Posted by mike on May 11, 2001 at 00:50:27:
In Reply to: Re: my personal experience posted by Steve on May 10, 2001 at 20:51:16:
naw, i just don't like gambling when the stakes are really high.
I could probably go down to 140 or so at Redondo this Saturday (in reality, i'm going wherever the halibut are, thanks Kevin! :-) and solve a quadratic equation or two on my slate, and then compare speed and accuracy with a similar task done on a nice warm chamber ride and then compare with the same done in a nice warm coffee shop (that would actually be worth doing, just to find out for myself, assuming i could find the proper buddies: most of mine won't venture down that far).
My prob /w/ deep air is that even in the absence of narcosis (significant cognitive/motor impairment, which i don't feel that i have ever really experienced for more than a split second), there are other hazards imposed such as all that off-gassing of N, and from my personal experience, feeling s***ty the next day. Add to that, cold, murky water, currents, leaky drysuits, unexpected sinus squeezes, camera or spear in one hand, slight amounts of narcosis that may be unoticed by myself (how does one know when one is too drunk or stoned to hit a one inch target at 300 yds /w/ a .308 from a benchrest? or do a 5.8 bouldering problem? what degree of impairment is significant??) and all the other stuff we put up with in the wintertime, it is just not worth it. The risk seems to be substantially increased.
self-fulfilling prophecy?? ...OK, heres an analogy, i load up on J. Cuervo, go for a spin, and because i don't think highly of drunk driving, my self-fulfilling prophecy will be to wrap my car around a light post or get a DUI (and i don't mean the drysuit) i think not!