how did you lower your air use

[jord1990]

Prozac was didn't work for me and after that I don't want to force feed myself some pills again.
You see very little post here about depressed divers. For some reason my depression just kinda moves out of the way. Not entirely it's still a litle war inside to go outside but less then all the other stuff.

 

[Diver0001]

Prozac was didn't work for me and after that I don't want to force feed myself some pills again.
You see very little post here about depressed divers. For some reason my depression just kinda moves out of the way. Not entirely it's still a litle war inside to go outside but less then all the other stuff.

Did you read Mike Bodde's book? If not I'd highly recommend it because it will give you a sense that no matter how badly you're suffering, it can be worse

But seriously, he laid himself out naked for all of us to see and I think for anyone who is depressed, his book puts a human face on it. It left me with enormous respect for the man and a better understanding of what depression does with you. I'd love to meet him some day so I can thank him for writing that book.

As for medication, I'm not a doctor by any stretch of the imagination but I do know that Prozac isn't the only medication. I'm sure your GP will have an opinion about it and given your age I'm sure your GP will think it's normal to be all fk'd up because of the phase of life you're in but do push them for solutions other than "suck it up". Even if it *is* a phase then there are almost certainly ways to take the edge off. (I'm sure your GP will think I'm a uninformed no-good retard for saying it out loud but either way it's true).

R..

---------- Post added October 4th, 2013 at 03:11 AM ----------

Getting back on topic, my air consumption is pretty good for someone my size. I use the same amount of air diving as I do sitting on the couch watching TV. Last November I went diving with our own Lynne (TSandM) and felt quite humbled by her SAC. I haven't met too many divers who I thought were normal sized adults with the air-consumption of dwarf hamsters but Lynne, in addition to all of her other amazing qualities, is certainly one of them.

R..

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I had a buddy once who I swear could fill a tank underwater rather than drain it!
We would both dive wet in 50 degree water, same size tank, same dive profile, similar equipment. I'd come up with 300 psi after an hour thinking I did pretty good, and he'd come up with something rediculous like 1000 or 1100 psi!
I felt like I deprived him of a longer dive but he would say it was no problem, he was ready to come up anyway.
He was nothing special to look at, a little flabby, not in particularly stellar shape by any means, was a smoker at one time and a closet smoker later (I found out). He drank coffee like there was no tomorrow, he was about 6' maybe 210 lbs.

Once, he was on a charter boat and after he was on a dive for almost 2 hours on an AL 80 the captain and crew were just about to call the Coast Guard to report a missing diver (the captain literally had the mic in his hand thinking of what he was going to say) when he came up by the boat.
The crew was relieved and the rest of the divers were pissed!

I consider myself pretty good on air, I work out, I eat right, I don't booze up excessively, I have good dive skills and streamline myself. In other words I try and do everything right and I have never been able to come close to this guy.
So all I can say is you need the air you need at whatever level you are at.
If you need a bigger tank to keep up with you rregular buddies then that's what it is, deal with it.
Meanwhile, just keep improving your trim and skills and comfort level and you'll get as good as you're going to get on air consumption.
Everyone's physiology is different. Some people just use more air but that doesn't mean they are any less of a diver.

 

[supergaijin]

can't really breathe that slow when at depth (really screws your buoyancy up), but just having that mental reference point is quite helpful.

I find the opposite. At around 30m I can breathe much, much slower without changing depth than when during a safety stop.

 

[tracydr]

Yes, I can often get down to 2-3 breathes per min if very quiet. I love doing this while hovering in my pool.

 

[supergaijin]

Hmmm my lungs are huge 5.6 liters.....
I could always have 1 lung surgicaly removed

5.6L for each lung is indeed huge. If you're talking about 'capacity' then 5.6L for both is only slightly above average- in either case I wouldn't be booking a surgical visit any time soon...

 

[corvettejoe]

Most of the above mentioned stuff is good advice.

I would, however, say that we're all different. While you want to get your breathing and heart rate down to a "I'm laying on the couch watching TV" level... not everybody can.
I would say I'm out of shape to some degree...so any effort to do anything increases my heart and breathing rate a bit. It has nothing to do with diving in this case. It's just me.

But if you take most of the above advice, get lots of time in under the water, not be out of shape... you may just get that low SAC rate. I just learned that until I get back in shape, I just breathe heavily when I exert any effort. I just use larger tanks to counter this for now. Once I get in my zen state though, I hardly breathe any air... but it's also knowing too when you're NOT in that zen state and realizing it before you've sucked a tank dry... to take a deep breath, relax, and enjoy....slow and calm.

 

[McGlencoe]

You can lower your gas consumption rate by stopping to worry about it.

I've heard that from a lot of people.

The funny thing is I started relaxing when I moved to a bigger tank..... I love my HP120!

 

[jord1990]

I'm trying to get as much time in the water as I can but winter is coming and people stop diving the center that I use only dives once a week now

 

[TSandM]

I haven't met too many divers who I thought were normal sized adults with the air-consumption of dwarf hamsters but Lynne, in addition to all of her other amazing qualities, is certainly one of them.

And my friend Ben Martinez (Ben M here) who is 6 feet tall, makes me look like an air hog . . .

I really do think that, after the initial drop in air consumption that occurs when diving stops being an overwhelming experience, that all the improvement you can make in gas consumption after that comes from minimizing the amount you move. And it gets into little tiny differences -- for example, I discovered that, when I frog kicked, I stiffened my ankles in the loading phase, which was causing a degree of braking. I got rid of that, and I kick less often for the same swimming speed, so that reduced my gas consumption. In my recent sidemount class with Natalie Gibb, she didn't like how far apart my knees got during the loading phase, so I'm working on correcting that to become even a bit MORE efficient. (Efficiency is a passion for cave divers, because your dive is limited by your gas supply, so if you can get better with that, you get more cave time. ) My instructor, Danny Riordan, is simply the quietest person in the water I've ever seen (I call him "negative space in the water"). He simply doesn't move unless that movement serves a purpose. I think very few of us reach that degree of stillness.

Slow, rhythmic breathing is important, but it almost COMES with that degree of ability to be motionless. I mean, if you aren't kicking or moving your hands, and you're panting like a dog, you'll notice it.

BTW, lung size has nothing to do with gas consumption, except that larger lungs are generally found in larger people, and more body mass usually means more CO2 production and a higher respiratory minute volume. I don't know where the idea that big lungs make for gas hogs came from, but it's completely spurious.