OP
Wheeler925
Contributor
A little bit, sometimes. Definitely has improved
How long for air consumption to improve?
- Thread starter Wheeler925
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Sure Squintsalot
Contributor
I find that if you fold your arms, maintain perfect buoyancy, and frog kick once every 12 minutes, your air consumption will improve.
Oh... and smoking two packs a day seems to help too.
Oh... and smoking two packs a day seems to help too.
Move weights around until you achieve horizontal balance without having to fin or scull. Close your eyes for 10, 20, 30, and even 60 seconds as you dial it in.
Reefy
Registered
Excessive motion leads to excessive energy expenditure, which requires a higher consumption rate. The more you can refine your buoyancy by improving trim and stability, the quicker you'll start to see an improvement in air consumption, because you'll be able to reduce any unnecessary movement. Using a less strenuous finning motion, such as the frog kick, will also help with this.
flushbad
Registered
I'm a bigger dude, 220lbs 6' 2" with a resting HR in the 60s, athletic, used to swim competitively in my youth.
I like to breathe deeply above water ..... and under water
- I still drain my air much faster than my friends who are not as athletic. If I surface with 500, they are at 1000 or more. I'm just happy to make it to 60 mins dive time.
Get Nitrox certified too, switch to bigger tank or use Nitrox always to help with your longevity. Watch how more experienced divers move, especially your DM.
But if you dart left and right constantly to look at things, take photos, you will run out of air much much faster - you might as well just switch to a larger tank for this kind of activity.
I like to breathe deeply above water ..... and under water
- I still drain my air much faster than my friends who are not as athletic. If I surface with 500, they are at 1000 or more. I'm just happy to make it to 60 mins dive time.Get Nitrox certified too, switch to bigger tank or use Nitrox always to help with your longevity. Watch how more experienced divers move, especially your DM.
But if you dart left and right constantly to look at things, take photos, you will run out of air much much faster - you might as well just switch to a larger tank for this kind of activity.
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Hi @Wheeler925
A lot of good advice, some incorrect, nitrox does not improve gas consumption.
Buoyancy, trim, propulsion, relaxation, breathing... You've probably seen this thread, long, but much good information.
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A lot of good advice, some incorrect, nitrox does not improve gas consumption.
Buoyancy, trim, propulsion, relaxation, breathing... You've probably seen this thread, long, but much good information.
Average Gas Consumption
There has been extensive discussion lately regarding average gas consumption. A poll may help give us a better idea of what the normal distribution of RMVs is. 1 cu ft = 28.32 liters 1 liter = 0.035 cu ft 28.3 l/min
OP, as a fellow rookie I feel your pain. My first two OW dives were in the range you describe. Our instructor (super skilled tech diver) told me it takes about 10 dives to start to get the hang of it. I'm dumber than the average bearded toadfish: at dive 10 there wasn't a whole lot of improvement.
After considerably more practice and little improvement, I was hoping the PADI Peak Performance Buoyancy course would help with my gas consumption. It definitely improved (tremendously) my buoyancy and trim. And my gas consumption got WORSE!
Looking at my logs from that trip (my most recent), I noticed something interesting. The dive that had the absolute best gas consumption, far far better than my average, was my AOW Fish Identification dive (I'm a dedicated Warm Water, Pretty Fish diver which is why I chose that particular specialty as part of my AOW). Gas consumption on that dive was a shocking 0.48 cu.ft/min at surface. I am 99% convinced that the reason is because my brain was actively focused on identifying all the pretty fishies in the water - not even using a camera as I usually do so that my non-diving spouse can later see some of what I saw - and all the excellent PPB training that I received just kicked in automatically without my even thinking about it. It was also one of my absolute favorite dives ever.
Others have said it here elsewhere on SB and I am fully convinced from my own (limited) experience it is absolutely true - the more you think about your gas consumption during a dive, the worse it will be.
And sometimes life is just not fair. My usual dive buddy (a relative by marriage, not blood) has a gas consumption rate just slightly north of zero. I am not kidding - this despicable person with the exact same amount of training and experience as I have, needs more lead than I do and is usually at least one if not two metres deeper than I am for most of a dive uses about as much gas as our instructors with thousands of dives in their logs. It doesn't matter what I do, she will always come back to the surface with more gas than I have (assuming we start from the same size and type of tank).
Also, at the end of the day, from one perspective it doesn't matter how much I improve my gas consumption, it will alwasy be too high. Every dive that I do will always be too short, whether the limiting factor is gas consumption, NDL, the amount of time we have been underwater due to boat scheduling, or something else.
Many of the posts from very experienced divers here on SB say essentially the same thing - just be patient, it will improve with time. Mine has. The last five dives from that trip averaged 0.53 (of course that includes the anomalous Fish ID dive) . Not enough to move the needle very far on my average yet, but I'm currently going in the right direction. You will too. Just keep at it, and try to enjoy every single minute you are able to spend underwater.
After considerably more practice and little improvement, I was hoping the PADI Peak Performance Buoyancy course would help with my gas consumption. It definitely improved (tremendously) my buoyancy and trim. And my gas consumption got WORSE!
Looking at my logs from that trip (my most recent), I noticed something interesting. The dive that had the absolute best gas consumption, far far better than my average, was my AOW Fish Identification dive (I'm a dedicated Warm Water, Pretty Fish diver which is why I chose that particular specialty as part of my AOW
). Gas consumption on that dive was a shocking 0.48 cu.ft/min at surface. I am 99% convinced that the reason is because my brain was actively focused on identifying all the pretty fishies in the water - not even using a camera as I usually do so that my non-diving spouse can later see some of what I saw - and all the excellent PPB training that I received just kicked in automatically without my even thinking about it. It was also one of my absolute favorite dives ever.Others have said it here elsewhere on SB and I am fully convinced from my own (limited) experience it is absolutely true - the more you think about your gas consumption during a dive, the worse it will be.
And sometimes life is just not fair. My usual dive buddy (a relative by marriage, not blood) has a gas consumption rate just slightly north of zero. I am not kidding - this despicable person with the exact same amount of training and experience as I have, needs more lead than I do and is usually at least one if not two metres deeper than I am for most of a dive uses about as much gas as our instructors with thousands of dives in their logs. It doesn't matter what I do, she will always come back to the surface with more gas than I have (assuming we start from the same size and type of tank).
Also, at the end of the day, from one perspective it doesn't matter how much I improve my gas consumption, it will alwasy be too high. Every dive that I do will always be too short, whether the limiting factor is gas consumption, NDL, the amount of time we have been underwater due to boat scheduling, or something else.
Many of the posts from very experienced divers here on SB say essentially the same thing - just be patient, it will improve with time. Mine has. The last five dives from that trip averaged 0.53 (of course that includes the anomalous Fish ID dive
) . Not enough to move the needle very far on my average yet, but I'm currently going in the right direction. You will too. Just keep at it, and try to enjoy every single minute you are able to spend underwater.
OP
Wheeler925
Contributor
I think that is what prompted my thread. Been diving with someone who I'm convinced actually has gills. A ton more experience than me, but they go deeper than me and are coming up with a half tank when they're with me.
Nothing kills my confidence faster than asking literally anyone else on the boat how much gas they have left in their tank after the dive
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