Got Air?

[newbasuba]

Hi every one. This is my first post. Im a new diver with 20 dives. I just started by advanced open water. First of all i love diving and it the best thing ive ever taken up. Heres my first question, on my last dive during an advanced open water dive my instructor told be that i had to breath more air.
We ended a 20ft average depth dive and he saw that i use 500 psi less then he did on are dive. Just so you now we had the same computer and the same tanks. He told me that i had to be holding my breath to use less air than him.
So what im asking is if you breath to slow is it dangerous?

 

[theskull]

It is dangerous to hold your breath. It is NOT dangerous to breathe slowly--it is the preferred method of diving. Long, slow relaxed breaths in and out are the best way to conserve your air and to remain in a relaxed physical state--both good things.

Air consumption between 2 individuals will vary for many reasons: Physical size, conditioning, VO2 max, lung size, comfort with the cold water, rate of exertion, how much air is "wasted" by adding and dumping from the BC or drysuit, etc. And that is assuming they dive at exactly the same depth for exactly the same amount of itme, which will affect usage at least as much.

Don't worry (if you're not holding your breath), be happy!

theskull

 

[DandyDon]

And welcome to SB. :wavey: Put us in your Favorites and check in often.

I think the instructor was just concerned about your safety, as holding your breath during Scuba is dangerous. Or, maybe s/he was joking?

Yes, you could even suffer problems if you breath too slow, with CO2 buildup, headaches, maybe even passing out - there's the danger, but if you're breathing comfortably, you should be fine. And we'll envy your air rate.

don

 

[H2Andy]

So what im asking is if you breath to slow is it dangerous?

first, there is no simple answer to anything in scuba diving (or so it seems
like). second, take everything anybody says with a grain of salt (because
everybody thinks they're an expert).

that said, the prior answers are very good. i wanna add the following:

the usual pattern for breathing while diving is: inhale, exhale, pause, inhale,
exhale, pause. it's ok to do it slowly. in fact, the more relaxed and at ease you are, the better, and breathing slowly and deeply will help relax you, and will conserve air.

what you don't want to do is (a) hold your breath for any significant period of time or (b) skip breathe (where you take one breath and wait a considerable amount of time to breathe again).

so... to answer your question, yes, it can be dangerous if by slowly you
mean you are holding your breath for more than two or three seconds.

 

[Dwain]

I find that my SAC changes depending on the type of diving I'm doing.

Sometimes I think I do very good. other times I'm nearly ashamed to turn the dive, as I've used more air than my buddy.

Can't figure it out. Other than tropical suit, warm water= air sippage.
Drysuit, cold water=Hoover.

Most likely I'm not as comfortable in cold water.

I'd love for someone to tell me I need to use more air. But it most likely won't happen anytime soon.

Best of luck.,
Dwain

 

[GotAir]

to the Scuba Board!
At first I thought you called my name GotAir. but I see you have a real question LoL. 1st rule in scuba is never ever even think about it! ever never hold your breath!!!. I probably hold the worlds record for blowing thru a AL80 I want to do better but it takes time and training. breath normal work on the fancy stuff later.

Mike

 

[DORSETBOY]

Try and forget about your breathing altogether unless you become panicky, if you concentrate too much on your breathing you'll end up breathing too heavily or no enough.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

first, there is no simple answer to anything in scuba diving (or so it seems like).

There are some simple answers ... "never hold your breath" is one of them.

second, take everything anybody says with a grain of salt (because
everybody thinks they're an expert).

Actually, most of the folks who post here are just trying to be helpful. Some think they're experts. Some really ARE experts. My experience is that people who are knowledgeable will not only tell you what they think, they'll also tell you why.

that said, the prior answers are very good. i wanna add the following:

the usual pattern for breathing while diving is: inhale, exhale, pause, inhale,
exhale, pause. it's ok to do it slowly. in fact, the more relaxed and at ease you are, the better, and breathing slowly and deeply will help relax you, and will conserve air.

Actually, that's backward ... at least according to what I've been taught, and backed up by recent articles in Dive Training and Alert Diver magazines. The recommended method is inhale, pause, exhale. The pause is not a breath-hold ... you keep your epiglottis open and only pause for a second or two. It allows a better exchange of O2 and CO2 prior to the exhale. The reason most divers tend to breathe hard is that improper breathing technique causes a buildup of CO2 in your body, which triggers the urge to take the next breath. As the CO2 builds up it can create a "cascading" effect where a diver feels like they just can't get enough air, regardless of how hard they breathe ... the harder and faster they breathe, the less exchange is actually taking place (they're just expelling out the O2 they're breathing in, since they're not giving the lungs time to make an effective exchange). Allowing a slight pause between inhale and exhale gives your alveoli a better chance to exchange more CO2, which you then expel when you breathe out.

FWIW - pausing after the exhale does not allow for a more effective gas exchange, as your lungs only contain the small amount of gas you didn't exhale (dead air) ... which already contains a high concentration of CO2.

what you don't want to do is (a) hold your breath for any significant period of time or (b) skip breathe (where you take one breath and wait a considerable amount of time to breathe again).

so... to answer your question, yes, it can be dangerous if by slowly you
mean you are holding your breath for more than two or three seconds.

See ... there are some simple answers in scuba diving ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[AzAtty]

He told me that i had to be holding my breath to use less air than him.

I think that you'd know if you were holding your breath, and I'd argue that a new diver is more likely to hyperventilate than to "skip breathe." You might not have been breathing deeply, but that's much different than holding your breath. As noted in the posts above, shallow breathing will catch up to you quickly, and you'll feel the effects of it.

There are other factors that influence individual gas consumption beyond how deeply you breathe. You may be in better shape than your instructor. You might have exerted yourself less underwater than your instructor. You may be different genders. It might be something as simply as your tank had more gas in it at the start of the dive, and the instructor didn't notice--maybe the shop gave you a 3300psi "cold fill" and he got a 3000 hot fill. The instructor may have descended before you did, and may have breathed down his tank while waiting for you on the bottom. As you can see, there are several other possible causes, and the real cause may be a combination of two or three things.

If you're breathing deep and at a reasonable rate (I was taught "five count" breathing--in five, brief pause, out five), you're likely taking care of your body's need for oxygen and CO2 elimination. If that's the case, and you still sip your gas, then your lower gas consumption is caused by something other than incorrect breathing techniques.

 

[DandyDon]

Actually, that's backward ... at least according to what I've been taught, and backed up by recent articles in Dive Training and Alert Diver magazines. The recommended method is inhale, pause, exhale. The pause is not a breath-hold ... you keep your epiglottis open and only pause for a second or two. It allows a better exchange of O2 and CO2 prior to the exhale. The reason most divers tend to breathe hard is that improper breathing technique causes a buildup of CO2 in your body, which triggers the urge to take the next breath. As the CO2 builds up it can create a "cascading" effect where a diver feels like they just can't get enough air, regardless of how hard they breathe ... the harder and faster they breathe, the less exchange is actually taking place (they're just expelling out the O2 they're breathing in, since they're not giving the lungs time to make an effective exchange). Allowing a slight pause between inhale and exhale gives your alveoli a better chance to exchange more CO2, which you then expel when you breathe out.

FWIW - pausing after the exhale does not allow for a more effective gas exchange, as your lungs only contain the small amount of gas you didn't exhale (dead air) ... which already contains a high concentration of CO2.

Bob (Grateful Diver)

THANKS BOB!! I see people get that backwards, and I offer the approach you just did (you did a better job, though). But I missed this one...!

Yes, pausing would almost empty lungs will do no good. Pausing with alsmost full lungs will allow for more of the available O2 to pass thru osmosis.

Except, we drifted off of the topic here. Anyway...

thanks, don