Failed OW for Breathing Too Much; How can I fix it?

[Hemlon]

Excellent advice, Msilvia!

 

[dwm1]

Mine was SSI, and we didnt go that deep say 30 to 35 feet and I got about 40 minutes, so Iwould say at 50 feet I wouldnt get 38 minutes. Ive gotten a little better, but not much. Everyone that I dive with says not worry about it, it comes with time and experience. Im just a beginner myself, but I wouldnt lose to much sleep over this if I were you.

Doug

 

[Ber Rabbit]

I failed my O/W dives for breathing too much. When I would lay down at 25 f for 5 min I consumed 100. However when I would swim around my air consumption increased drastically so my dives could only last 35 min, my longest being 38 on a tank filled to 2800. I was able to get down to 51 ft and do all the basic skills.

Like the others the "breathing too much" reason for failure baffles me. It's possible there was a bit of selective hearing going on and you missed the rest of the reason. No biggie, you know you need to work on your dive skills and we'll help where we can.

When you are still you're not consuming large quantities of air, that leads me to believe it's refinement of locomotion rather than dispelling apprehension that needs the most work. You should be parallel to the surface of the water when you dive not perpendicular to it. I see a lot of new divers (and some not so new) who look like they are walking or jogging through the quarry; vertical is for the bus stop, get yourself horizontal. Staring at the bottom should be comfortable, if you have to drop your chin to see the bottom then your horizontal has moved to vertical. You should need to lift your chin a teeny bit to look where you're going when you're horizontal.

Relax into the BC, let it support you. Put just enough air in it to allow you to stay neutral and don't mess with it unless your depth changes. Don't fight the equipment, work with it. If you feel like your legs keep sinking ask your instructor to move some of your weight higher on the bc, it often only takes 2 pounds shifted from your waist to your tank strap or shoulder area to fix the leg sinking.

The second issue (minor) was when I would swim using my leg/fins after a few mins my ankle would feel tired.

You need to spend every minute you can swimming in those fins. Don't bend your knees when you kick, the water resistance will put the right amount of bend in them. You are probably required to use a flutter kick, the easiest way to practice that is what we call "pushing the wall". Get in the pool with your mask/fins/snorkel on, place your hands on the wall, make sure your butt is underwater and start kicking. Nice long kicks from the hip are the goal of this exercise, you should feel your butt wiggle from side to side as you kick. Exaggerate the motion, lock your knees (let the water pressure bend them a bit) and see if you can touch the bottom of the pool in the shallow end with the downward stroke of your fin and the surface of the water with the upward stroke. Scuba is NOT done with your hands, hands are folded in front of you or used for photography or hunting.

Once you can feel your kick being generated from your hip go for a swim around the pool. Put your hands on your butt to keep your butt and fins under the water, feel how your chest and shoulders are being pushed through the water when you press your butt underwater? That orientation is actually vertical When you dive you want your butt parallel with your body, if you are slightly "fins up" (head a little lower than fins) that's fine because it helps keep you from silting up the bottom.

Ber :lilbunny:

 

[BidAndDive.com]

Hmm...failing you for air consumption...sounds silly, but I don't think it is. Practice this weekend and try to remain as calm as possible. He's just watching out for your own protection.

 

[Spratman]

Kudos to your instructor!! He/she didn't think that things were quite good enough to pass you. This is something not often seen. Diving is something you want to get right the first time. Take advantage of the opportunity.

I used to jet around when I first got certified and burn up a tank fast! I was fortunately enough to hook up with a bunch of tech divers. It took some time but they finally slowed me down. The enjoyment and gas consumption was slowly realized. Mentoring is a great thing if you have a good mentor.

MSilvia gave some great pointers as did others. There are many factors to sort through when you are a new diver.

good luck!

 

[Sideband]

Not a troll

The whole dive wasn't at 51 ft. Most of it was at 25-30 ft. On the last 2 dives we went down to 51 ft for about 1 minute. As I said I used 100 at 25ft but when I would swim along 25 ft I would consume air at a great rate. I'm 30, not a smoker, in shape.

There was another beginner and people on their 5th dive who were way ahead of me in air consumption.

My instructor just told me to come back the following weekend and will only charge me for a wetsuit rental ($80). He provides the bc/tanks, etc. Figure it's a small price to pay for more diving experience. Not like he's trying to make extra $, as I'm sure their time is more valuable.

100 what? PSI? Cubic feet of air? Penguins? If PSI, then what sized tank and over what period of time?

:dropmouth$80 to rent a wetsuit?!?!?!:dropmouth I've purchased them for less than that.

 

[scubapatton]

#1 tip. S L O W D O W N. AS a new experience, you are either likely to be real excited or a little stressed. Both are perfectly acceptable, but you need to slow down a little it sounds like. You sound like at 30, and non-smoker and relatively in-shape, that you are fine on the physical side of things. You may just be trying toooo hard.

Slow it down. When you do skills, take a moment to breathe normally between major steps when possible (eg mask removal. breather normally with the mask off for a few breaths. Then put the mask on, breathe normally for a few breaths, then clear the mask, etc). It sounds like you should have been able to pass. You also sound like you are taking it in stride. Try slowing things down a little though. That will help you remain calm, and will likely lower your breathing rate and the amount you are sucking down.

Hope that helps, and good luck.

 

[sea nmf]

One of your sentences stood out for me. You think that passing you might be a liability because you will go deep and run out of air?

Even if you pass, when you dive, you need to really, really monitor your air. There is never an excuse to run out of air, except for equipment failure. If you know you have a high consumption rate, stay shallow until it significantly improves. You will notice improvement. It will come with increased comfort in the water, and proper weight, trim, etc.

 

[Prostar]

There is one good reason why people run out of air while diving. THEY FORGET TO CHECK THEIR PRESSURE GAUGE!!!!.

I drill this into every class.

So if you only get a few minutes of bottom time when going deeper, so what? You would never fail my class for being an airhog. I hope not because I was one too. All I do, once I find out there is a heavy user in the class, is bring along another extra tank.

 

[RoyN]

Yep, agreed with Prostar, sometimes divers forget to check their pressure gauge. I've had many times dive buddies showing me they have less then 800psi when they're down about 90 to 100 feet. Not a good sign especially when they go back to the boat without doing a stop at 45ft to 50ft for a minute. It took me about after 20 to 30 dives for me to check my gauge every 4 minutes because one time I came back with only 150 psi in my tank and I did the required stop at 45 ft to 50 ft and then did a safety stop at 15 ft for 3 minutes and I left the bottom with 700 psi. To prevent that from happening, I now carry two dive computer, my primary computer with the air gauge, and my watch with a 4 minute timer. No offense to anybody, nowadays, I either go with friends who are DIR or is an experiences diver with 300 to 400 dives because I want to stay longer. Oh and what I did to maximize my bottom time, yoga. Seriously, that helps, or take kung ** or taichi and be in shape too.