How to reduce air use?

[diver_paula]

It's club policy to mark down ending air pressure on the clipboard along with time up, bottom time, etc. The reasoning being that if there is an emergency it's easily known which tank(s) has the most gas left.

Paula
(One of those heartless, hardly uses any air, female divers!)

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

This is one of my biggest pet peeves, I used to dive with another DM who would check at the end of every dive, "How much air do you have left? I came back with XXX psi."

Hmmm ... never realized it bugged you, Chris. But I do it pretty much for the same reasons as others have noted. It's just a habit I got into learning how to keep mental track of my buddy's air consumption rate ... and assuming they'd want to do the same in return.

It's not a contest,

I agree ... there's very little margin for taking chances in diving, and by it's nature that's what happens when people start turning any aspect of the sport into a contest. I stopped diving with someone I used to dive with regularly when I realized he was making it one.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[rufous]

Uncle Pug, I see that some of you think it is a bad idea to inflate the b/c orally, rather than from the valve tied to the tank as that would necessitate removing the regulator from my mouth. Please enlighten me as to why that would be bad practice. It did seem to be a means of conserving air. I am trying to learn to dive more efficiently and safely. Brian.

 

[gj62]

Uncle Pug, I see that some of you think it is a bad idea to inflate the b/c orally, rather than from the valve tied to the tank as that would necessitate removing the regulator from my mouth. Please enlighten me as to why that would be bad practice. It did seem to be a means of conserving air. I am trying to learn to dive more efficiently and safely. Brian.

Your reg is what you breath with, taking it out should be avoided if possible.

With proper trim/bouyancy control, the amount of air you have to put into your BC over the course of a dive won't amount to any appreciable use of your air...

 

[Mako Mark]

I see that some of you think it is a bad idea to inflate the b/c orally, rather than from the valve tied to the tank.

There is the question about removing the reg, and I know that every diver masters this skill in their open water course, but in reality, how much air are you saving???

It takes three breaths to adjust the bouyancy of a bcd. If you do it orally, you only save yourself THREE BREATHS.

Who are we kidding here.

The increase in stress levels (and therefore respiration rate)by doing it orally would far outweigh the minimal saving.

 

[gj62]

Plus, remember that unless you have air left when you orally inflate, you'll have to hit the purge button when you put the reg back in your mouth...

Again, the air consumption issue surrounding putting air in your BC comes from the fact that if you have to inflate/deflate your BC on a regular basis, you do not have good trim/bouyancy control, which forces you to work harder, which consumes more air. The actual air into the BC is negligible.

 

[rufous]

I am catching on about the method of b/c inflation. Thanks, Brian.

 

[divebomb]

During a weeklong trip in Curacao, I went from 16#s and sucking like a vaccum down to 10#s. I had know idea what weight I needed because it was my first salt water dive. I was fiddle farting with my inflator constantly because of the weight. I was also fighting to swim back down to depth because I had too much air in the BC or I had too little and then would swim up. STUPID. Get your weight right, make one adustment when you get down to depth, then just be lazy as possible.

At the start of the week I was getting to my turnaround point WAY too early. By the middle of the week I had as much or more than others by the end of the dive.

Good luck,

Beck

 

[divebomb]

Rufous,

I understand the advice about not orally inflating underwater, but I did start doing that before starting my dive. It probably doesn't save much air, but it saves some.

Beck

 

[simbrooks]

Rufous,

I understand the advice about not orally inflating underwater, but I did start doing that before starting my dive. It probably doesn't save much air, but it saves some.

Beck

I cant see it saving you that much air, but it is a skill that occasionally you could practice in case you have a problem with your auto inflator and have to pull the LP hose off of it and such. I do puff mine up orally on the surface, dont really know why, again, its about 0.5cuft (at surface) to fully inflate a 32# wing, hardly going to notice that and hardly ever need that much air in the wing anyway, just on the surface prior to and after the dive has ended.