Breathing

[Jason72]

Hi, new guy here. I have only 32 dives under my belt. *stands up*..... I am an air hog ... Because of this, I don't go on alot of dives being that I'm embarrased when I am partnered with someone and our dive is shorter than the rest of the groups because I gulped my air. Does any one have tips or helpful practice ideas ? I've been told I just need to dive more... (read previous sentence on why I don't). Should I just sit in the bottom of my pool and practice ?
Thanks in advance

 

[KatieMac]

Hi, new guy here. I have only 32 dives under my belt. *stands up*..... I am an air hog ... Because of this I dont go on alot of dives because I'm embarrased if I am partnered with someone and our dive is shorter than the rest of the groups because I gulped my air. Does any one have tips or helpful practice ideas ? I've been told I just need to dive more... (read previous sentance on why I don't). Should i just sit in the bottom of my pool and practice ?
Thanks in advance

I disagree with the "dive more" assessment. Although diving more will make you even better. But diving more is only part of it.

My husband and I were both good on air at the beginning. Well I was, my husband was an air hog until his instructor had him pace his breathing better. By the time he finished his 4 OW dives, he was doing fine.

We were on a cruise with a buddy and stopped at diving locations. In Grand Cayman on the Kittiwake, buddy needed to surface after 30 minutes. The next stop was Roatan where we dive a lot. I told our DI in Roatan that our friend was an air hog. The DI gave buddy "the talk", spent 2 minutes with him on the sandy bottom on our first dive, then buddy did back to back 1 hour dives and came back with at least 500 PSI.

There is a slow cadence to breathing when diving. Find an instructor who can help you with that.

 

[TMHeimer]

There is a recent thread on "New Divers..." So I won't repeat a lot. Breath normally same as you do out of water but with your mouth. Maybe "breath deeper" as they say, but basically don't take a lot of quick breaths due to nervousness. The faster you swim the more air you use. Make sure you are properly weighted with good (horizontal) trim and no arm movement (unless you have a specific reason for it). My air consumption hasn't changed much (I don't think) over the years. Use a bigger tank(s) if you still use so much air. Some people just have to, due to lung size. I did repeat a lot....

Oh, agree with KatieMac-- "dive more" is only part of it. It's mostly solving any basic problems.
IMHO it's the same as being able to reduce your weighting by simply getting experience...You do a proper weight check and you are close enough to what you need (assuming good trim too). Experience IMO won't then change the weight you need (an aging wetsuit might, or obviously different equipment) or how much air you consume.

 

[Angelo Farina]

Please read this entire thread, the topic of breathing technique is discussed in detail....
Breathing technique

 

[lowlysubaruguy]

first I’m an air hog

Some possible ideas

Yoga breathing exercise practice it a lot its good for more than diving. Breathe slowly and in a relaxed manner exhale twice as long as you inhale thats the goal I will probably never get there but you can see the improvement.

Buy or rent bigger tanks biggest you can get wont help with your air usage directly but it may relieve some of the stress and anxiety that is not helping your air consumption.

Dive shallower than your partners 10 to 15 feet can really decrease your air consumption to other divers make sure your not making them flounder around looking for you all the time but be above them Again not a solution directly but things that help you mentally get over it will help.

Take a trip to someplace where you can shore dive boat dives are often stressful I have been boating for almost 45 years and I still get stressed out on some boat dives worst was last year just a really crappy overall pre dive experience for everyone. However the dive was probably one of my top ten. So lifes good. Find other air hogs to dive with so you guys can start high fiving each other when one of you gets 33 minutes out of a 133 hp tank hopefully its not that bad is it?

I stress out getting to my diving activities, high stress job just getting to the airport puts me on edge. I’m stressed for at least three days of every vacation even if I’m not diving. Its life but I do better with 10 days or longer because of it. I’m not actually mentally on vacation for two or three days. If you only have a week then you are also stressed out because your vacation is over before it starts. I have a solution for myself I’m two years from semi retiring. If I can make it there before my head pops off any way.

 

[lowwall]

Make long exhales. Let the bubbles come out in a dribble rather than a flood. This will reduce the number of breaths you take per minute. It is also calming, which will help avoid a perceived need to breathe faster.

It really is that simple. Consumption rate is the number of breaths you take per minute x the volume of each breath. If you want to decrease consumption, one of those has to decrease. Decreasing the volume of your breaths is a bad idea, it leads to increased CO2 levels and if shallow enough, decreased O2 levels. So the only option left is to decrease the number of breaths per minute. You can't do that much about the inhalation phase since the reg is going to give you a good blast of air once you start inhaling and you should not hold your breath, so that leaves extending the exhale as the best way to control breathing rate.

Since most new divers are stressed and have buoyancy issues that make them work harder than necessary, initial breathing rates tend to be higher than for experienced divers. This normally gets better over time and thus the standard advice to fix it by diving more. But even new divers can consciously lower their consumption by doing long and slow exhales. Concentrate on this for a few dives and it will become second nature. Although you may have to focus on it a bit after a long layoff or when something unusual forces your rate up.

 

[caydiver]

Years ago I talked to an instructor/friend about it. He told me to hum. Worked a treat for me along with repetitive diving. Maybe it was just to make my mind focus on something else, but it worked.

 

[seeker242]

Hi, new guy here. I have only 32 dives under my belt. *stands up*..... I am an air hog ... Because of this, I don't go on alot of dives being that I'm embarrased when I am partnered with someone and our dive is shorter than the rest of the groups because I gulped my air.

Why? Near everyone is an air hog when they first start diving. It's nothing to be embarrassed about.

 

[lowwall]

Years ago I talked to an instructor/friend about it. He told me to hum. Worked a treat for me along with repetitive diving. Maybe it was just to make my mind focus on something else, but it worked.

Humming makes you do a slow continuous exhale as I advocated above

By the way, I've taught swimming and we often tell beginning swimmers to hum when they put their face in the water since it keeps them from getting water up their nose.

 

[PfcAJ]

The ONLY technique that will reduce your consumption is to be still, and efficient when you can’t be still.

Properly weighted, neutrally buoyant, horizontal trim, efficient swimming.

Breath when you need to breath.

This is the way.