How do you breathe under water? Any Advice?

[Interceptor121]

Yep how did you know. If I stay perfectly still I seem to sink. Maybe I'm just over weighted. Duh I might have figured out some of my problem. :loopy:

So if I'm a little over weighted then I need to maybe take off a few pounds. Currently like time I dove a few weeks ago I had a full 3mm suit with gloves, and used 12 lbs. I also got a new dive light that most likely weighs 1lb. So maybe I need to drop down to 10 lbs and see how that goes. I'm just nervous that if I don't have enough weight I will either go to the service or can't stop for a safety stop.

That does not mean you are overweighted but surely you need to inflate your BCD and stop finning otherwise you use your energy and hence you air just to stay put
On your next dive come out with 50 bar (I believe 750 psi) or purge the reg until you have 50 bar after surfacing, then do a buoyancy check and make sure you are not finning. Deflate the BCD holding a normal breath and see if you see the water at eye level and can descend if exhaling. Only this will tell you if are too heavy
At depth the compression of your wetsuit as well as the fact that you have a full tank may require a lift of 3+ kg to stay level so don't assume that you will be neutral with an empty jacket.

 

[SDiverJim]

You and I are at about the same experience level. I noticed I was usually the first one low on air thus the first to bring my buddy and I up. I was told by 2 instructors (as teamcasa stated) 4 in 5 out. In the beginning it was recommended to mentally count as well. It was also recommended to humm on exhale (as Scubasam commented) I have noted an improvement since following these techniques. Funny anecdote::: On my last dive one of the divers in our group commented he used air faster than anyone else so he purchased large tanks (120's I believe) I don't think that's a good answer though.

 

[Jang]

Having taken part in DMC internships with OW students. I am asked the same questions as the OP. The best piece of advice that many have already mentioned is proper weighting. Proper weighting means less futzing around with maintaining position and ineffective swim. Less futzing around means a more relaxed diver.

When slowly inhaling, you will start to rise but it won't happen instantly, by the time you begin to rise, you are exhaling, as you begin to fall you will be inhaling again. Maybe that's hard to explain but it is all about the momentum.

As Teamcasa mentions, bouyancy shifts due to lung volume change are slow to react...remember your fin-pivot exercises. The idea I have to remind students (of course, after the instructor has gone over the skill) is to realize that you need to exhale while you are rising, nearing the peak and inhale on the down stroke, but never at the extreme end points. Done properly, while hovering you should be able to maintain position while breathing normally.

was to slowly hum, yes, it's not a typo, hum into my regulator when I exhale. It relaxes me and and also extends my exhales.

This is also one that seems to elude new OW students. There is a reason that humming will control your exhalation. By humming you are forcing air over the larynx in a controlled manner and not just blowing out your mouth.

 

[TSandM]

lespaulf, here are TWO LINKS that will help you understand the idea of moving weight around to stop having your legs sink. The basic idea is that, since you're floating in the water with nothing holding you in place, you will rotate until you have balanced the stuff that sinks under the stuff that floats. If you put a lot of weight on a belt, and your lift is all in your BC, you will rotate until you're vertical. If you move the weight up your body so that it's sitting over the lift, you won't.

You can balance virtually any gear setup, but some are easier than others. If the BC has pockets up by your shoulders into which you can put weight, it makes it simple. If it doesn't, you have to figure out how to affix weight to the rig where you need it to be. You can move the tank up, you can hang weights onto the cambands (the straps that hold the tank in place) using purchased weight pockets from somebody like XS Scuba. You can use ankle or tank weights wrapped around the tank stem. Or you can switch to a BC that moves weight up onto your back, which is what the stainless steel plate of a backplate setup does. (Sometimes you need to do all of those things!)

With respect to the breathing, Rich Murchison wrote a lovely essay on why neutral buoyancy is a myth.

Just to add that the fact that you sink when you stop swimming DOESN'T mean you are overweighted. It means you are negative, which is related to what I said above -- if you are tilted feet down, you HAVE to be negative in order not to kick yourself back to the surface. You can be overweighted and neutral (or positive); tech divers routinely descend more than ten pounds negative, but we manage to get neutral anyway

 

[mdb]

I'm sure you will get a lot of detailed advice from the duty experts.

It might just be best to dive a lot with someone more experienced.

You have good questions and you are seeking answers early on.

You'll do fine. Enjoy your diving.

 

[lespaulsf]

You and I are at about the same experience level. I noticed I was usually the first one low on air thus the first to bring my buddy and I up. I was told by 2 instructors (as teamcasa stated) 4 in 5 out. In the beginning it was recommended to mentally count as well. It was also recommended to humm on exhale (as Scubasam commented) I have noted an improvement since following these techniques. Funny anecdote::: On my last dive one of the divers in our group commented he used air faster than anyone else so he purchased large tanks (120's I believe) I don't think that's a good answer though.

Thanks EyeDoc Jim I appreciate the encouragement from a new diver like myself. I will be diving this weekend so I will try the 4:5 breathing pattern. I will also try and drop a few lbs of weight.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Bob, this is the advice I always hear. But then I also hear that you need to use your breath to control buoyancy. If you are just breathing the way you suggest, not only does this seem to shy away from using your breathe to control buoyancy (if you are taking in air for 4 seconds then letting it out for 8 seconds, this is fairly mechanical and not using your breathe strategically), but also intaking this much air gives a fair bit of variation to your bouyancy.

So my question is:
a.) How are you supposed to maintain neutral buoyancy and breathe 'correctly' when your lungs are constantly altering your bouyancy?
b.) How can you control bouyancy with breath, when the general "rule" is to always breathe deep and exhale slowly?

I always see these two issues discussed apart and never together, and it seems like they contradict each other. Thanks!

Those are good, logical questions and the answer is simply that water is very dense, and it's not just the overall change in buoyancy that will cause you to move up or down over a short time period, but also the rate of change. Rapid breathing causes rapid changes. Slow breathing causes slower changes. The density of the water acts as a "damper". Each time you breathe in you will slowly start to rise. But by the time this occurs, you are starting to breathe out ... which will slowly cause you to start to sink. The ultimate result ... because the rate of change is small ... is that you will essentially remain in the same place.

When you get to the point where you are controlling your buoyancy with breathing, what you're trying to do is use the midpoint of your lung capacity as the "fulcrum" point. To rise you breathe off the "top" of your lungs ... meaning you momentarily retain some air in your lungs as you breathe out. To sink you breathe off the bottom ... meaning you don't completely fill your lungs as you breathe in. In this case, what you are doing is "moving the fulcrum" to achieve a net positive or negative buoyancy state.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[ScubaSam]

must...resist...sexist...comments *runs away from sam(antha?)*

Coin it then! mwahahhaha~!
<snip>

I'm running after you!!!

<snip>
This is also one that seems to elude new OW students. There is a reason that humming will control your exhalation. By humming you are forcing air over the larynx in a controlled manner and not just blowing out your mouth.

Yes, exactly, very eloquently put.

Btw, the humming works regardless of whether you're tone-deaf or not.

 

[lespaulsf]

lespaulf, here are TWO LINKS that will help you understand the idea of moving weight around to stop having your legs sink.

The basic idea is that, since you're floating in the water with nothing holding you in place, you will rotate until you have balanced the stuff that sinks under the stuff that floats. If you put a lot of weight on a belt, and your lift is all in your BC, you will rotate until you're vertical. If you move the weight up your body so that it's sitting over the lift, you won't.

Thanks for the links very helpful. The diagrams help me to understand why having trim weights up above my shoulders would help me get more horizontal. Some times pictures are worth more than words.

 

[Ninja Diver]

This may sound "silly" but as one person suggested, get comfortable. A GREAT way to get comfortable is to distract yourself. Play games underwater, tic tack toe, water games etc. etc.
After a while you'll notice that your breathing has gotten "normal" because your not paying as much attention to it.