Just got certified in Maui now have a few ?'s about Oahu and Air Consumption

[cwkline]

I just got certified by Drew Andersen at Maui Diving & Scuba Center. It was a 3 day 6 dive class (all ocean no pool time). It was only three people in the class and was $189 that included 100% of the gear. The class was great and very complete, my wife and I got a lot out of it and now feel like we can be safe divers.

My only problem was air consumption, I was going through air like it was going out of style. I did not feel nervous, but could only keep a bottom time of 30 minutes @ 30-35 feet on an 80 CF tank. I know I was flailing a lot, but that was all just trying to maintain my buoyancy in the water, I'm not a small guy 5'11 230#. I got better at it on my last dive and lasted about 30 minutes but still could not stop using my hands.

Would it be a good idea to get a pair of webbed gloves? I saw a pair here for about $20.00 at maui dive shop. I feel that if I had the gloves I would flail less and be able to control my position in the water much better. Am I right or wrong about the gloves?

Also I am going to Oahu next week and wanted to know of any good places for shore dives that are not too deep and would be recommended for new divers.

THANKS!

Congrats on the cert and welcome to ScubaBoard,
Don't worry too much about your air consumption right now, just practice as often as possible. Work on buoyancy and trim. It comes with time and experience.
As for next week, the North Shore has had some great conditions for the past couple of weeks. Shark's Cove, Three Tables and Firehouse are all very easy shore dive sites. Depth is pretty much your choice, with dives in the 20 to 30 foot range or as deep as 60 fsw possible. You may want to contact a shop for the first dive or two.
I would offer to join you but the whole work thing would get in the way. I may be diving next Sunday, I'll shoot you a PM with details if you are interested.
Safe Dives
Charlie

 

[tc_rain]

hands are for holding your camera. just as everyone else stated, forget about the breathing it will come natural and improve with more dives.

 

[don Francisco]

As others have said, your air consumption will improve over time. Almost everyone sees steady improvement over their first 30-50 dives at which they plateau.

As to your hands. The problem is that they're too handy. Humans use their legs for standing, or walking and their hands for everything else, so almost reflexively you'll use your hands for everything as it arises. I had similar problems early on and used this trick to break the habit.

Break the habit of using your hands by wearing mental handcuffs. (you could wear real ones but they rust shut) Assign your hands an important task that keeps them occupied and unavailable for swimming, flailing ot touching. You might pretend that your tank is loose and use both hands to hold it from the bottom, or that you're carrying a football making a run in the last minutes of the game and can't afford to fumble. Use both hands so the defender can't strip it. Whatever game you play, if you keep your hands busy, you won't be flailing them or using them for everything else.

Once you break the habit, it doesn't come back.

 

[frogman159]

I'm new too- took me 11-13 dives before I could finish a 60ft dive for 35min with 900psi.

A couple things I did that I think helped:
1. Use the minimium amount of weight (I think this is key)- In my tropical ocean dives I dropped my weight from 12lbs to 4, and found myself kicking much less, Didn't have to use my hands to swim, stay afloat, and it was way easier to get neutral and stay that way. Also Decents were easier, I could gracefully kick to upwards to control my decent, with 12 I felt like an anchor- which caused stress, then I kick harder, get all exerted and it would take 10 minutes to relax and loose the stress, by then 1/3 of my air was gone.

2. When I breath, I adjusted my reg to increase the breathing resistance and put the tip of my tongue upwards against the back of my front teeth- This helped take lighter breaths- it seemed when my reg was "wide open" it was too tempting to take these huge deep breaths. The tongue trick help me sip at the air more than suck air

3. Like everyone else said- Dive more and relax

 

[Jim Kerr]

My only problem was air consumption, I was going through air like it was going out of style. I did not feel nervous, but could only keep a bottom time of 30 minutes @ 30-35 feet on an 80 CF tank. I know I was flailing a lot, but that was all just trying to maintain my buoyancy in the water, I'm not a small guy 5'11 230#. I got better at it on my last dive and lasted about 30 minutes but still could not stop using my hands.

Would it be a good idea to get a pair of webbed gloves? I saw a pair here for about $20.00 at maui dive shop. I feel that if I had the gloves I would flail less and be able to control my position in the water much better. Am I right or wrong about the gloves?

You're definitely wrong about the gloves, more gear isn't what's needed here. Just grasp your hands together in front of you like you see DM's and other experienced divers doing.
:no Don't even think about bringing a camera into the equasion for right now.

As far as air consumption, that will get better the more you dive. We all went thru what you're going thru now. It's just a learning curve. You will learn that there are many things that cause air consuption to go up. Flailing hands is one of them.

 

[Beyond_Diving]

Just as everybody has said, your consumption will get better as you gain more experience, learn to control your buoyancy better, and learn to be more relaxed. forget the gloves. the more you use your arms, you work more, and thus, you use up your air faster.

 

[sea nmf]

Also I am going to Oahu next week and wanted to know of any good places for shore dives that are not too deep and would be recommended for new divers.

THANKS!

If you have access to a car, go to Shark's Cove or 3 tables on the North Shore. These are shallow dives but good navigation is important. At Shark's Cove, you have to walk through some knarly rocks and pesky beach goers. At 3 tables, it is easy entry and easy exit but an uphill walk through the sand to get to your car. Very taxing on those out of shape.

I would suggest locating a guide for your shore dives, at least for the first dive day.

If it were me, though, (knowing what I now know) I would just go in for the first dive day and spend time at 20 feet working on bouyancy and relaxation. Once you get that down, all of the rest of your dives are much more pleasant.

 

[bdshort]

Lots of good advice posted here. Everyone here has gone through the same phase, but a few tips:

Definitely don't get the gloves, as they'll only help you reinforce bad habits. You will eventually be able to control yourself with just your fins, so work on that.

You shouldn't have to flail at all to maintain buoyancy. Part of this is just learning to relax, which will only come with more diving. The other problem could be that you simply had too much weight on, which is common with new divers. Just do what the PADI manual says: At the surface, completely deflate your BC while holding a normal breath. You should float at around eye level, and descend when you exhale fully. With practice, you will be able to hold neutral buoyancy in the water with little to no movement. Once you get this down, your air consumption will improve greatly. Your build should have no bearing on your ability to control your buoyancy by just breathing properly.

Good luck, welcome to a great new adventure!

 

[verybaddiver]

"It was a 3 day 6 dive class (all ocean no pool time). It was only three people in the class and was $189 that included 100% of the gear"

No one else thought to comment on how CHEAP that is???

 

[meesier42]

don't worry, as everyone has said, your air consumption will improve as your skills, comfort, and trim improve. just keep diving and stay away from deep dives until you know that your air will last.
As for Shore diving O'ahu, I think that I know almost all of them... but, I don't think that you are ready for most of them. There is one that I can happily recommend for you though... Magic Island (aka Ala Moana Beach Park). Is right there in downtown Waikiki, just find the Beach Park and park your vehicle near as far east as you can, rig up and walk down to the water,staying to the left. When you swm out, stay near the breakwater and then swim out to the day marker and head west for your dive. its shallow (~30' max). There are 3-4 "fingers" that stick out from the shore, just follow them about for a while. Given your lack of bottom time, you'll probably only go out and back on the first finger. Make sure you stay near the breakwater and have your dive flag/buoy close, as this is also the entrance to the Ala Moana Harbor so there will be lots of boat traffic.Magic_Island