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Nick,
re:
> The first question someone asks me when he learns that I am a diver is
how
> deep have you been? So as you understand depth is very important to the
> eyes of the ignorants and the newcomers. So, if someone sells them "a way
> to dive deep" I'm sure they will bite the bait and he'll get himeself a
lot
> of customers.
> How could we overcome this ?
This has to start in the OW classes. The OW instructors have to get away
from the 'sell the crap outta this' mentality that goes w/ PADI NAUI and
such and get into an education mode. Teach the divers why they stay above
130, instead of just telling them that this is the standard.
Most instructors I've queried cannot give an articulate reason for the 130
depth. In the OW classes, they strenuously avoid mentioning diving deeper
than 130 and what it should take to be able to do so. They talk as if the
second you hit 131 you'll be drunk. They never mention that people show
measurable effects of narcosis even at 100'
There were a series of tests done on divers in Hawaii in the early 80's -
they tested divers from 30' to 300' at 10' intervals. They had a slate of
analytical problems of similar difficulty - equivalent to an IQ test.
Different ones for each depth, so you could not learn the activity by rote.
Turns out that divers become noticeably narced at 100' - almost everyone
shows something at that depth. By the time divers got to 300', most
everyone was at less than 25% of their former performance. The best was
about 30%. Surprised a lot of divers. Apparently, there are a goodly
number of people who do not feel the narc. I suspect that these are the
individuals who believe that they can 'adapt' - even though they think they
can, when tested objectively they cannot.
Yet, I've not seen that study quoted anywhere - certainly not in the common
dive lit from the training agencies. Teaching this would be a first step,
at any rate.
I suspect that the reason that there is as little problem as there is, is
that people who are narced seem to be able to do things that they are
trained to do even when 'under the influence' - the problem comes when
there is something new to do, or an unexpected decision to make, or the
diver is new. Then they have a problem. So for the vast majority of dives
where nothing goes wrong - you're ok. But a simple problem can be your
undoing, whereas you could solve it at a shallower depth.
I wish I could find the references to that study. I'll do some poking
about.
--
William E. Sadler e-mail:
wes@we*.co*
POTS Work: 770.465.1199
The only things in the middle of the road are Fax: 770.465.9960
broken yellow lines and squished possums. Home: 770.413.1957
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