Spence Green

Over Spring Break I flew to Seattle to do trimix training with Mel Clark. Although I am not tempted by the proverbial “300-footer” at this stage of my diving development, I had become increasingly frustrated by narcosis in cold water. With air diluent on our regular dives at Pt. Lobos and Monastery, I start buzzing at 30m. In January I bailed out at this depth after losing an 02 sensor, and I was not able to clearly assess the situation. Reflecting later, I decided that there were two options: (1) quit diving or, (2) add helium. I chose the latter.

Above is me preparing for one of the training dives in Lake Washington. We went down to a crashed B-24 bomber at about 150ffw. I was on 15/40 diluent, with 21/35 and 50% bailout gasses. The new skills enabled me to plan dives like the following at Monastery (8 May 2010):

The difference in my mental state was remarkable. I could read my gauges clearly, and even did a few drills at depth. On this same dive some months earlier, I was noticeably impaired (at least from my own observation). And having dived in the 50-75msw range for a few months, I can confirm the anecdotal observation that there are many astounding, unexplored dives at these depths. I haven’t been this excited since I finished Advanced Open Water.