How to reduce air use?

[H2Andy]

yes, excellent advice here.

slow down, relax, don't use your hands, don't be in a hurry.

once you have this down, think about how you are breathing. slow down
your breathing, pause after you inhale (but keep your airway open; don't hold
your breath), so that your breathing patter is : inhale, pause, exhale, inhale, pause.

and don't be afraid to admit you need more air than others. lots of things affect
this, size, gender, metabolism, the phases of Pluto (not really).

welcome aboard!

 

[rufous]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I am in good cardiovascular shape. My wife is in poor shape and yet her air lasted longer. I was certainly calm and relaxed on the dives but perhaps I was zooming here and there too much checking everything out instead of gently following the divemaster?

Seuss, please explain more what you mean by "The divemaster explained to me that there is a difference between holding my breath and not breathing. Once I started taking deep breaths, and allowing a bit more time for oxygen exchange, things really started to improve."

Also what is a rebreather and how do they work? Rufous

 

[gj62]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I am in good cardiovascular shape. My wife is in poor shape and yet her air lasted longer. I was certainly calm and relaxed on the dives but perhaps I was zooming here and there too much checking everything out instead of gently following the divemaster?

Seuss, please explain more what you mean by "The divemaster explained to me that there is a difference between holding my breath and not breathing. Once I started taking deep breaths, and allowing a bit more time for oxygen exchange, things really started to improve."

Also what is a rebreather and how do they work? Rufous

Can I ask how big you are? Larger people require more air (generally).

Certainly, zooming around would be a big cause of increased air consumption.

If you breath deep and pause (with your airway open), then exhale slowly, you allow more O2 to exchange in your lungs. You can tell if you are holding your breath if you can't exhale gently. This is something you can do right now (no need to get in the water).

 

[H2Andy]

"My wife is in poor shape and yet her air lasted longer"

them wimmens will beat you at air consumption any time. smaller lungs, less
muscle...

oh the agony...

a rebreather is a unit that recycles air (sort of like a closed-
circuit scuba unit). a computer keeps the O2 levels healthy
by monitoring 02 content and injecting 02 as needed.

 

[rufous]

I weigh 205 and my wife weighs 250#. She probably does have smaller lungs though and definately less muscle. I will try to breathe in the fashion described next time in the water. Rufous.

 

[christopher1260]

This may seem obvious but... when adding air to your bcd, use the oral inflator rather than the power inflator. This will allow you to fill your bcd with "waste" air rather than air that still has a higher concentration of oxygen. I just got back from a liveaboard trip and I saw tons of people just adding and dumping good air, then wondering why they were the first ones back on the boat.

 

[rufous]

Chris, great tip. Thanks, Brian.

This may seem obvious but... when adding air to your bcd, use the oral inflator rather than the power inflator. This will allow you to fill your bcd with "waste" air rather than air that still has a higher concentration of oxygen. I just got back from a liveaboard trip and I saw tons of people just adding and dumping good air, then wondering why they were the first ones back on the boat.

 

[Uncle Pug]

Sorry to have to disagree with you christopher but taking your regulator out of your mouth to blow air into your wing is a bad idea on several levels.

Adding and dumping air chasing neutral buoyancy is a problem but exhaling into your BC is not the solution.

 

[Mako Mark]

Listen to your breathing, when you hear steam train like noises, it is time to slow you breathing down as you are just wasting air.

I have found that the highest level of air management comes fron not allowing your exertion level control your breathing.

Your breathing should be constant, and your exertion level should vary in order to maintain a constant slow breathing rate.

One last bit of advice, is dont sweat it. Little japanese girls dont use much air, big alaskan lumberjacks use more we are all different.

Many divers, particularly new divemasters and instructors compete with eachother and themselves to see how low they can get their air consumption.

This has some serious effects on the body due to C02 build up, the least of which is a splitting headache the worst of which can be unconciousness/Death/DCS etc, and for what?? so you can come up with a half full tank of air? Every divestore I have ever worked for charges the same for filling a half full tank as a nearly empty tank.

 

[rufous]

Cancun Mark, to say it costs the same to refill an empty tank as it does a half full tank is not the issue. If I want to dive on my vacations and spend $2000 for my wife and I to dive for a week (travel, food, lodging, diving) and our dives are half or two-thirds as long as they could be that is shortchanging both of us. Brian.