becoming an instructor

[jbomb001]

SO heres my issue.. I am new to diving and have less then 25 dives loged but sense the first ow dive i did i have wanted to be able to teach diving to others and share scuba with as meny people i can. The problem that i face is that i get nitrogen narcosis at around the 50 to 55 foot mark so deap diving of any kind seems to be out of the question. I have taken a few diff. spc. classes and have lots of time off with my work schedule to get in the water every week and get the exp. i need ...so i guess the ? is will i be required to dive deep or get deep diving cert in order to get my dive con cert and inst. cert??..any info would be great

ps not planing on quiting my job to do this just want to be able to share the exp and perhaps support the habbit...also im aware of the other gasses i could use to stave off NN but that can get $$ as well lol

 

[tstormdiver]

I know deep diving is now a mandatory portion of SSI's Dive Control Specialist (DM/ Assist. Instructor) level for SSI. What if (God forbid) a student loses control of their buoyancy & drops down deep? You may have to go after them.

Are you absolutely certain it is narcosis? I am not saying it is or isn't, but it seems odd to be that big a problem at such a shallow depth,.... but then everyone is an individual & is affected differently. If you haven't recently, I would get a good overall physical from a physician who is well versed in dive medicine, to make sure there isn't any serious underlying problem that maybe causing your narcosis issues. Diver's Alert Network can point you in the right direction. Give them a call. By the way, there is no "resistance build up" to narcosis, but many divers can learn to cope with & deal with narcosis to be able to decently function on a deeper dive. It takes patience, practice & a good deep diving instructor or buddy to help you out, if you should get "in too deep" (sorry, couldn't resist the pun).

 

[boulderjohn]

I agree with Tammy that your feeling such strong effects from narcosis at only 50 feet is very unusual. Can you describe what you are experiencing? It could be something entirely different that you are mistaking for narcosis.

 

[eponym]

Another effect of diving, not usually covered in courses, is the high that comes from just being free. No to-do list, no traffic, no bosses.

I will come back home from a day of local diving (as I did yesterday) feeling simultaneously energized and satisfied. It's a natural high that persists even into the next day. In fact, any week that I don't dive I get grumpy and sleepy (and maybe other dwarf-names).

I've talked about this with others I've dived with and we seem to agree: diving to moderate depths and just breathing for an hour or two gets us a small high when we return to shore. I like it. I need it. I don't consider it narcosis. Maybe my surface life is just too stressful, I don't know.

And I don't know whether this applies to you. What do you think? Come to that, you don't provide any specifics in your opening post. Are you too narked at depth to follow the dive plan, monitor your buddy, monitor your own gas? Why do you say you're narked? What are the symptoms? I know what mine are, at 100+, but what have you (or your buddies) observed?

-Bryan

PS. As an instructor, I don't take new OWD students below fifty feet during local training dives. And early on in my career I found it hard to concentrate on the many multiple tasks associated with conducting training dives. That got easier as I gained experience, as a senior colleage assured me it would.