Air Hog
- Thread starter scubaboyff
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scubaboyff:
I'd start by diving more. Are you equipped to dive at home? As a vacation diver you could be on a long learning curve especially if you are not "a natural".
Are you in your own gear? In rental gear your skills won't be sharp and your comfort level will be compromised.
Do you think you have sharp buoyancy control? If not moving to AOW and including a buoyancy module may be very helpful. Doing AOW may be a big help in any event, mask time with an instructor may unlock something.
Obviuosly these are just shots in the dark not knowing you but they may be food for thought.
Pete
OP
scubaboyff
Registered
Wow I didnt know there are so many of us out there!!
Some back ground info:
have my own gear, 10 lbs. over wieght, 5'9' 180, quit smoking 2 months ago, feel relaxed under water, have AOW, but never really had anybody tell me how to breath!! It has gotten better the more I dive maybe I just need to go diving more
Thanks for your help my fellow "hoovers"
Some back ground info:
have my own gear, 10 lbs. over wieght, 5'9' 180, quit smoking 2 months ago, feel relaxed under water, have AOW, but never really had anybody tell me how to breath!! It has gotten better the more I dive maybe I just need to go diving more
Thanks for your help my fellow "hoovers"
lmorin
Contributor
My air consumption was poor, but has become much better of late. The reason has been very simple. As someone above suggested, with tongue slightly in cheek, breathe less. It really has been as simple as that, at least for me. My athletic background has been in sports demanding high oxygen consumption (soccer, competitive skiing) and my first reaction while diving simply was to breathe as if was such an athletic event. It's not, obviously, and it has taken concerted effort on my part to cut the number of breaths per minute by about half. I have become much more effecient with the oxygen taken in to my lungs and do not cast off as much waste when exhaling. I'm still not as efficient as my wife (who was extremely efficient the first time underwater), but I'm making progress. All other things being equal, males are worse than females with respect to oxygen use.
Ok, I'll fess up, I'm a hoover too. So I bought big tanks, E130. Yes your breathing will get better with time, but if you're running out of air before you get good and relaxed, then you'll never figure out how to get relaxed.
This could be the start of one of those 10 step programs.
This could be the start of one of those 10 step programs.
Fish_Whisperer
Contributor
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Okay... Some things I've found:
1. Get your weighting and trim correct: If, at depth, you're cruising along with a half-inflated BC, you need to lose some of the lead. If you're constantly bumping and dumping on the inflator hose, you've got too much lead. Adjust your weights so that you are swimming in a slightly head-down attitude.
2. Stop beating up everything with your fins. It's not a race to see who can jet around the reef the fastest. Just cruise along. Observe. Relax. Breathe. Get the most efficiency out of every kick that you can. Stop using your hands. Pull your gauges, octopus, and computer in, towards your cummerbund, and keep your hands clasped in front of you. Your hands and arms are mostly worthless.
3. Streamline your gear. If you have pockets, put everything you can in them. If you don't need a piece of gear, leave it on the boat. It does no good to have stuff hanging off of every D-ring. Every bit of gear that you have hanging off of you, is just one more thing that has to be dragged through the water and must push water out of the way as you expend the energy to pull it along.
4. R E L A X. Think of how you breathe when you're lying on the couch watching TV. That's a pretty good model of how you want to be breathing at depth.
5. If you're with a group doing a drift dive, there's nothing that says you can't hang around at a more shallow depth than everyone. The shallower you are, the longer your air will last you. Every little bit helps.
6. Dive more. Even if it's just a swimming pool. Dive as frequently as humanly possible, so that you become truly comfortable with breathing underwater. Become comfortable with your gear. Put your gloves in the same pocket, in the same order, every single time. Put your light in the same pocket every single time. Put your knife in the same place, every single time. Get into such a routine that when you're actually diving, you aren't burning up air by struggling with your gear and fumbling around for stuff. The ocean is always changing. Your gear doesn't have to. Take as many variables out of the entire equation as you can.
7. When you first stride off of the boat, unless you're in current or doing a drift dive, stop: Hang around on the surface for a moment with your reg out of your mouth. Let your breathing return to normal. After donning your gear and walking with it, and plunging into the water, your breathing is going to be elevated. If you can, stop and take a moment to recollect yourself and remind yourself to relax.
Be relaxed, be comfortable, don't fixate on your breathing. Long, slow, and steady...
8. Think of a jingle or some little song and hum it to yourself while you're diving. This will help to control your breathing, and you'll get into a rhythm. It'll keep you from unconsciously panting and blowing through your air.
9. R E L A X . . . This isn't work. It's recreation.
Good luck!
1. Get your weighting and trim correct: If, at depth, you're cruising along with a half-inflated BC, you need to lose some of the lead. If you're constantly bumping and dumping on the inflator hose, you've got too much lead. Adjust your weights so that you are swimming in a slightly head-down attitude.
2. Stop beating up everything with your fins. It's not a race to see who can jet around the reef the fastest. Just cruise along. Observe. Relax. Breathe. Get the most efficiency out of every kick that you can. Stop using your hands. Pull your gauges, octopus, and computer in, towards your cummerbund, and keep your hands clasped in front of you. Your hands and arms are mostly worthless.
3. Streamline your gear. If you have pockets, put everything you can in them. If you don't need a piece of gear, leave it on the boat. It does no good to have stuff hanging off of every D-ring. Every bit of gear that you have hanging off of you, is just one more thing that has to be dragged through the water and must push water out of the way as you expend the energy to pull it along.
4. R E L A X. Think of how you breathe when you're lying on the couch watching TV. That's a pretty good model of how you want to be breathing at depth.
5. If you're with a group doing a drift dive, there's nothing that says you can't hang around at a more shallow depth than everyone. The shallower you are, the longer your air will last you. Every little bit helps.
6. Dive more. Even if it's just a swimming pool. Dive as frequently as humanly possible, so that you become truly comfortable with breathing underwater. Become comfortable with your gear. Put your gloves in the same pocket, in the same order, every single time. Put your light in the same pocket every single time. Put your knife in the same place, every single time. Get into such a routine that when you're actually diving, you aren't burning up air by struggling with your gear and fumbling around for stuff. The ocean is always changing. Your gear doesn't have to. Take as many variables out of the entire equation as you can.
7. When you first stride off of the boat, unless you're in current or doing a drift dive, stop: Hang around on the surface for a moment with your reg out of your mouth. Let your breathing return to normal. After donning your gear and walking with it, and plunging into the water, your breathing is going to be elevated. If you can, stop and take a moment to recollect yourself and remind yourself to relax.
Be relaxed, be comfortable, don't fixate on your breathing. Long, slow, and steady...
8. Think of a jingle or some little song and hum it to yourself while you're diving. This will help to control your breathing, and you'll get into a rhythm. It'll keep you from unconsciously panting and blowing through your air.
9. R E L A X . . . This isn't work. It's recreation.
Good luck!
As a paramedic, I will say that the BEST thing you have done so far is to quit smoking.
Congradulations!! Stick with it.:35:
Congradulations!! Stick with it.:35:
divnamite
Guest
I'm a newbie, less than 15 dives, so I can only speak from my limited experience. I went diving in the keys, buddied up with a some very experienced divers (DMs). I did very well, had no problem keeping up with them. Personally, I don't think dive more will solve this problem, as my instructor puts it, "Pratice doesn't make perfect, perfect pratice makes perfect". I think speed is the key. Do things slowly.
* Wear proper wetsuit. If your wetsuit doesn't keep you warm, your body requires more air.
* Swimming slow, I have seen some people swim faster than a tuna. When you swim fast, your body requires more air, therefore, you suck more air.
* Bouyancy, I've seen people let all air out of BCD or pump ton of air into BCD whenever they think they need to go up or down just a little bit.
* BREATHE SLOWLY, THIS IS MY BIGGEST DIFFERENCE MAKER. Since I'm a newbie, I'm always concious about my breathing, I would take a decent puff of air, and then slowly exhale. When I do that, I find myself slow down all my other actions automatically. When I breathe in and out slowly, I can feel my buyonacy, so I don't need to pump/dump air. Also, when I breathe slowly, I feel very calm, and become more comfortable. When I'm calm, I tend to swim slowly, and enjoy my dives a lot more.
Just my $0.02.
* Wear proper wetsuit. If your wetsuit doesn't keep you warm, your body requires more air.
* Swimming slow, I have seen some people swim faster than a tuna. When you swim fast, your body requires more air, therefore, you suck more air.
* Bouyancy, I've seen people let all air out of BCD or pump ton of air into BCD whenever they think they need to go up or down just a little bit.
* BREATHE SLOWLY, THIS IS MY BIGGEST DIFFERENCE MAKER. Since I'm a newbie, I'm always concious about my breathing, I would take a decent puff of air, and then slowly exhale. When I do that, I find myself slow down all my other actions automatically. When I breathe in and out slowly, I can feel my buyonacy, so I don't need to pump/dump air. Also, when I breathe slowly, I feel very calm, and become more comfortable. When I'm calm, I tend to swim slowly, and enjoy my dives a lot more.
Just my $0.02.
scubaboyff:
Start Smoking. Less lung capacity and better air consumption. In Roatan all the Dive Masters I dove with smoked and used very little air. Its a standing joke amongst them that smoking reduces air consumption.
OK, not the best way :crossbone
Try meditation and yoga to effectively increase your breath control.
I also play around with the dive [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]response.
[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]"An ancient reflex, called the dive response, actually alters the distribution of blood in the body. Vessels in the limbs constrict, shunting blood away from muscles and towards the oxygen-needy heart and brain. The heart rate also slows, limiting the body's rate of oxygen consumption. Additionally, smooth muscles in the spleen contract, squeezing out extra oxygen-carrying red blood cells."[/SIZE][/FONT]
Do some research on it. This is the secret of many record holding Air divers and Skin Divers.
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Uh, let's put that one off a bit for newbie divers. Some newbies won't be totally comfortable - or even totally safe - doing this early on. Maybe a good idea once one feels comfortable on the surface and all, but save this for that time.Go ahead and relax with the reg in your mouth for security and safety. You won't burn that much air on the surface anyway. But do gather your composure before descending.
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