How to conserve air???

[tracydr]

My husband and I dive with camelbacks and drink large amount underwater. Gets rid of dry mouth and seems to prevent chilling/headaches, ESP with multiple dives.

 

[TartanFrog]

Big lungs do not always equate to big people. I grew up in Colorado in a town with an elevation over 6200 feet. Increased lung capacity is an advantage from growing up there. That is why the US Olympic teams train there. I know the lung capacity definitely came in handy when performing high endurance activities throughout military career.

 

[TSandM]

It is true that, with chronic exposure to hypoxic conditions, the body adapts. And that adaptation may be useful for extreme athletes competing at sea level. But that's just not diving! If you're pushing your aerobic capacity while you're diving, you're either spearfishing, caught in extreme current, or very inefficient.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Big lungs do not always equate to big people. I grew up in Colorado in a town with an elevation over 6200 feet. Increased lung capacity is an advantage from growing up there. That is why the US Olympic teams train there. I know the lung capacity definitely came in handy when performing high endurance activities throughout military career.

That may well be, but it doesn't relate to scuba diving for two major reasons ...

1. People training for high-altitude endurance activities aren't breathing pressurized breathing gas.

2. The objective in scuba diving is to minimize your exertion levels ... not prepare for elevated ones.

The proper answers to the OP's question have already been offered several times ...

- Develop good buoyancy control, to minimize the amount of exertion you have to put into being where you want to be
- Move about horizontally, to minimize the amount of water you have to push out of your way
- Weight yourself properly, to minimize the amount of effort you have to put into maintaining neutral buoyancy as well as to minimize the amount of drag offered by whatever air cell you're using in your BCD
- Go slow ... it's just like on land, you'll breathe harder running than you will walking.
- Don't swim with your hands ... that does all sorts of bad things to your swimming efficiency underwater

It ain't rocket surgery ... and you don't have to be an air hog just because you're bigger than normal. Heck, I'm 5'9" and about 240 lbs ... and my normal consumption rate is somewhere between 0.4 and 0.5 CFM, depending on the dive. That's better than a lot of people half my size. Sure, physiology helps ... but technique has a far, FAR bigger effect on your air consumption than the size of your lungs or body.

Oh ... and to the fellow who wanted to bet that he could stay down longer on a tank of EAN36 than on a tank or air ... I'll take that bet ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[yarik83]

Everyone has their own little tips and tricks to conserving air. Mine is recycling it as much as possible.

For example.. you can use your button to inflate your bc before jumping into water or you could save 6 breaths and orally inflate your bc.

You can use your bc to inflate your safety sausage or you can exhale into it.

Best advice i can give you is to watch other divers and see how they control their breathing. Slow inhale followed by a slow exhale. On top of that start doing everything in slow motion. The more you work the more you breathe. Try to eliminate as much excess movement and you will see huge increase in bottom times. I know that for a fact because when I go to my usual dive spots and just float there I can squeeze 80 mins to a tank surfacing with 800 psi left and only 50 mins if I move about zig zagging like a crazy monkey.

Another thing I would advise you is... do not follow advice of divers who say its ok to surface with less than 500lbs of air. It is never safe to surface with less than 500lbs of air unless you have a redundant air source as a backup. I have seen divers try and ruin dive for rest of the group where someone had to babysit them through sharing air because they did not have enough air left for a safety stop. Especially newer divers who refuse to follow captain advice, instructor's advice and other diver's advice.

 

[Saudi-Diver]

Stay horizontal, don't use your hands, relax, breath slowly and deeply, keep exertion down to a minimum. Try not to get hung up on breathing just enjoy the dive. Secure any dangly bits and get as sleek as you can.

 

[k ellis]

Another thing I would advise you is... do not follow advice of divers who say its ok to surface with less than 500lbs of air. It is never safe to surface with less than 500lbs of air unless you have a redundant air source as a backup. I have seen divers try and ruin dive for rest of the group where someone had to babysit them through sharing air because they did not have enough air left for a safety stop. Especially newer divers who refuse to follow captain advice, instructor's advice and other diver's advice.

This is extremely good advice and an excellent post too. I personally try to make it to 15 feet with 800 pounds of air left. Even though it takes well over 3 minutes to burn through 300 lbs at that depth it allows for any unforseen situations and ample air and time to accomodate for them.

Thanks for a great post and reminder

 

[Conan1]

I'm not feeling half as bad as I did weighing in at 265 and 6' 3", age 53. I quit smoking 4 yrs ago and was worried about excess air usage. I know I don't have the lung capacity I did when I was 20 and I'm definitely not in shape unless having a gut is a shape..... I'm just fixing to start certification classes as a new diver. I enjoyed the Discover Scuba excursion in Grand Turk greatly. Good Luck OneFastPony, I'm with you. I did notice it got harder to pull in air when I got down to about 800#. Whats up with that? At what tank psi is considered minimum for free breathing?

 

[aquaregia]

At what tank psi is considered minimum for free breathing?

I took a tank down to 300psi once when I lost my computer in shallow water and my regs were breathing just fine. I'm just guessing, but it seems that the reg should stop giving you air at IP+ATA (180psi @ 40').

 

[Kingpatzer]

You know the funny thing is Whales seem to do pretty well for Fat Animals! There is no evidence that in SCUBA a big person can't conserve air or energy? But not the posters point or question! At least dp was diplomatic about it!

Comparing human physiology to whale physiology is foolish in the extreme.

While utterly undiplomatic, and perhaps even out of place, the leading cause of death while scuba diving is cardiovascular issues. Body composition is tied quite significantly to DCS. And as it relates to air consumption, physical fitness is an extremely important component. Oxygenating 337 lbs of tissue requires a lot more air than oxygenating 200 lbs of tissue.

That said, the OP will do well to focus on the basics. Proper trim, weighting, technique and a relaxed attitude will go quite far in reducing your consumption rate. Once you go as far as you can with that, then it's a matter of fitness.