I just can't breathe right!

[divenut2001]

You really should think about getting your own gear. But if that's not feasable right now then rent something that fits better. If you're inflating your BC half full just so it fits then that's where alot of your air is going. That will also cause you to use more weight that you don't need which will cause drag and upset trim.

You also need to check for leaks, especially in rental gear but with your own gear too.

Lastly, just relax and enjoy the dive. Keep an eye on your guages...

 

[Ann Marie]

I completely agree with Diver Paula!

Relax and have some fun. Watch your gauges but don't worry about your air consumption, it will come with experience.

Try and figure out how much air you use in a five minute span at about 30 feet. Add 500 to that amount. Use that total as the psi amount for when you should start your ascent. You then should have plent of air for a safe ascent, a safety stop, and a little extra should you need it and still arrive back at the boat with the requested 500psi. Better to ascend off a line and have to do a surface swim then to run out of air during a safety stop on an ascent line.

 

[hecker-the-wrecker]

One thing that worked for me; When you first descend and get to depth, grab the line with both hands and close your eyes. Listen to yourself breathe. Keep your eyes closed and hang out for a minute or so. For me it seems to relieve some sort of "breathing anxiety" (you might want to tell your group your going to try this) Usually when I open my eyes and continue my dive, I forget about my breathing pattern, it seems to be more regular. Also about 50 practice dives helped (a little)

 

[Dean810]

I dove the Spiegel Grove last week for the first time myself and noticed it is a completly different experience than shallow diving. That's probably why you had trouble. You not only have depth there, but you are also fighting a current that can be the dickens to deal with. Both factors along with the stress they produce, will affect your air consumption. You need to allow extra air for emergencies as well. For instance, at my 15 ft. safety stop, I actually got pulled off the mooring line by the current. I had to fight like hell to get back to the line, using up precious air in the process. I ended up with 500 lbs when I got on the boat, but in my humble opinion it should have been much more. Unfortunately that makes for a short dive which is a shame, because the Spiegal is a great dive.

Yeah, breathing comes with experience. I am much better this year than last. Being able to dive relaxed is a big factor, and that comes with experience too. A short article in Scuba Diving magazine mentioned that deep breaths conserve air the best. You might notice when you dive in unfamiliar conditions or when you are stressed, your breaths are shorter and faster. Kind of a natural response. Don't worry about it, it can only get better!

I missed a dive this weekend because I ran out of air on the previous dive. I know, I know its my fault for not monitoring close enough and probably working a little to hard for my breathing to keep up with. Story in a second but Ive noticed I sometimes have trouble conserving air even in shallow water. Ive been experimenting to try to find the right breathing method to conserve air better. However, I still have some dives last in less than 30ft last 40minutes or less because Im getting low on air. I would appreciate some advice on things to try or way I can practice slowing my breathing down so I can stay down longer.

So I know some people are going ot respond and chew me out for this next story but I would like to learn from this incident and Im sure someone reading this probably has some good advice. Yesterday I dove the Speigel down off Key Largo, dive report in Fl Conch divers forum. I was tagging along with an instructor and two students as I didnt bring a buddy. Everything went as planned until the end. We descended maxing out at 80ft. We swam along the wreck slowly ascending and descending until we got up to about 50ft. We swam away from the bouy line until our tanks read 1500lbs. No problems yet. We started back at the same pace and check my gauge at 1200lbs and this is when the DM had said you should see the bouy line. Vis was about 50ft and I didnt see it. We kept moving in the same direction and shortly thereafter the instructor, my buddy, asked about my air. Well I had only 500lbs left. They want you back in the boat with around 500lbs for saftey reasons, that makes good sense to me. Well we started swimming faster the instructor had the other speed it up as well. When we started up the line I had 200-300lbs of air left. Once we hit 15ft the instructor grabbed my BC and we waited the 3 minutes. I ran out of air after 2 min and we shared hers for the remaining minute. Apart from some awkwardness at the surface that ended the dive. For saftey reasons I was asked to sit the next dive. Which was fine I understand why.

Now I know I should have monitored my air closer, especially toward the end. On the six dives following that one I hit the deck of the boat with min 500lbs every time. however, sometimes it took 50 min and other times 40 minutes. I probably should have communicated my air at 1200lbs and watched much closer after that. I understand buddy breathing is a rescue skill and shouldnt be used to extend dive time.

I am asking for some intelligent advice on how I can improve my breathing skills. Anyone?

 

[Shrew]

I have only 15 dives under my belt since my certification: Since I'm in the same boat w/ you regarding my air consumption I'll relate my thoughts.

First a bit of backround. My first post certification dive was 8 months following ow class. maximum depth was 70 ft for 5 minutes. 50 ft for 15 minutes and 40 ft for 20 minutes. I hit 500 psi at this point when my gf still had 1600 psi or so...

during this dive I knew I didn't feel relaxed and was suckin through my air.

Throughout the remainder of our 11 dives on the trip I paid attention to my comfort level, bouyancy, engery exertion, etc...and was able to dramatically improve my air consumption by our last dive.

1. I noticed that my decents were using up too much air. As a new diver I was working too hard to get to the bottom. I focused on proper weighting, removing all air from my bc, and minimal movement when decending. I also made sure when we were surfaced pre dive I wasn't exerting non needed energy, but rather just sat there in my deflated bcd. Within about 5 dives I was able to make it to the bottom w/o noticing a change to my psi...this alone was a huge help b/c I was now starting my dive w/ 500 extra psi that had previously been wasted.

2. We are strict about our buddy system, but I did keep a slightly higher profile thatn my partner, and we both together kept a slightly higher profile than our dm and the other divers. Initially I felt bad about shortening the dive, but maintaining a higher profile helped extend my bottom time comparatively w/ the rest of the divers.

3. Before we left for our trip i spent a lot of time on the boards. One thing that stuck into my mind was the excessive movement that new divers do w/o realization. This goes hand in hand w/ weighting and bouyancy and comfort. I aimed at finding a comfort level of floating. Being still dramatically slowed down my breathing. the less I kicked, the less I moved and turned, the less I breathed.

I could only work my anxiety out by gaining more experience. This was a huge factor in learning better breathing. We had plenty of opportunities in our diving to hover slowly over the reef w/o having to follow the leader. I took these opportunities to lie completely still w/ the occassional flutter of my fins to relax myself. The relaxation always came b/c what can possibly be more relaxing than floating ontop of a reef. Once I was completely relaxed and comfortable it was easy for me to maintain the inner feeling throughout the dive. It's always the initial excitement of getting in the water, descending, and then immediately following the leader that makes it hard to slow down.

In summary, my three points are:
1. get comfortable w/ decent so you don't waste your air getting down.
2. keep a slightly higher profile in the mean time to work out the kinks
3. work out the kinks by maintining a calm comfort level w/ bouyancy so you're not constantly kicking and moving.
4. when starting out the dive, try to keep relaxed and move slow. Don't be in a rush to get the equipment on, get down, and follow the leader. Try taking the initial anxiousness out of the picture to start your dive.

By the time we got to our last dives on the trip I was on par w/ everyone else regarding air. I was no longer keeping a higher profile.

A disturbing note on our last dive. We went w/ a group of 8 w/ 1 dm. My buddy and I had the 3'rd and 4'th most dives under our belt w/ in the group. Our max depth was 45 feet. We did a lazy swim around and my buddy and I quickly decided to stay at the end of the pack b/c the newer divers seemed completely uncomfortable under water and we didn't want to be in the middle of them if anything happened b/c you could tell their reaction to something happening wouldn't be calm.

Immediately I noticed that my buddy and I were incredibly more calm and relaxed under water. We barely exerted any energy while the others were kicking away like crazy. A quick swim through was chosen by the dm for which my gf and I swam over b/c we didn't want to trail the others through it. The kick up was ridiculous. Long story short, I hadn't noticed why our dive ended w/ still 1400 psi but my gf did. One of the girls in the group ran out of air and was breathing her buddy's octo for the last 15 minutes of the dive. Appearently the dm hadn't noticed.

This dive had various elements of danger, but we felt comfortable b/c we were diving in a comfortable level of 45 ft w/ a good budy system.

 

[Air Pig's Mate]

At least your not called Air Pig, AP uses a 125cyl I use a 100cyl and the third uses a 95cyl we all come out on the same amount of air, 50 bar. slow down look araund have fun you don't need to swim a marathon.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I missed a dive this weekend because I ran out of air on the previous dive. I know, I know its my fault for not monitoring close enough and probably working a little to hard for my breathing to keep up with. Story in a second but Ive noticed I sometimes have trouble conserving air even in shallow water. Ive been experimenting to try to find the right breathing method to conserve air better. However, I still have some dives last in less than 30ft last 40minutes or less because Im getting low on air. I would appreciate some advice on things to try or way I can practice slowing my breathing down so I can stay down longer.

So I know some people are going ot respond and chew me out for this next story but I would like to learn from this incident and Im sure someone reading this probably has some good advice. Yesterday I dove the Speigel down off Key Largo, dive report in Fl Conch divers forum. I was tagging along with an instructor and two students as I didnt bring a buddy. Everything went as planned until the end. We descended maxing out at 80ft. We swam along the wreck slowly ascending and descending until we got up to about 50ft. We swam away from the bouy line until our tanks read 1500lbs. No problems yet. We started back at the same pace and check my gauge at 1200lbs and this is when the DM had said you should see the bouy line. Vis was about 50ft and I didnt see it. We kept moving in the same direction and shortly thereafter the instructor, my buddy, asked about my air. Well I had only 500lbs left. They want you back in the boat with around 500lbs for saftey reasons, that makes good sense to me. Well we started swimming faster the instructor had the other speed it up as well. When we started up the line I had 200-300lbs of air left. Once we hit 15ft the instructor grabbed my BC and we waited the 3 minutes. I ran out of air after 2 min and we shared hers for the remaining minute. Apart from some awkwardness at the surface that ended the dive. For saftey reasons I was asked to sit the next dive. Which was fine I understand why.

Now I know I should have monitored my air closer, especially toward the end. On the six dives following that one I hit the deck of the boat with min 500lbs every time. however, sometimes it took 50 min and other times 40 minutes. I probably should have communicated my air at 1200lbs and watched much closer after that. I understand buddy breathing is a rescue skill and shouldnt be used to extend dive time.

I am asking for some intelligent advice on how I can improve my breathing skills. Anyone?

Two major contributing factors here ... neither of which is due to breathing ...

1. Poor planning ...

We swam away from the bouy line until our tanks read 1500lbs.

You were using a high-pressure cylinder, and said you started at 3,500 psi. That means you used 2,000 psi while swimming away from the buoy line. Guess how much you should plan to use getting back? Turn pressure is determined by your dive route and starting pressure ... not some number assigned by a DM. The simplest formula to use is to subtract 500 psi (your reserve) from your starting pressure, and divide by two. That would've told you to turn around at 2,000 psi.

2. Improper response to the situation ...

Well we started swimming faster the instructor had the other speed it up as well.

In fact, while "speeding it up" may seem logical, it will only cause you to use your air even faster ... because the exertion causes you to breathe even harder. You will actually cover the same distance using less air if you go at a relaxed pace and breathe normally. If this happens again (and I hope it doesn't), don't "speed up" ... focus instead on relaxing and breathing. Your air will last much longer if you proceed at a relaxed pace, rather than "speeding it up".

As to breathing technique, the key is to relax. Breathe deeply and slowly ... full inhale should take about 3 seconds ... full exhale should take about 5 seconds ... there should be a slight pause between inhale and exhale to allow for proper exchange of O2 and CO2.

Do a search for "breathing technique" ... we've had several very good discussions on the subject over the past year or so. More importantly, make it a priority to learn something about air management ... also search for "turn pressure" and "rock bottom". These concepts will help you understand when it is appropriate to turn your dive. Never rely on someone else to tell you when it is time start making your way back to the ascent line.

It's not uncommon for newer divers to find themselves in this situation ... use it as an incentive to educate yourself on some important topics that were not covered in your Open Water class. Then you can control your own dive, and prevent it from happening again ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[auberg]

If I may turn this thread for a sec. I'm taking my classes right now and a have been reading this board for about 2 months now, with that said, (and this is a newbie question) wouldn't it have been better for this person who was low on air to do a controlled ascent immediately, with some air left, and switched to their snorkel on the surface, for the swim back to the line?

I don't mean to hijack the thread, It just got me thinking what I think I would do.

 

[ScubaMarine]

If I may turn this thread for a sec. I'm taking my classes right now and a have been reading this board for about 2 months now, with that said, (and this is a newbie question) wouldn't it have been better for this person who was low on air to do a controlled ascent immediately, with some air left, and switched to their snorkel on the surface, for the swim back to the line?

I don't mean to hijack the thread, It just got me thinking what I think I would do.

May have been a better option? We were told to come up on a line. I recall more current in the water column and at the surface than on the wreck. If you do a controlled ascent from 80ft and a normal saftey stop and your not on a line, there is a potential for the current to really put you far from the boat. It wouldnt be just and easy snorkel back. Also assume I come up with a buddy and leave two divers down, by the time I come up the boat may not be able to locate me and they have to wait for the other divers before coming to pick me up.

Im sure its happend before, but I also think there are better methods. Also the best method, better planning and monitoring of my air.

 

[Charlie99]

And SHARE AIR, if not during the swim back to the line, then at least during your ascent. You started going up the line with just 200-300psi. Your buddies had lots of air left. There's no reason to run your tank dry.