Building up to a deep dive

[Mark Chase]

Another vote for Juz

I have done set build up dives for big dives and generally start the season with shorter dives and build up to bigger ones. In water time on a regular basis in a zone of diving be it deep or big deco dives builds confidence and irons out bugs.

Once a slick routine is in place the dive stress is reduced and so the effects of narcosis are less noticeable. Regular exposure to the effects of narcosis builds a tolerance and builds a defence mechanism in you mind. However this has its limits and once those limits are passed the effects can be disastrous.

ATB

Mark Chase

[NotDeadYet]

I'd agree with the first bit, a good routine and 2nd nature procedures are the best bit of diving safety you can aquire.

I'd disgree with the narcosis comments though. I went through years of very deep air diving, regularly doing 70-80m on air most weekends, 98m(ish) the deepest. Even now, probably 60% of the 50m+ cave dives I've done have been on air. I don't believe for a second that I built a tolerance. Coped maybe, like driving pissed but nowhere near tolerant. My own opinion is born out of a string of near misses that happened purely because of narcosis: the only way to deal with narcosis is to eliminate it completely. These days, with the advent of readily available and reliable rebreathers, there's really no excuse to be narc'd on deep dives. The cost of using mix on mid-range dives isn't that much more worse than a nitrox fill (my local charges by the litre for mix but flat charge per fill for nitrox, shallow trimix isn't that much more expensive when done that way). Probably of all the crap GI3 has said over the years, the comment about deep air diving being like how far you can shove a baseball bat up your arse is maybe the truest.