I guess my take away from this thread is, at least to this point, there isnt much I can do do get my rates down.
Ill just go get a bigger tank as per the suggestions. hehe
This thread is 4 pages long and you haven't gotten any suggestions as to how to lower your SAC rate? I didn't read the responses but I'll give you several methods to do exactly that.
- Dive. The more you dive, the more you will relax, the more efficiently you will move through the water and the less energy and therefore gas you will use
- Streamline your gear. The less drag, the greater the efficiency, and the less effort. That means less gas consumption.
- Improve your physical fitness. That means less effort to do more strenuous activities. A slimmer diver isn't dragging a whole bunch of blubber through the water or working up a sweat and heavy breathing when preparing for the dive, whether it's a jump off a boat or wading out from shore.
- Don't smoke- it decreases lung efficacy which means more wasted gas with each inhalation.
- Move slowly through the water. The faster you go, the more drag, that means more energy expended and more gas consumed.
- Don't use your arms to swim, learn which fin kicks are most effective for particular diving conditions, because using arms isn't efficient which means wasted energy and efficient kicks can be a huge energy and gas saver
- Improve your trim and buoyancy so you won't be doing a whole bunch of micromovements to stay level and compensate for unwanted changes in depth.
- Learn to use the minimum amount of weight. That means you're dragging less weight through the water and less air in your BCD means less drag as well.
- Learn relaxation and slow breathing techniques such as taught in yoga and mediation
- Learn techniques that will require less effort for specific dive conditions. Such as pulling along the edge of a shipwreck rather than free swimming against a current that is running along the wreck, or finding eddys in the current by ducking in between patches of reef or under ledges rather than working against a current.
So there's a whole bunch of ways to improve your SAC rate. You're welcome.