What "test" do you do in your training to sort of demonstrate Nark-ness?

[MXGratefulDiver]

From an associate of mine who teaches advanced deco, rebreather, and the like, I got this:

Take a diver deep (130 is good) on heliox. No nitrogen buildup. Then hand the subject a reg on a bottle of air. After six or seven breaths the subject will feel the narc hit all at once. Very effective way to assess it, since it doesn't build up gradually and unnoticed.

Mind you, this requires special training . . .

Bryan

[hijack]
I tried this just last Monday ... breathed off a buddy's 30/30 from 70 feet down to about 105 feet. Switched back over to my own backgas (EAN32) at 105.

I noticed the difference almost immediately ... :11:
[/hijack]

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[vkalia]

divide the first prime number greater than 50 by the first prime number less than 10 to as many decimal places as you can in two minutes.

Were I to do this, I'd be doing OOA ascents with emergency deco before geting the answer.

The number of times I've had kids down at 30m, given them long multiplication and find out that they dont *know* how to do long multiplication. My faith in modern education has been greatly shaken.

I now have them write in piglatin.

With professional-level candidates, I do a few optional deep dives after they've completed the course: progressively going down to 50m. The goal is to give them a taste of what really heavy narcosis feels like (one, to instill respect for the deep, and two, give them a frame of reference if they ever have to do a deep rescue) - and my first exercise is simple - I show them a certain number of fingers, and they are supposed to show me 10 minus the same number. You'd be surprised how long it takes them to do 10-3, for example.

Vandit

 

[americanoregon]

I dove with a Divemaster once who, at the surface, gave everyone in the group an egg (not one of her own, I'm talking about an ordinary chicken egg from the supermarket). Then, at 30m, we were to peel the eggs. Inside the hard shell is a thin white membrane which, when you break the egg in your kitchen, will cling to the shell and break along with it. But under 3 ATM of pressure, the inner membrane will seperate from the shell, allowing you to remove the outer shell and still have the egg intact inside the membrane. The test was to see who could peel the egg without breaking the thin papery white inner membrane. Some did very well, some were far too uncoordinated. Shows how your motor abilities deteriorate, and shows the effects of pressure. And it is fun. I wouldn't suggest replacing the cognitive tests described in this thread with this motor test, but doing both would be interesting. If you have never tried it, do it just for the hell of it. In the tropics, many fish, after the egg is peeled, will eat it directly from your hand like Chris Farley attacking a cocaine sandwich.