Air consumption woes

[maat1976]

So I've been diving for two years or so- vacation diving really.

This trip to the Philippines has been a bit irritating with regards to air consumption. I felt very good about my improvements in consumption in January in Bonaire. I've done about 50 dives between Jan and now.

No matter how much I try to keep my breathing slow and steady, I am always the first one to hit 100 and then 50 bar. I'm decent on my buoyancy and I'm properly weighted. My dive buddy (the husband) doesn't care as he's just happy I'm in the water at all and is happy to do dives of even a shortened length.

There are two things I notice:

• I get nervous diving with others- not very nervous- just a bit on edge. On almost all of our trips we've mainly had boats or DMs to ourselves. This has always been by accident and not by design. I've been extremely lucky. Or it's been independent shore diving in Bali or Bonaire. My air consumption has been better after I warm up.
• My air consumption doesn't change that much even when the dive is shallower. For example, a few days back, I was down at 26m for a few minutes, hovered around 18-20m for 15 min and slowly worked my way back up and finished at 45 bar at the surface after 55 min. Next dive was shallower (as expected) and average depth was about 5m less, still 45 bar at 55 min. Neither dive had strong current or anything differentiating it from the other.

It's really frustrating because I've had people moan at me because I get to 50 bar. What am I supposed to do? Asphyxiate so you can have another 10 min of fish? F that.

I watch my trim, I hover a bit higher than others so I can conserve air a bit as well, but only within reason because I still need to be close enough to my buddy in case something goes amiss.

Any thoughts other than experience and perservance?

Thanks!

 

[nato]

Hi Maat,

After reading your post the first thing that stuck with me is that you get nervous. Being nervous or anxious is always going to increase your air consumption. Even something as simple as stressing about your air consumption can lead you into a vicious circle.. eg.. stress about air consumption = air consumption rises = stress about air consumption. This could be happening at a sub conscious level.

The only thing to remedy that is to relax which generally comes with experience. (I know you said other than that.)

The other thing that may be worth considering is your cardio vascular fitness. Obviously the fitter you are the better your body is going to manage with stressful situations or physical exertion.

hope that helps somewhat.

Dive safe

Nath

 

[ajduplessis]

"My dive buddy (the husband) doesn't care as he's just happy I'm in the water at all and is happy to do dives of even a shortened length."

This is the only important thing, enjoy the dives with your hubby and "forget" about consumption.

Why are you "nervous" around other divers??? I believe this could be a part of your problem. You have nothing to prove to anyone. I believe a change in your mindset will help a lot.

 

[maat1976]

Thanks both for such speedy replies!

I've actually gotten much fitter since my Jan trip to Bonaire- the wetsuit was a bit too snug and I've lost about 15 lbs since then by running and clean eating.

I get edgy around other divers for two reasons. Firstly divers like the little old nice Japanese man who was with us yesterday and kicked me in the head a few times. He was unpredictable and a bit crazy- not a mean guy but you could just tell he was trained in a different time. He wasn't my buddy, but when I'd be looking at something the DM pointed out he'd flail and lose control. Ack stay away from me!

Secondly, I've had two older very experienced couples we were diving with get peevish at me because I actually get to 50 bar within 60 min when they have 100+ left. Are they dead and not breathing!? I warn them in advance that I probably won't hit 60 min and both times they switched to another DM to avoid me (but still ask if they could get our photos).

The husband's advice is to just check my air in the first few min to make sure my gauge isn't wacky and then to not really concern myself too much until 100 bar. I do feel it's a bit of a vicious circle and I'm obsessing a bit. It's become the main thing I think about!

 

[AdivingBel]

My wife had a similar issue. I didn't care. I figured I was living the dream 'cause she wanted to dive with me. It weighed on her though, so we avoided group dives where we couldn't surface as buddy pairs. She took a PPB (Peak Performance Buoyancy) course with the instructor I used for AOW. He's a real trim & buoyancy guru. They dialed in her weighting and worked on trim & finning technique. It really helped her out. I also believe having a little success made her less self-concious which made her less "nervous" around other divers etc. etc.. All of which improved her SAC. As has already been mentioned, that "catch 22" is some "catch 22" when it comes to air consumption. I know you said you felt you had these aspects worked out fairly well, but it's amazing what a practiced eye (i.e. good instructor) will find. YMMV.

OBTW, until you figure it out (and even after you do), use as much air as makes you comfortable. That's what it's there for. In group dives, as long as you're upfront and honest with the dive staff prior to the dive (so you can be grouped with similar divers) or you've let your "experienced" dive buddies know your situation before you splash, if they carp & moan, it's their problem. Just relax and have fun. We've all been where you are. Also, I didn't find your dive times that abhorrent (a little short on the shallow dive, maybe) so any moaning is really on them, IMHO.

 

[lv2dive]

You may get advice to try and focus on relaxing your breathing. That may work for you. It never did for me... what helped me was to not focus on my breathing at all. Making a conscious choice not to worry about my breathing was the most effective path to improvement for me.

A couple of other things to consider:
1. if you are cold you will likely use more gas. If you have lost weight your wetsuit may no longer be an optimal fit. I realize you said your wetsuit was too snug before, but I would mention that to keep you warm, your wetsuit should be snug but not constricting. Just a thought.

2. If money isn't a big issue, in many places there is an option to "rent"a private DM. That way you do not have to worry about other people getting upset with you about having to come up "early" (plus the added benefit of less likelihood of getting kicked in the head!)

Good luck! It will get better with experience, no matter what. [emoji4]

 

[The Chairman]

My guess, and from not seeing you in the water, that's all it can be, is simple: You're sculling with your hands. It's an unconscious thing and most people have no idea that they are even doing it. how can you tell? Put your hands together during the dive and keep them there. Interlace your fingers and see how you do. You can still deal with inflation/deflation with your hands so entwined for a dive or two, so give it a go. Many students can realize a 15% improvement just by keeping their hands together.

An excess of CO2 makes you want to breathe, not a diminished amount of O2. The more work you do, whether it's sculling or ineffective kicking, the more CO2 you'll produce and the more you'll need to breathe or you'll suffer CO2 headaches. Hand sculling is a lot of work, but then so is flutter kicking. If you want to take your diving to the next level, learn to frog kick. I'm a big guy, and I'm the one who should be turning most dives. I don't because I'm the laziest diver on the planet. Kick and glide. Kick and glide. I've seen people do 3 or 4 flutter kicks to my one frog kick. I'll even pull and glide when I can. That's not really practical on a reef, but it's great in a cave. The slower you move, the more you will see. It's just that simple.

Caveat: Sculling is a buoyancy cheat. People often scull to make up for not being neutrally buoyant. In other words, you might think you have buoyancy down, but sculling says you don't. I've seen precious few divers who don't scull. It's epidemic and it's root cause is not learning how to truly dive neutral.

 

[RJP]

Anything and everything you need to know to improve air consumption comes back to one key thing from physiology standpoint:

Air (O₂) consumption is a DEMAND function: the metabolic demands of the cells in your body create the need to consume O₂ and expel CO₂.​

Accordingly the most effective way to reduce your O₂ consumption is to reduce the level of activity – and therefore the metabolic DEMAND – of the muscle cells in your body. There are 13 key "Demand Reduction Strategies" that any and every diver can employ to improve their O₂ consumption:

1. Slow down
2. Get more comfortable in the water
3. Slow down
4. Get your weighting fine-tuned
5. Slow down
6. Get your horizontal trim dialed-in
7. Slow down some more
8. Stop swimming with your hands and arms
9. Slow down even more
10. Utilize efficient kick styles
11. Just a little bit slower... please?
12. Streamline your gear
13. Slow down - you're still moving too fast!

There is much advice here on SB about reducing your air consumption by controlling/modifying/focusing on your breathing rate. I won't add anything to those points, other than to say that an awful lot of that advice is largely inaccurate and ineffective. As mentioned above, the amount of O₂ your body needs (and CO₂ it produces) is a function of cellular metabolic demand. Trying to improve your air consumption by focusing on your breathing is like trying to improve your car's gas mileage by focusing on how you pump the gas into the tank. Accordingly, I will politely disagree with people who say "focus on your breathing at all times" or those who will offer advice about how many seconds to inhale and how many seconds to exhale and the like. My advice on breathing rate, depth, etc is as follows:

1. Breathe normally
2. If there is an underlying problem causing you to breathe abnormally (eg anxiety) fix the underlying problem
3. Breathe normally
4. STOP focusing on how you're breathing!
5. Breathe normally
6. Ensure that the "Demand Reduction Strategies" listed above are second nature, so you can STOP focusing on those things too! (Plus, reducing your body's metabolic demands will help ensure that you are breathing normally!)
7. Focus on your dive - not your breathing - that's why you're underwater!

Ray

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

I've done about 50 dives between Jan and now.

I think that statistic alone is impressive - If I was diving that much I would be heaven and would not care about my breathing rate.
Easy to say hard to do - don't think about breathing and just enjoy the dives.

I go through 3 phases in achieving any goal - I think I can (I set a reasonable goal), I believe I can (I have trained and I am confident I can achieve my goal because I see my improvements toward the goal), I know I can (I have done my goal consistently and I can continue to do it).

You can keep your breathing down on shallow dives because you convinced yourself there is nothing to worry about - you know you can - because you have done it.
Now you need to relax not worry about diving or breathing while deeper and believe you can achieve it. You will find that you will on some dives but not others - see if there is a pattern. Keep trying but if you can relax on a shallow dive - you have the power to do this on a deeper dive.

Good luck and at least one person thinks - dang I would not be focused on my breathing if I was doing that much diving...

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ And what Ray said...

 

[Yoyodyne-88]

Perfect buoyancy counts a lot. Fold your arms and don't use your hands.

Do NOT skip breathe, but a long, slow, and FULL exhalation in each cycle will maximize your oxygen efficiency. Really empty your lungs before inhaling - thus getting a full flush and exchange.