of the agencies with respect to 1.4 or 1.6 has more to do with a paucity of knowledge and experience and a plethora of lawyers than it does with reality.

 

[Reg Braithwaite]

Just to give you an idea of how much room there is in oxygen exposure, in the old days when oxygen tolerance tests were required prior to rebreather use we used to go to a ppO2 of 2.82 in a chamber, most all of us tolerated it rather well...

One thing to remember about the Good Old Days is that after having to fight off wolves as a baby, after walking uphill in a blizzard to school both ways year round as a child, and after living through both world wars and the great depression as an adult, natural selection weeded out all but the most superior examples of human survival.

As such, stories from old-timers about their tolerance for high PPO2s, deep diving on air, and consumption of alcoholic spirits should be treated with great caution by today's softer, pampered divers.

 

[Thalassamania]

One thing to remember about the Good Old Days is that after having to fight off wolves as a baby, after walking uphill in a blizzard to school both ways year round as a child, and after living through both world wars and the great depression as an adult, natural selection weeded out all but the most superior examples of human survival.

As such, stories from old-timers about their tolerance for high PPO2s, deep diving on air, and consumption of alcoholic spirits should be treated with great caution by today's softer, pampered divers.

If you think that's some strange story based on faulty memory, ego and testosterone, here's a writeup of exactly what we were required to do from the NOAA Manual: Section 20.8 - Pressure and Oxygen Tolerance Tests.

 

[Reg Braithwaite]

You should know what you are talking about before you start insulting people. If you think that's some strange story based on faulty memory, ego and testosteone, here's a writeup of exactly what we were required to do from the NOAA Manual: Section 20.8 - Pressure and Oxygen Tolerance Tests.http://books.google.com/books?id=dW...esult&ct=result&resnum=6#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Did you take that as an insult instead of as friendly banter? It was not meant that way. I greatly regret any misunderstanding that may exist. If you want to read anything at all from it beyond having fun, it should be my admiration for people who were the pioneers in almost any activity. Early adopters almost always did have to endure things that would crush latecomers. A few months ago a fellow posted something here about diving the Arabia wreck up in Tobermory in the 1970s... Wearing track and field sweats!

I take it as almost a given that anyone who sticks with something like diving over decades is not only greatly experienced but also a survivor of times when the sport was more dangerous and required a greater level of fitness, dedication, and courage than is needed today to get a card and get wet.

I'm sorry I tried to say that indirectly.

 

[Thalassamania]

Did you take that as an insult instead of as friendly banter? It was not meant that way. I greatly regret any misunderstanding that may exist. If you want to read anything at all from it beyond having fun, it should be my admiration for people who were the pioneers in almost any activity. Early adopters almost always did have to endure things that would crush latecomers. A few months ago a fellow posted something here about diving the Arabia wreck up in Tobermory in the 1970s... Wearing track and field sweats!

I take it as almost a given that anyone who sticks with something like diving over decades is not only greatly experienced but also a survivor of times when the sport was more dangerous and required a greater level of fitness, dedication, and courage than is needed today to get a card and get wet.

I'm sorry I tried to say that indirectly.

OK, but that's really not the case. We were very risk adverse, very methodical, very risk management conscious, etc., and that's why we survived ... we knew how to minimize our risks rather than how to fight our way through the dangers (those guys didn't make it, you know, "old divers, bold divers, no old bold divers.")

That's my problem with our current situation of having good practices defined by legal weenies, rather than knowledgeable practitioners, but the public gets to make "adventure dives" just the same.

 

[BHB ScubaTroll]

... I think it is asking too much of a course to teach good judgment. That is what mentors are for.

???? ????

 

[BHB ScubaTroll]

One thing to remember about the Good Old Days is that after having to fight off wolves as a baby, after walking uphill in a blizzard to school both ways year round as a child, and after living through both world wars and the great depression as an adult, natural selection weeded out all but the most superior examples of human survival.

As such, stories from old-timers about their tolerance for high PPO2s, deep diving on air, and consumption of alcoholic spirits should be treated with great caution by today's softer, pampered divers.

Actually, this is the recurring theme for the "old timer" , "...has more to do with a paucity of knowledge and experience". It seems to be the precurser to "I know better than you" and, "I didn't mean to insult your lack of knowledge and experience"...

 

[BHB ScubaTroll]

Did you take that as an insult instead of as friendly banter? It was not meant that way. I greatly regret any misunderstanding that may exist. If you want to read anything at all from it beyond having fun, it should be my admiration for people who were the pioneers in almost any activity.

I'm sorry I tried to say that indirectly.

Ouch! Now it's gonna be on like "Pong!" (The one on paper, not the electronic version)