On Wed, 29 Jun 2005 14:24:01 -0400, Michael Doelle
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>>In more ways than one.  You were narked before you got to the
>ledge of the Maracaibo dive in the Cos99NEDfest.<
>
>At that depth I'd say it was likely. I can detect symptoms much shallower.
>Not that I usually care a whole lot.

You were the one who said you were already narked BEFORE the DM
found the ledge.

It was a LONG swim to get there.  Those of us who had more savoir
faire swam at moderate depths while the DM was witch hunting.
You were crawling along the bottom, instead of 100 feet above.
THAT was why you were already narked by the time we found the
ledge.    Hee hee.

>
>But on the narc front i can remember several Sipadan video dives with
Steve
>Fish, where I accompanied him on several 200+ dives. Reviewing the videos
>there were always moments where we commented something like 'damn, when
did
>we see that monster grouper?'.

For reasons I can't even understand myself, I've NEVER (even once)
been narked to the extent that I felt differently from being at
100 fsw say.  Having been down at the depth below 150 fsw so many
times would be one reason.  A strong focused mind may be another.
The latter is why I smoked more heavily than you do for 30 years,
and once I quit cold turkey, I never missed it even once.  No
withdrawal symptoms, no discomfort, no nothing.  :-)  I am just
immune to any kind of narc I suppose.

Nope, never tried that hard stuff, and never intend to.   KNOW
my limits ... :-)

>
>>  Ray was the only one (other than myself) who went below 200 fsw, but he
>must have been narked too because he didn't know ...
>
>Except that you couldn't tell Ro-De-O from Ray?

I knew because after the dive, Ray was questioning what I said about
seeing everyone above.  He said something like, "Bob, I was down to
217 feet".  That was how I knew I was 15 feet below him and told
him so.  :-)   Computers generally don't lie.   Not since I had
the Cochran Nemesis anyway.

>
>>... I was 15 fsw
>BELOW him, keeping an eye on everyone.  :-)<

Absoutely.  At the initial plunge into the deep, because I KNEW
some of the folks would be diving the deepest they've ever been
and MIGHT go beyond their known limits.  Several were wise to
stay no deeper than 150 fsw because that was the "plan" of the
dive -- dive the Maracaibo to 150 fsw.  :-)   Which was also
the reason why most others judiciously stayed away.

I didn't say I stayed below everyone during the entire dive, or
I would've been the last one back.

Once we started ascending, even the narked would revive.  :-)
That was why it seemed like I whizzed by you when you were in
your narked stupor.  :-))

As a matter of fact, I was up and on the boat before most others
because I knew where the boat was.   I was definitely on the
boat before Jeff, and knew he had been SEVERELY narked a few
times diving with me, to only 140 fsw.  But once about 100 fsw,
I know of no one who stayed narked, not even Jeff.

>
>Is that why I saw you zip by me towards the surface after about a minute?

ROFLMAO.  The dive was over 30 minutes.  It took us about 10 to
find the ledge.   Surface after a minute?   It might seem that way
to YOU while you were not un-narked YET when I went by you around
100 fsw or there abouts.  :-)

>Decided to keep 'an eye' on me from above? Great, I felt really safe
>anyway.

We didn't lose anybody, did we?   Even Jeff and Chuck made it back
alive.  I think they were two who might have ventured to 150-ish
for the first time.

da Feeesh