HOW DEEP WOULD YOU GO ON AIR while SOLO DIVING IN A CAVE?

[syntaxerrorsix]

To date all my dives through Apprentice were on air. In OW I like a little helium past 150'. I imagine the same will be true as I progress through cave training.

[Garth]

I've never been in a cave on air. Period.

Hopefully someday though.


Sent from my Shearwater Predator...

[NEON]

I think the following article offers a more balanced / less hysterical view on deep air diving:

A PRACTICAL DISCUSSION OF NITROGEN NARCOSIS FOR DEEP DIVING

[gasdiver]

Excellent article, thanks for posting the link.

[Paulmal]

QUOTE: Garth
I've never been in a cave on air.


+1

[jefwil]

I saw the Witch of Wookey on air... when I was about 10 yrs old. Since then I prefer Jim Wyatt's banked 30.

[Mart]

I think the following article offers a more balanced / less hysterical view on deep air diving:

A PRACTICAL DISCUSSION OF NITROGEN NARCOSIS FOR DEEP DIVING

Like many people, mr Gilliam puts the blame for narcosis largely on nitrogen. While nitrogen (and oxygen) have a rather large narcotic potential, CO2 is the gas to be really aware of. Deep diving on air may not be a problem for experienced divers as long as everything is nice and easy. But you have to realise air is not easy to breathe, at 30 metres (90ft) our ventilation is half as efficient as on the surface. If we have to work hard, like in an emergency situation, we produce CO2 faster, and we are not able to get rid of it because of our inpaired ventilation. So CO2 narcosis kicks in, and this is the real risk of deep air diving. Not nitrogen narcosis.

I will never again dive below 90ft on air in a cave, and probably not even in open water. I did deep air dives in the past, up to 250ft, and survived. I was lucky.

[Bobby]

This should have been the very first thing in his article and repeated within every section.

"All divers should exercise prudence and reasonable caution in all aspects of deep diving but particularly so when it comes to narcosis. Experience is vital before attempting progressively deeper dives. Ideally, the diver should be seeking out the benefit of training by a competent, well-experienced deep diving instructor before a penetration below “entry level/open water” training diving depths. Don’t try to obtain field experience on your own or with another buddy. The historical record provides too many fatalities or near misses due to narcosis to warrant such a risk."

When diving places like LR & Devils I have enough narcosis that it is notable. There have been times when, for me and in my opinion, the reason for the dive made diving deep air worth the added risk. However it is important to understand that I fully understand that it is/was higher risk. Unfortunately far too many dive deep air without understanding the risk or even having enough experience to accurately evaluate it. I agree that training should be properly focused on the understanding of the risk and gaining experience. The reality is that with present day training the focus is on boxing training into a neat package to move divers through to the next level/round of training instead of gaining experience and complete competence. The "good old days" were not any better as we did not have a firm understanding and divers, such as myself, wound up jumping in the "deep end" without really knowing what we were getting into. A lot of luck went into getting through the dives and gaining the needed experience. I don't have the magic solution, what I do know is that divers too often look at what others have done and assume they can do it without having the needed experience. Deep air always stacks the deck against the diver and if taken lightly or the endeavor taken with too little experience will quickly kill the diver and often enough their teammates.

[OH]

I was expecting a GUE link from you ;o)

Like many people, mr Gilliam puts the blame for narcosis largely on nitrogen. While nitrogen (and oxygen) have a rather large narcotic potential, CO2 is the gas to be really aware of. Deep diving on air may not be a problem for experienced divers as long as everything is nice and easy. But you have to realise air is not easy to breathe, at 30 metres (90ft) our ventilation is half as efficient as on the surface. If we have to work hard, like in an emergency situation, we produce CO2 faster, and we are not able to get rid of it because of our inpaired ventilation. So CO2 narcosis kicks in, and this is the real risk of deep air diving. Not nitrogen narcosis.

I will never again dive below 90ft on air in a cave, and probably not even in open water. I did deep air dives in the past, up to 250ft, and survived. I was lucky.

[diverdarren]

What is the significance of this deep air dive being done solo? Is my narcosis level supposed to be affected by my being by myself? If this is the premis, I guess I have never experienced any difference in my narcosis levels diving solo rather than with a partner.