I'm challenged with: Deep Yoga-Style 'Diaphragm' breathing vs Buoyancy Control.

[tarponchik]

I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that if you try that breathing rate under essentially any exertion it won’t hold water. Beyond that, you are Going to love the headache you experience after the dive. Retention of CO2 Is the issue here.

So what do you practice to get a headache? Bang your head against the reef? No matter how I tried, I could not sponge enough CO2 for a headache.

 

[tomfcrist]

So what do you practice to get a headache? Bang your head against the reef? No matter how I tried, I could not sponge enough CO2 for a headache.

And you were breathing twice a minute over a 60 minute dive? Cool . You are a unicorn

 

[Jack Hammer]

When diving, though deep and to the diaphragm, my breath cycle rate is much faster than on land. 2 breaths a minute under water isn't enough to get rid of CO2.

 

[scubafanatic]

When diving, though deep and to the diaphragm, my breath cycle rate is much faster than on land. 2 breaths a minute under water isn't enough to get rid of CO2.

I'd agree, more exertion = more CO2 = more frequent breathing. Not sure why your breath cycle underwater is much faster than on land though ?

 

[MichaelMc]

The breath science threads have always been enlightening, and the good ones often seem to involve yoga.

For the OP, flutter kick and going from 12 to 16 lb. because only 2 lb. weight were available in the pool stand out. I would go to frog kick! It is lower energy when moving. But I think the bigger savings will be from learning to be still, and level, when not moving.

 

[Jack Hammer]

I'd agree, more exertion = more CO2 = more frequent breathing. Not sure why your breath cycle underwater is much faster than on land though ?

I'm working harder underwater... I mostly do cave and tech dives, so doubles, staged, decorated bottles. Swimming into flow with all that is harder than walking down the street in shorts and a t-shirt... = faster breathing

 

[scubafanatic]

I'm working harder underwater... I mostly do cave and tech dives, so doubles, staged, decorated bottles. Swimming into flow with all that is harder than walking down the street in shorts and a t-shirt... = faster breathing

I'm just a recreational vacation travel diver that favors live aboard type trips, single tanks only. As a new diver I dabbled a little in doubles and caves, but it was far more time and money commitment than I felt was practical, so I keep my diving 'casual'.

 

[Greg_Vic_Diver]

OP
I echo some of the other comments sbout breathing. Just breath. Pretend you are sitting on your sofa watching tv and breath. Controlling your breath will lead to C02 problems and bad diving habits. Get your bouancy sorted...I can breath normally and hold a position in blue water without moving much at all.

If you still need more air for your dives, here's an idea:
Bring a manifold and bands. Make a set of double 80s for your trip. Call ahead and see if this ok with the dive op though

 

[stevensamler]

Background: prepping in the pool for my upcoming July 13 live aboard trip on Okeanos II/Costa Rica/Guanacaste. Haven't been diving (other than pool) in quite a while. Abandoned effort to get larger capacity tanks rented on-site, so will be diving with AL80's. (the boat only has (2) AL100's available for rental and both are already spoken for.) After much analysis I decided having the boat try to obtain another AL100 from a land-based op not worth the trouble.

see my other thread on my analysis if you like:

Dilemma: AL80 vs AL100 ? Costa Rica/Okeanos Aggressor II typical fill pressures you've experienced?

So now it's up to me to get better gas mileage with the AL80.

Reports indicate the boat does do decent fills @ approx 3200 psi.

I prefer bigger tanks, but have used AL80s over the years on a few trips (Roatan-Co Co View / Bonaire (2) / Cozumel / Juliet-Bahamas / Juan Jose-Sea of Cortez / a few tanks on Nautilus Explorer when, near trip's end I switched from HP steel 100's Faber to AL80's because the Faber buoyancy sucked from both me and my female dive buddy).

If memory serves, on a typical ocean reef AL80 type dive, I'd average about 45 minutes.

I'm male @ approx 175 lbs. (I probably lose 20 pts right there in the gas consumption contest.)

I own and have dived pretty much every type/capacity single tank out there. I keep a basic spreadsheet for each trip recording wetsuit type-thickness/BP/tank type and lead weighting I used so I have a historical record of what seemed to work under different conditions.

I consider myself a very advanced recreational diver (with 500+ dives in open ocean good/bad and ugly conditions). However I'm going into this trip a bit rusty as haven't been on a trip in several years now.

Generally been a bit spoiled with access to larger tanks.

Did a 3 hr pool session yesterday to check out gear/refresh myself and also practiced the deep breathing techniques I've read about.

I was quite amazed at how I could easily only need breathe 2 times per minute! I developed a cycle of inhaling for 10 seconds (doing 4-5 inhale air sips) then exhaling fully for 15-20 seconds. I discovered each breath cycle lasted 25-30 seconds, which drastically reduced my air consumption!

That being said, doing those FULL exhalations messed with my buoyancy such that I found myself 'crashing' to the bottom (in slow motion). If I were kneeling on a sandy/rocky reef bottom, my new technique will likely work like a charm, but if I'm in the water column, the buoyancy changes may make my new techniques fail, unless I modify things by speeding up the exhale part of the cycle so there's less time to initiate the crash to the bottom sensation ?

I know that with increasing depth, the % pressure change per foot decreases, so I'm thinking the deeper I am, the less of a 'pendulum effect' I'd experience, it's just more pronounced up shallow, like the 12 ft. deep pool I practiced in yesterday.

I'm not trying to set bottom time records, just comfortably keep up with the other divers and get better 'mileage'.

Any thoughts or observations ?

Thanks in advance!

Just breath normal as you do every day all day long.