Air consumption

[Avic7]

So anyways, I got great advice from the board when I asked about ways of getting rid of my ankle weights. THe best way for me was to bend my knees and use the frog kick or skulling or modified flutter kick! YEAH!
So now that I got rid of my ankle weights, the next skill I need to perfect is air consumption. Any advice?

The problem is I use too much air to fast. Are there breathing techniques that I can practice or use? I can't hold my breathe [ THE NUMBER ONE RULE IN SCUBA DIVING! DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATHE!] but maybe there are ways that allows me to breathe slower or faster? Part of the problem has to do with my buoyancy as well. Still trying to figure out how much air to put into my BCD or dry suit. Most times I add in too much air and have to let it go which wastes my airAND another problem is that I have been slacking off in going to the gym, so my fitness isn't that good either.

SO suggestions anyone?

Thanks

 

[DA Aquamaster]

1) Bouyancy is key, if you are very far from neutral you end up kicking with an upward or downward vector to maintain depth, or worse sculling with your hands.

2) Eliminate all unneccesary movement. Keep your hands and arms tucked in and of equal importance eliminate trunk movements as the large muscles involved in even small trunk movements eat up lots of O2. In general keep all movements slow and purposeful. If a movement is not productive, don't do it.

3) Normal breathing on land is inhale, exhale, pause. In the water, you need to modify this to inhale, pause, exhale. (You can pause in your breathing underwater with no concerns as long as you keep your airway open.) The pause at the end of the inhalation cycle allows more time for gas transfer in your lungs. On land with the short exhange time associated with the inhale, exhale, pause pattern, you only use about 5% of the O2 in the air you breathe, the pause after the inhalation underwater helps increase this efficiency.

4) The air in your mouth and throat does you no good as no gas transfer ocurrs there. On a shallow breath, this dead air space may constitute half of the air inhaled while on a deep breath it is only about 20% of the total air inhaled. So deeper than normal breathing greatly reduces the ratio of dead to useable air volume in your lungs and will be much more efficient over the course of the dive.

 

[halocline]

Ways to improve your air consumption:
1. Get more experience diving; you'll be less "excited" in the underwater environment
2. Work on buoyancy control. You might spend several enjoyable hours just learning to hover motionless. As you improve your buoyancy control, you'll be able to dive with less weight.
3. Work on slow, smooth movements through the water; watch the way expert divers glide through the water as opposed to most new divers who flutter and scull quite abit. A perfect place to observe this is on a group dive with people of varying skill levels.
4. Search this forum, you'll find lots of good advice; better than what I've given you!

 

[WVDiver]

1) Bouyancy is key, if you are very far from neutral you end up kicking with an upward or downward vector to maintain depth, or worse sculling with your hands.

2) Eliminate all unneccesary movement. Keep your hands and arms tucked in and of equal importance eliminate trunk movements as the large muscles involved in even small trunk movements eat up lots of O2. In general keep all movements slow and purposeful. If a movement is not productive, don't do it.

3) Normal breathing on land is inhale, exhale, pause. In the water, you need to modify this to inhale, pause, exhale. (You can pause in your breathing underwater with no concerns as long as you keep your airway open.) The pause at the end of the inhalation cycle allows more time for gas transfer in your lungs. On land with the short exhange time associated with the inhale, exhale, pause pattern, you only use about 5% of the O2 in the air you breathe, the pause after the inhalation underwater helps increase this efficiency.

4) The air in your mouth and throat does you no good as no gas transfer ocurrs there. On a shallow breath, this dead air space may constitute half of the air inhaled while on a deep breath it is only about 20% of the total air inhaled. So deeper than normal breathing greatly reduces the ratio of dead to useable air volume in your lungs and will be much more efficient over the course of the dive.

Very good advice and technique DA. I would add, 5) Get to the gym and get plenty of cardiovascular exercise.

 

[Sideband]

When I wasdoing my AOW I commented to my instructor that with my regs charged and the air turned off I can onlyget about 1, maybe 2 breaths off the system before it is empty. He tried it and got closer to five then had me try it. After watching me he had me breath in on a count of 4 and exhale on a count of about 10. He said to adjust these to whatever is comfortable for me but to keep the concept. Now I usually breath in to about 5 and out to 10. It is pretty automatic now and I only really think about it when I'm in a new situation and not 100% comfortable. It helps calm me down.
I'd worry more about your buoyancy right now. Once that is under control you will be more comfortable over all and your breathing will fall in line.

Joe

 

[pasley]

1. Remember objects in motion tend to remain in motion. Translation: You are heading toward the ocean floor, you add air to the BC, you have momentum built up and once you add air to the BC it will take time for the increased buoyancy to overcome the downward momentum and to come to a complete stop. So add a pinch of air, and wait, count to 20 at least before adding more air.
2. Proper weighting will assist tremendously with air consumption.
3. Best breathing technique is to breathe normally just like you do on land. In short, don’t give it a thought beyond not holding your breath. Short pauses between inhale and exhale, exhale and inhale are normal and do not involve closing the airway. I don’t think about breathing and I have often been asked after a dive “Don’t you breathe?” because I have so much air left in the tank. When I think about my breathing, I use more air. DA Aquamaster has it right on this.
4. I find that the only time I consciously think about breathing is when I need to adjust my buoyancy. I see something below me I want to see, I exhale to get down to it. I want to rise up a bit, I take a slightly larger breath.
5. Quit moving you hands around! Park them under your tank behind your back or in front of you. Moving your arms and hands are inefficient movements. You have these huge fins on, use them for propulsion. Example: I told a new diver this once on his 5th lifetime dive. His 6th dive, the same day at the same place was 15 minutes longer with more air left in the tank than the first dive. Same dive site, same depths, conditions and currents, he just was not moving his hands around and wasting energy.
6. To help stop using your hands to skull, learn to make turns learn using only your legs and fins. Left turn is Port (left) Engine, full stop, ahead slow on the starboard (right) engine (fin). Think of your fins as the engine room. Ahead is slow always the norm, there is no race and you will see more and have more air to see it with. Learn to back up using your fins. You can do it, even with split fins. Learn a helicopter turn (full 360 turn using only your fins while remaining over a fixed spot accomplished by starboard engine full reverse, port engine ahead full).
7. Dive often that is the best way to reduce your air time.
8. Do cardio on land, bicycle, run, swim etc.

 

[Scuba]

Some divers take longer than others to adapt and relax underwater. Be patient.

Consider that water is about 700 times denser than air. Every movement you make, every increase in speed, incurrs a significant increase in muscle effort which increases air consumption. Swim horizontal, reduce physical area exposed to the water in the direction of movement as much as possible. Think slicing through the water.

Streamline your gear to reduce resistance as you move through this dense liquid. Think in terms of aerodynamics on land or air. Which piece of gear is encountering direct resistance in the water? What alternatives are available? How can I reposition it to reduce drag without compromising usage? Is this piece of gear necessary for the dive? This is not as important a consideration as some of the others mentioned, when first starting out. Just be aware of it as you gain experience.

Stay warm. Being cold causes the body to use more energy increasing air consumption.

Once you know the fundamentals its all about pratice, it will come in due time. Ask your buddy for feedback, he may be able to point out things you are doing without being aware them. There is a lot going on when first learning. Concentrate on practicing one or two skills at a time until you get the feel of it, then move on to another. Its easier than attempting to learn everything at once, and you will gradually see your air consumption improve with every new skill you develop.

 

[Diver0001]

the next skill I need to perfect is air consumption.

This isn't really a skill. This is the visible part of an iceberg of other factors.

SO suggestions anyone?

Well, one obvious thing is to concentrate on breathing deep from your belly. We're really used to keeping the muscles in our bellies tight for whatever reason (ie. chicks dig tight bellies) but the one most important thing you need to learn to breathe properly is to release that tension (and other muscle tension) and breathe slowly, deeply and regularly from your diaphragm.

Once you do that all kinds of magical things start to happen. You'll be better ventilated, you'll eliminate post dive headaches if you get them, you'll feel more relaxed, your buoyancy control will improve, your ability to deal with stress will improve and ..... your air consumption will improve.

I would just start with that.

R..

 

[pete340]

Well, one obvious thing is to concentrate on breathing deep from your belly. We're really used to keeping the muscles in our bellies tight for whatever reason (ie. chicks dig tight bellies) but the one most important thing you need to learn to breathe properly is to release that tension (and other muscle tension) and breathe slowly, deeply and regularly from your diaphragm.

And that can be made far easier by loosening that stupid cummerbund (or getting rid of it completely, but that's another discussion) on the BC.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

6. To help stop using your hands to skull, learn to make turns learn using only your legs and fins. Left turn is Port (left) Engine, full stop, ahead slow on the starboard (right) engine (fin). Think of your fins as the engine room. Ahead is slow always the norm, there is no race and you will see more and have more air to see it with. Learn to back up using your fins. You can do it, even with split fins. Learn a helicopter turn (full 360 turn using only your fins while remaining over a fixed spot accomplished by starboard engine full reverse, port engine ahead full).

Pasley gives very good advice with this. If you earn to maneuver with your fins even in tight quarters, you have no reason to move your hands. Your air consumption will improve and most likely your bouyancy will as well as you will not be screwing it up by unintentionanly sculling with your hands to compensate for poor bouyancy.

The advice on adjusting bouyancy with breath control is also very sound. This allows precison control and by being properly bouyant you can exhale to approach the bottom and then inhale to rise. If you are motionless you will find that you can approach a fine silt bottom within in an inch or and then lift off again without raising any silt at all. Even at cruising speed with a slight down angle and a frog or modified flutter kick you can crusie 6 inches over a silt bottom and not disturb anything.