Females vs males - rate of air consumption ?

[FreeFloat]

My Buddies and I use the designation Air-pig. but one tip for you to help with air consumption and setting up a decent breathing rythm....breathe in through your mouth (obviously) but exhale through your nose...Smaller pipe. takes a bit longer to exhale then inhale. helps to establish that slow deep breathing pattern. and will help to improve your air consumption rate.

I should start by informing you that I am also a female diver with pretty low air consumption (surprise, surprise) and in fact have been accused by buddies of not breathing at ALL underwater

For a while my SAC rates seemed to have "plateaued" but now they're sliding downwards again as my newbie status is starting to wear off.

Here's something we learned from freediving. When you want to control your breathing while wearing a dive mask, breathing out through your nose isn't really an option. However, remember how on your Open Water they taught you to take a breath through a freshly cleared reg by placing your tongue against the roof of your mouth as a sort of "splash guard"? In freediving, during out "breathe-ups" when we need to control and extend our exhales we'll keep our tongues up on the roofs of our mouths to restrict airflow. This works even through a snorkel or regulator mouthpiece. I started trying this in scuba and not only does it work phenomenally (my SAC rate dropped sharply) but it doesn't knock my buoyancy as much as quicker breathing does, either. So my breathing pattern underwater becomes, normal inhale, loooooooooooooong slow exhale just until I start to sink, then another inhale. Unless, of course, I was deliberately ascending or descending a few feet.

 

[Mako Mark]

I have to agree with Boogie, women need less as they have small lungs and no heart.

 

[FreeFloat]

I have to agree with Boogie, women need less as they have small lungs and no heart.

:rofl:

Coke Alert!

 

[Squashie]

My Buddies and I use the designation Air-pig.

Down here in the South, it's Air-hawg...and in my case it seems very appropriate. But, then again, as the name implies I'm not exactly a little guy (6'5" & 290'ish). Try as I may, I simply use more air than someone smaller...more practice and the breathing pattern gets better and BT increases, but never even gets close to the little girls...they must have gills somewhere?

Anyway...I paid for the air/nitrox, I might as well use it all...

 

[mania]

I've seen the same thing, but i think body size has alot to do with it. I'm very small and don't use much air. I know a male instructor who uses even less than me. Of course, he's not much bigger than me. I also know big guys AND girls who use more air on the same dives. I guess smaller people don't require as much air, or don't have any lung space to put it in.

I would disagree. Besides the fact that women have smaller lungs and breath in a different way air consumption - as it was written before - is a matter of training, way of swimming, level of weights, etc.
My first instructor was 2 meters tall, almost a 100 kilo and still with a single 12 liter tank he could do 2 or 3 dives. But he has been diving for 30 years on everyday basis.
Mania