I breathe too much

[happy-diver]

Interesting answers chief, looking a bit hopped up in your latest photo, how are the pain meds goin
Hope you'll be well enough for the potters wheel soon


I started snorkelling as a child, when the lack or knowledge of the sea had me anxious
and I was big, and used to breathe a lot, and wearing only swimmers when something
brushed against my leg I would get the heebie jeebies and shudder and breathe more

And then I got bigger as teenagehood hit me, and a guy Herbie Polzer had some gear
but only one set, but that was ok as he was always drinking, and instead would take us
out on his boat with him fishing and drinking and me learning to dive basic gear no bc

So what made me anxious about that is that Herbie tied a rope around my waist smart
you see Herb was a tennant of my mothers in a block of flats we had by the sea, and if
and if he had lost me he'd be out, and my mother would probably kill me, for what we
guys were doing but she wouldn't really she trusted me, had bought my mask and fins

Anyway I got fitter accustomed, breathing went down but then I was always in with the
ocean pushing me around or I was rushing with breathing up and got bigger tanks and
breathing same with more air now as I gracefully age I don't know what I am breathing

But everyone else seems to want to know


Yeah rope around my waist, but with an approved pull signalling system, firmly in place
that Herbie and I approved


just involved in some stuff at home at the moment, post will be concluded soon thanks
one would hope

 

[The Chairman]

Interesting answers chief, looking a bit hopped up in your latest photo, how are the pain meds goin
Hope you'll be well enough for the potters wheel soon

Surgery this Thursday. At least another month of no diving. Let the rehabilitation begin. It's time to go through my SF2.

 

[scubadada]

Having a reasonable estimate of your gas consumption, RMV, goes a long way in planning your gas requirements for your dives. In turn, that will dictate the cylinder volumes you will choose to meet your dive goals.

 

[NudiBoop]

I'm pushing 80 dives and still working on it. Big guy, so it's never going to be especially low. I rent/bought HP 100s for just this reason. Nothing else to add - buoyancy first.

 

[happy-diver]

And I'm doing a woe is me moaning to myself about having a tooth done this week

Come on man with your influence haven't you traded that thing in for something that breathes, cough, cough

DIFFERENTLY

my SF2

Big guys dive 120s big guy

Big guy

 

[brsnow]

Using AI increased my air consumption, was paying too much attention to the data.

 

[happy-diver]

Is that artificial intelligence, yeah I say dive with your head instead

 

[jellycatsdad]

New diver here - I too was an air hog. Still kinda one. What helped me - RELAX, getting back into yoga(and general fitness pays dividends with scuba), owning my own BCD(I’m a believer in the BPW), getting my weight(as in lead) down, working on kicking and not sculling the water. You’ll get there too. It takes time.

 

[passeparici]

BTW sorry for the metric units but I think/hope you get the idea of what is going on

View attachment 840480

 

[diverdown204]

Welcome to scubaboard.
Believe it or not, thinking about gas consumption increases gas consumption, so stop thinking about it.

With so few dives it is totally normal to have other, much more important issues, that greatly affect your diving overall and as a result your gas consumption too. Some examples: comfort underwater, weighting and trim, equipment (streamlining and familiarity with it), fining techniques, speed/motionless underwater and several others. I would focus on improving these first, rather than counting things like inhalation/exhalation times etc. The factors above are much more important primarily to your safety, then to your comfort and lastly to your gas consumption.

Gas consumption should be the least of your worries right now. If it severely affects your diving, get larger tanks.

I know all these are easier said than done, but keep diving and things will improve over time. To get a rough estimate of the time we are talking about, assuming you dive relatively often and not once in a blue moon, expect anything from 100 to 200 dives (or even more) to get consistent results.

[EDIT]: Just to get an idea, I had a look in my logbook:
I started with yearly average SAC of 21lt/min in 2016 (26 dives). I brought it down to a yearly average of 13lt/min after ~260 dives over 5 years in 2020. Then I started drysuit diving (all previous dives were with wetsuit) and my average SAC increased a bit to about 15lt/min (see the jump in the SAC graph in the attached figure). Now (~150 more dives over the last 4 years) it is approaching an average of 13lt/min again, but now including some drysuit diving. I'm approaching 500 dives in total and my SAC keeps improving (!) while I have never ever measured inhalation/exhalation duration, although at some point I might have to - but not yet.
BTW sorry for the metric units but I think/hope you get the idea of what is going on

View attachment 840480

Thanks for posting some statistics. I’m around the 125 dive mark and am averaging a SAC of about 22. I’m also hoping to get it down quite a bit more. For now, I just bring a bigger tank. My teen divers breathe a lot less than me and I want to stay in the water with them.

Is the graph hand made or from a computer download? Thanks!