[scubabob]

I have never been narked, least I don't think so, or never been aware that I have. But a very nice guy I met on my last dive trip insisted that everybody gets narked, it's just a question of at what depth. I said that I had never experienced the effects of being narked at any depth down to my max of 47 metres. His response was, 'yes you have and you just didn't know it'. His argument ran like this. If you are a bit tipsy on alcohol you know this, but drink some more and you won't be aware that you are really pi**ed. OK, I agree with that.

But If I am the narked equivalent of tipsy, then I would know, at the time and after the dive. If I am the narked equvalent of pi**ed, and totally unaware, surely my buddy, or someone else in the group would comment after the dive. (They always do the morning after a good Pi** up.)

Seriously, is it inevitable.

 

[Paul_c]

everyone gets narked. them that doent just dont realise it

for example i get narked and i get very inatentive to my surroundsings focusing on one thing infront of me. i can manage my boyancy, i can generaly be an ok diver when i am narked BUT i am still narked.

look at how you are diving. and think about it. does time fly?

 

[NotDeadYet]

I think everyone does. I used to do a lot of deep air diving and thought I never got narked enough that it was a problem as did everyone I dived with. Then we started diving mix. Do the same dive with someone who is on mix and talk about what you saw afterwards. It's a real eye opener.

I had one dive where I would have sworn my computer said something in the 60's, it was only when I looked at it around 30m on the ascent that I was seriously shocked, it read 89m. That was the end of my deep air diving.

 

[scubabob]

But can people become immune to intoxicants? The reason I ask is that when I was 19 my dentist asked me how much I drank (this was on coming out of the anaesthetic after an extraction). The reason he asked was because, as he put it, he could have operated on an elephannt with the amount of gas I'd had.

I di used to drink a bit then. Still do

 

[Naomi S]

I don't go very deep but I am noticable stupid underwater sometimes. Let me run you by a mental conversation I had with myself a 30m last weekend;

Do deee doo doo, do dee do (humming to myself happily) Right I need to check something what is it? Oh yeah my gas. I am breathing a stage so that is just here somewhere (reaching for gauge)... Woh look a fish! that's so cool, it's all shiney, ok checking something now what was it, oh yeah my gas, it's here somewhere, OMG look an upsidown land rover, that's so cool, (gawps for a moment) why do I have my inflator in my hand, I am neutral I dont need that, I needed something arond there, oh yes I was after my gauge, there it is, I have 50 bar, must remember to check that again in a bit....

...and so it went on! I recognised I may have been a bit narked bit didn't care cos I was having a nice dive

Conversely I have been terrified in pitch black, 1m vis conditions. Actually terrified and convinced that I would lose my buddies be swept away into the dark never to be seen again. A bit irrational but terrifying at the time.

 

[Blu DL]

next time at 47m - take a slate - write your name, solve some sums, write your name backwards.,

When you are back at the surface I guarantee it will look like a 6yr old did it

Narcosis is very subtle at times - can be fearfulness, can be lack of attention to details - like A PLAN!! can be blatant stupidity - it's not just a drunk feeling - some people even have visions or partial sight even

 

[Paul_c]

naiomi that measn i am always narked then

 

[scubabob]

next time at 47m - take a slate - write your name, solve some sums, write your name backwards.,

When you are back at the surface I guarantee it will look like a 6yr old did it

Narcosis is very subtle at times - can be fearfulness, can be lack of attention to details - like A PLAN!! can be blatant stupidity - it's not just a drunk feeling - some people even have visions or partial sight even

Really, no. Thats why I ask. A long time ago when I did my PADI deep (40mtres) I did the mental test at the surface in 13 seconds. I did at 40 in 9 seconds. I am not bragging, before tha assassins start, I am asking a question. Interested in all responses except abusive.

 

[scubabob]

On your point Naomi, you are now aware that you were narked. But that is the point I was making in my original post. I never have . I think we need a dive doc.

 

[nigelH]

I used to nark quite badly but I dive a lot of helium these days.
I won't retell the stories but diving helium shallow you notice how slow everybody around you goes when faced with a problem or just something out of the ordinary.
Narked is subtle. One of the first things that tends to go is your ability to realise that you're narked.

A chamber dive is usually instructive. At 40 meters and given a test I just got annoyed. It didn't make any sense. What were they doing giving me something like this to do when they haven't proof-read it first?
It was embarrassingly obvious at 1 bar.

 

[scubabob]

I used to nark quite badly but I dive a lot of helium these days.
I won't retell the stories but diving helium shallow you notice how slow everybody around you goes when faced with a problem or just something out of the ordinary.
Narked is subtle. One of the first things that tends to go is your ability to realise that you're narked.

A chamber dive is usually instructive. At 40 meters and given a test I just got annoyed. It didn't make any sense. What were they doing giving me something like this to do when they haven't proof-read it first?
It was embarrassingly obvious at 1 bar.

What's your view on tolerance to intoxicants?

 

[Leg Of Salmon]

What's your view on tolerance to intoxicants?

Its a myth.

 

[markymark75]

Using your alcohol analogy - It is fair to assume that if you drink, you will become intoxicated. The effects will vary from one individual to another, and from one occassion to another. Whilst some people will display less effects of drunkeness 2 factors should be considered.
1) If you drink enough you WILL get drunk.
2) The visible effects / feeling of the individual are not always the best determinant of the level of intoxication.

Similarly if you dive deep on air;
1) You WILL get narced
2) You may not feel narced / look narced

However if everything starts going wrong your ability to deal with it will to some extent be diminished.

I notice from your profile that you dive in warm clear water. Because this is less stressful and breathing rates are typically lower, the effects of narcosis in these conditions are almost always lower, (until the sh*t hits the fan - when your breathing rate will go up and narcosis can bite you on the ass in a big way).

 

[DannyB]

Everyone get's narked, some just don't notice it. When I first started diving I didn't get narced at 40M, now if I'm not on helium I narc at about 20-25. Nothing has changed except I am much more comfortable with my surroundings and worrying so much less it's easier to notice the small amount of narcosis at those depths. Helium is a great eye opener, I remember arranging a chamber dive up at chepstow a few years ago now and we managed to get them to put some trimix on a bib. At 50M we were fine on air, we then went onto mix for about a minute, head (that didn't feel narced) suddenly cleared.... Then we went back on to the very thick, very soupy air, the narcosis level was incredible.

Another story was DM'ing and AOW deep dive to 30M in a fairly gloomy and cold stoney. Instructor was at the front, then students followed by me. Got to the top of the hydro box at 30M, students were facing instructor, instructor was facing students and me behind them, I felt fairly narced, nothing to worry about but something to be aware of. Signed to instructor that I was narced, (finger rotating round ear in schoolboy stupid sign!) and he gave me a thumbs up, so that made two of us! Went through standard exercises including blowing a red balloon up at depth, shows that no red light is there without the torch. As we ascended the balloon popped showing how gas expansion works. On the debrief we asked the students if they felt any narcosis, both replied none at all, when asked what they thought of the balloon they both responded with, "What balloon?" They were worse than we were but were so tied up in the exercises/new depth/etc that they hadn't noticed.

Danny

 

[scubabob]

:teeth:TFINF. Have to go, will look for more responses tomorrow.

 

[ray]

Hmm.
An unaware narked diver is a dangerous diver, they just don't know it!.

 

[Hickdive]

next time at 47m - take a slate - write your name, solve some sums, write your name backwards.,

When you are back at the surface I guarantee it will look like a 6yr old did it

Since I can't achieve those tasks on the surface that must mean I'm no worse at 40m ;-)

 

[NotDeadYet]

IIRC some medical group looked at it a few years ago and found narcosis tolerance worked in the same way as people recover from strokes. After a stroke the brain starts routing processes along different paths, the route is longer so you become slower and less efficient. They found the same thing happened with narcosis, you don't become tolerant, your brain starts using progressively less efficient paths. Personally, I don't want to be on the same sort of level as a stroke victim underwater when I've got a wreck to find my way round, a rebreather to watch and a long way to the surface.

 

[susanmac]

Naomi's description is exactly how I feel.

Sometimes it's a happy, champagne party, narked. On one dive my buddy asked if I was OK, I OK'd back thinking "I'm with my friends, of course I'm OK."

Other times it's a dark, scary place. Diving with the same buddy I felt overwhelming panic if I couldn't see their fins, I saw nothing of the wreck at all because I had to keep looking at my buddy's fins. It wasn't a dark dive, it was my mind that made it that way.

I do think everyone gets narked, I'm not sure why some of us are aware and others are not.

 

[Gimbo]

Also one day you may not feel narked at 30m and the another day you may, even if conditions are similar. Personally I get a bit slow. i use to get nervous but now I'm just slower.