Breathing rate

[JR#97]

Howdy all, I had my first pool dive last night! Aside from my ear drum rupturing, I had a blast! One thing I'm curious about though, is breathing rate. Our instructor said to breathe normally. However, I found myself breathing shallow and a little quick. How deep are you supposed to be breathe? I'm sure I'll breathe a little easier once I get used to the sensation, but is there a rule of thumb or any tips/tricks to keep the rate down? Thanks!

 

[haggis]

oh ruptured ear drum, ouch, bet that hurt. As far as breathing goes just try and breath naturally and don't hold your breath or skip breathe to try and "keep your rate down" as this is just self defeating and dangerous. It's natural to breath quite fast when your in a stress situation, and the first time you put your head underwater and breath is a stress situation -but still pretty cool!
As you do more diving you will find that you relax and your breathing will naturally slow(Incidentally I have a friend who I'm convinced does not breath underwater at all, as we'll come back from a half hour or so dive and he'll only have used about 30 bar!)
One thing to note though is that on land the breathing cycle is inhale-exhale-pause-inhale-exhale-pause etc while when breathing through a regulator it naturally changes to inhale-pause-exhale-pause etc. Just don't force it and enjoy the whole new world that is going to open up to you as a diver!
Good luck and have fun,
Linda

 

[Mario S Caner]

Hello JR#97, welcome to the boards and the realm of diving. Hope your ear heals quickly.

When you do get into the water again, just relax. Your breathing should be slow and methodical. Deeper than you would breath on land but not to complete (full) capacity either. You will over time, master it in such a way that you won't even think about it any more.

 

[Aardal]

Jr....

Breathing rate is pretty easy to master after awhile. For new divers fast shallow breathes are common but you want to take deep inhalations and long exhalations....but not to deep to where you fill your lungs full, you don't want to rupture those air sacks in your lungs. The key is to relax and just think about what you are doing and then it will all become second nature with a little practice. Good Luck!

Dive Safe...

Aardal
eace:

 

[JR#97]

Thanks all!

 

[The Chairman]

Hey JR#97 & All,

I have a good friend/instructor that I help out with his diving classes from time to time. One group was so up-tight and they could no relax under water. We were expecting their eyeballs to pop out any moment. If it wasn't so darn sad, we would have laughed at how comically tense they were. But John had a great idea... Bubble contest!!! He saw how tense everyone was getting, so he said everyone to the bottom of the pool. Lie on your backs and blow bubbles to the surface.

Well John had this technique where he would "blow" a bubble ring and it would rise to the top and get bigger and bigger. Everyone was trying to figure out how he did it, and we must have been down there a half hour or more just blowing bubbles. It was really fun, and broke the tension. The next class was completely different... it was like we got a whole new bunch of students. They were laughing and giggling and poking good natured fun at each other. We made up for lost time in that class and EVERYONE finished the course and was very at ease under the waves.

Pete from Orlando...

 

[DivingGal]

Originally posted by NetDoc
.... Bubble contest!!! He saw how tense everyone was getting, so he said everyone to the bottom of the pool. Lie on your backs and blow bubbles to the surface. Well John had this technique where he would "blow" a bubble ring and it would rise to the top and get bigger and bigger. Everyone was trying to figure out how he did it, and we must have been down there a half hour or more just blowing bubbles. ...

Cool idea!

JR#97 hope that ear heals quickly. As others have said, the proper breathing technique takes time to master, but quickly becomes second nature. The key I found, is relax and blow bubbles (honest)