I noticed my deepest dive at the time I posted early in this thread was to 153 ft. Since that time I have made quite a number of deep dives on air to the 180-200 ft range over a two year period when I was filming for an episode on "deep" ecology.
Although I was certainly narced at those depths, I was very capable of locating subjects, framing them and following them if they moved. I was aware of my gauge readings at all times and could compute my necessary ascent and deco profiles. Of course this came after a period of several months descending to deeper depths beyond 150 ft to test my reaction to narcosis.
About a year after I ceased those dives, I did one to a max depth of 151 ft and was as narced as I've ever been in my life. Later I even got noticeably narced at 107 ft. I attribute that to the fact that I was diving 300-350 dives a year during the period I was diving really deep and my body had probably accomodated to higher nitrogen loading whereas the dives I got very narced on were during periods of much lower diving frequency (50-75 per year) and no deep diving history.
Today I rarely go deeper than 100 ft because I have no reason to.
I wouldn't refer to my deep dives as safe even though I returned from all of them and had no problems afterward. The dives were done solo as I didn't want to have anyone else risk their lives. I did carry about 150 cu ft of air in a redundant configuration. Many of the dives lasted 50-60 min with multiple deep stops and long periods of decompression in the shallows.
Although I was certainly narced at those depths, I was very capable of locating subjects, framing them and following them if they moved. I was aware of my gauge readings at all times and could compute my necessary ascent and deco profiles. Of course this came after a period of several months descending to deeper depths beyond 150 ft to test my reaction to narcosis.
About a year after I ceased those dives, I did one to a max depth of 151 ft and was as narced as I've ever been in my life. Later I even got noticeably narced at 107 ft. I attribute that to the fact that I was diving 300-350 dives a year during the period I was diving really deep and my body had probably accomodated to higher nitrogen loading whereas the dives I got very narced on were during periods of much lower diving frequency (50-75 per year) and no deep diving history.
Today I rarely go deeper than 100 ft because I have no reason to.
I wouldn't refer to my deep dives as safe even though I returned from all of them and had no problems afterward. The dives were done solo as I didn't want to have anyone else risk their lives. I did carry about 150 cu ft of air in a redundant configuration. Many of the dives lasted 50-60 min with multiple deep stops and long periods of decompression in the shallows.
