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> >       Rich and Jason - since it takes about two 
> > minutes for the narcosis to develop, if you 
> > decend faster, you will be two minutes past the
> > greater level of narcosis faster, thus shortening
> 
> I've never heard this: where does this 2 minutes guideline come from?
> I've read a bunch on this topic but never seen this mentioned.

I've also read a bunch and I've never seen it either.  However, my
experience is consistent with George's.  Two minutes seems a little bit
longer than my experience, but the effect is the same.  Fast descents
leave a small window of time/depth discrepency for narcosis.  This is
particularly dangerous for deep dives on walls, in cases where people
decide to limit their depth by narcosis level.  You drop down fast until
you hit the maximum amount of narcosis you can handle, then a minute or
two later, the "real" narcosis catches up and hits you like a sledge
hammer. I've almost died a couple of times because of this, and I strongly
suspect this is one of the things that takes out a lot of the deep-air
record-setters. 

Aloha,
Rich

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