Todd, thanks for this. Send a copy to that idiot Tom Mouth. He says this
is a "safe" depth to dive air.

On the "comfort" thing, we all are comfortable on anesthetics.


Todd Baldi wrote:
> 
> George,
> 
> I have followed the posts on deep air for some time
> now and I had an experience that drove the point home
> with me this weekend that I thought I would share with
> you.
> 
> I have always been a proponent of deep air.  I was
> comfortable on air deep and thought it to be more
> flexible and less complex than mix.  I grew up with
> air and did the majority of my deep dives on air.
> During the 80's there was no such thing as trimix on
> the west coast so we did 250ft+ exposures on air all
> the time. We thought we were tek if we used oxygen for
> the deco.  (Which was sparingly at best.)
> 
> No big deal.  We got away with it.  And of course, I
> was acclimated to narcosis and it didn't affect me
> until over 250.
> 
> This weekend I had a chance to do a chamber dive for
> the first time. And yes, it was preplanned, not the
> bad kind.  After a lecture from the local doctor, he
> took us to 165 for 20 minutes.  No big deal.  I have
> been diving that profile for years.
> 
> Before I went down I calculated some math problems
> that I had used for my NAUI Advanced class when I
> still taught. I got a time of 1 minute and 37 seconds
> to complete all the problems.
> 
> We descended slowly to the preplanned depth of 165.  I
> was looking forward to doing a dive where I didn't
> have to be concerned with diving or equipment.  I
> wanted to see how narcosis affected me straight on
> without any distractions.  At 165 feet after 5 minutes
> at depth I recalculated the problems at a speedy 4
> minutes 7 seconds.  Immediately, I did them again.  6
> minutes, 47 seconds doing the same problems I had just
> done!
> 
> My reaction time had slowed down and my body was being
> affected.  My voice was weird from the pressure
> affecting my vocal cords and I felt high as a kite. I
> asked the chamber operator to put on a Jimi Hendrix
> album over the mic.  I was a complete shipwreck by the
> time 20 minutes was up.  I was laying on the floor
> laughing and looking at the balloons I had brought
> wondering why they had gotten smaller.
> 
> After doing our deco stops and got out of the chamber
> I reworked the 20 of the problems.  3 minutes and 42
> seconds.  I checked them all later.  The first time I
> did them on the surface I got none wrong.  The second
> time I got three wrong, the third I got 10 wrong, and
> the last time on the surface I got four wrong.
> 
> I felt like crap the rest of the day.  The nitrogen
> really screwed me up.  I had felt like this after wet
> dives and blamed it on the cold water.  My ears itched
> from the dry chamber air for about two hours afterward
> as well.  Probably a slight skin bends.
> 
> I have felt like I did in the chamber on wet dives and
> just refocused on my gages and tried not to screw up.
> I, luckily, got away with my deep diving air days.  I
> got hit face first with what narcosis and nitrogen can
> do to you.
> 
> Because of this experience I have given up deep air.
> If I go past 130 it will be on mix from now on.  I now
> realize how mind numbing narcosis can be now and what
> a toll nitrogen takes on your body.
> 
> It was quite an experience after 15 years of deep air
> diving but the proof is there.  There is no question
> in my mind that deep air is a killer and is a large
> factor in a lot of the fatalities and accidents we are
> seeing.
> 
> Food for thought.
> 
> Todd
> 
> =====
> 
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