On being drunk underwater – nitrogen narcosis
You know that feeling when you’re blissfuly happy, and you feel super-confident? Maybe you’re in love, or high on something? Well, you can get that feeling easily when scuba-diving underwater. It’s called nitrogen narcosis – the narcs – and it can get you killed…
First the basics. When you’re diving with air in your tank, you don’t normally get it above 30 metres (100 feet). Below that depth, the partial pressure of nitrogen starts to affect our brains, and it’s very much like getting drunk.
…
Underwater, running out of air…
When I’m diving deep I always glance up to the surface. Sometimes, as deep as fifty metres, you can still see it, maybe even the boat awaiting you. But often or not, you can’t. And the thought occurs to me, what if I were to run out of air, right now? Could I make it?
You can increase the danger by going inside a wreck at depth. Now, if you run out of air, you are already inside a steel mausoleum, and have to find your way out before you can begin to ascend.…
Why I dive…
Imagine another world, one without mobile phones, laptops, emails, conversation, work… Imagine you could fly in this land, silently sail over exotic landscapes, parachute in slow motion, immerse yourself in swarms of wild but perfectly choreographed creatures going about their business – eating and trying not to be eaten – where the hierarchy is clear, where you and the other fish are always on the lookout for sharks. Imagine a place you can only observe, where you are the alien, where you need a wetsuit and an air tank to survive, where you never quite take the next breath for granted.