Amphiprion
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I find some meditation and visualizing the dive beforehand helps.
Lowering SAC rate -- How long does it take?
- Thread starter Gil Middlebrooks
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As you see - relaxing is important.
One way is make sure you get a nice slow breathing rhythm before you go down. Easier to hold a right breath pattern from the start then trying to get it sorted during the dive.
Practice this and focus on you breathing during some dives - you have to train your body to follow a slow and relaxed breathing - given that buoyancy and position are correct. Imagine you had to breath air through a straw can help you give an idea of what it should be like - that or force yourself to breath in on 4 secs and out on 4secs....
and then... relax some more....
rgds
Nick
PADI Staff Instructor & Tech Deep Diver
One way is make sure you get a nice slow breathing rhythm before you go down. Easier to hold a right breath pattern from the start then trying to get it sorted during the dive.
Practice this and focus on you breathing during some dives - you have to train your body to follow a slow and relaxed breathing - given that buoyancy and position are correct. Imagine you had to breath air through a straw can help you give an idea of what it should be like - that or force yourself to breath in on 4 secs and out on 4secs....
and then... relax some more....
rgds
Nick
PADI Staff Instructor & Tech Deep Diver
Good advice from a number of people here as usual.
IMHO people get too fixated on SAC. What is vital is that you have a clear idea of how much gas you need to safely complete the planned dive. Gas Management.
If you use more air than others.. just get a tank ensures you have adequate air. When or if your Sac goes down to the point where the tank is too big you can get something appropriate then. They make new tanks every day and there are lots of rental tanks.
I do want to stress that some people just have lower SAC. Low SAC does not define the diver or indicate how good a diver they are. Some people will always have a higher SAC. My observation which is purely anecdotal and on a relatively small sampling by scientific standards...People who have been involved in activities that required controlling breathing (competitive swimming, long distance running etc) are more likely to have lower SAC rates.
I was one of the most nervous divers possible in the beginning of my diving and yet my SAC was way better than some very competent divers I dived with. I have to say I am not very fit, I am overweight and 5'5" so not very small and yet my SAC has always been good. There hasn't really been much of a change in the years I have dived.
Lower SAC can result in embarrassment and inconvenience. We have had dive buddies going on about how we don't breathe, can stay down forever on nothing etc. We have had tank Jockeys rush our fills and give us really low fills and say... "You don't need it.. you don't breathe anyway... you will just bring it back" We have had places minimize our fills to control our dive times when all they had to do was tell us we want you back in X time. I only mention this to give a bit of a reference point... ie... I am not playing down the importance of SAC rates to make myself feel better because I feel inadequate in that regard!
IMHO the best thing you can do is follow the great advice here about trim, bouyancy control, slowing down, relaxing and enjoying the dive because all those things make you a better diver.. not to lower your SAC. If your SAC decreases great.. if not.. don't worry about it! You may just be one of the people who have a higher SAC rate. IMHO people should not beat themselves up about their SAC rate any more than a person should brag about it.
SAC rate is NOT a competition and it really isn't important in the scheme of things. Plan your dives, dive within your limits and focus on SAFE DIVING not SAC rates.
IMHO people get too fixated on SAC. What is vital is that you have a clear idea of how much gas you need to safely complete the planned dive. Gas Management.
If you use more air than others.. just get a tank ensures you have adequate air. When or if your Sac goes down to the point where the tank is too big you can get something appropriate then. They make new tanks every day and there are lots of rental tanks.
I do want to stress that some people just have lower SAC. Low SAC does not define the diver or indicate how good a diver they are. Some people will always have a higher SAC. My observation which is purely anecdotal and on a relatively small sampling by scientific standards...People who have been involved in activities that required controlling breathing (competitive swimming, long distance running etc) are more likely to have lower SAC rates.
I was one of the most nervous divers possible in the beginning of my diving and yet my SAC was way better than some very competent divers I dived with. I have to say I am not very fit, I am overweight and 5'5" so not very small and yet my SAC has always been good. There hasn't really been much of a change in the years I have dived.
Lower SAC can result in embarrassment and inconvenience. We have had dive buddies going on about how we don't breathe, can stay down forever on nothing etc. We have had tank Jockeys rush our fills and give us really low fills and say... "You don't need it.. you don't breathe anyway... you will just bring it back" We have had places minimize our fills to control our dive times when all they had to do was tell us we want you back in X time. I only mention this to give a bit of a reference point... ie... I am not playing down the importance of SAC rates to make myself feel better because I feel inadequate in that regard!
IMHO the best thing you can do is follow the great advice here about trim, bouyancy control, slowing down, relaxing and enjoying the dive because all those things make you a better diver.. not to lower your SAC. If your SAC decreases great.. if not.. don't worry about it! You may just be one of the people who have a higher SAC rate. IMHO people should not beat themselves up about their SAC rate any more than a person should brag about it.
SAC rate is NOT a competition and it really isn't important in the scheme of things. Plan your dives, dive within your limits and focus on SAFE DIVING not SAC rates.
irishsquid
Contributor
Fitness is always a plus.
I don't freedive, so I'm asking out of ignorance here OK. How does learning to hold your breath efficiently, work for you when diving?
The Kraken
He Who Glows in the Dark Waters (ADVISOR)
ScubaBoard Supporter
Scuba Instructor
Divemaster
Also, one shouldn't use a SAC rate as a comparative measure of one's diving ability.
There are so many things that predicate the SAC rate, individual lung tidal volume, heart rate, so forth and so on. So, comparing one's SAC rate to that of another diver is, for the most part, an invalid comparison.
Now, having said that, tracking one's SAC rate over a long period of time is a good way to tell how one is progressing with such things as relaxation, gear selection, streamlining, effective finning . . . . . . . ad infinitum.
The best use of SAC rate is that of a planning tool. If one has retained the requisite data over a period of time representing differing dive conditions then one can determine a rough estimate of the SAC rate generated by a specific dive; the one can use that SAC rate to determine approximately how much gas and what size tank should be required for an upcoming dive of similar characteristics.
But it's good stuff to know . . .
the K
There are so many things that predicate the SAC rate, individual lung tidal volume, heart rate, so forth and so on. So, comparing one's SAC rate to that of another diver is, for the most part, an invalid comparison.
Now, having said that, tracking one's SAC rate over a long period of time is a good way to tell how one is progressing with such things as relaxation, gear selection, streamlining, effective finning . . . . . . . ad infinitum.
The best use of SAC rate is that of a planning tool. If one has retained the requisite data over a period of time representing differing dive conditions then one can determine a rough estimate of the SAC rate generated by a specific dive; the one can use that SAC rate to determine approximately how much gas and what size tank should be required for an upcoming dive of similar characteristics.
But it's good stuff to know . . .
the K
Felipe Telles
Registered
Fitness is always a plus.
I don't freedive, so I'm asking out of ignorance here OK. How does learning to hold your breath efficiently, work for you when diving?
I've taken a free diving course and I can tell that it doesn't help that much just the course itself. You learn how to work properly fill your lung with air, and the phases you pass by before blacking out in the water. It's a nice course, and surely it can help, but I wouldn't take the course just to lower my SAC rate.
All of the above. I find my consumption varies according to how much I've been diving. First dive after a layoff and it'll show in my tank. When I'm diving all the time I usually end a standard recreational dive with guests with my tank more than half full, the dive having ended because their air was low. That's good enough for me - I always regard myself as being their reserve air carrier, so if I don't have a lot of air left at the end of the dive I don't lead another one until that improves.
Bogie
Contributor
Breath yoga stye slow and deep, get totally relaxed, get neutral, slow and easy, exercise regularly.
dmcutter
Contributor
I guess I'm about as green as the OP but I thought I would weigh in with my experience. I just got certified in August and was a horrendous air hog. I was as nervous as could be about being in the water and would suck down an 80 in less than half an hour because I was hyperventilating. According to my dive computer, my SAC rate was around 1.25 on my first couple of dives. Week before last I was in Aruba on vacation and logged half a dozen dives at depths between 95 and 25 ft. On one dive where I was working hard against the current, my SAC rate was about 0.8 but on average it was close to 0.5 for the remaining dives. Getting my buoyancy under control, relaxing, and getting "zen" were major factors. It was my first time in salt water and I found that if I briefly held my breath, I could hear all the sea life-fascinating. That made me unconciously slow down my breathing quite a bit. And I suppose fitness is a major factor-I'm an avid cyclist, probably log about 6000 miles a year on average, so my cardio fitness is better than average. I don't see a specific SAC rate as an end in itself, but I find it an interesting metric to gage how my comfort level in the water is increasing.
firstdive2005
Contributor
I have a dive buddy I hook up with on Coz a lot. He is 6ft2in probably 230lbs. Fairly muscular but gone a little soft. He is I think 45yrs old. I am 5ft8in, 180lbs a little softer too. I am 52. He was always saying, man you have girl lungs or are you skip breathing? To which I would say, your trim is getting really good, you dont kick all over the place and your not swatting the flys as you dive anymore so now start monitoring your breathing rate. Dont just draw huge breaths and blow out like your putting out a candle, just ease out like your whistling softly. Dont hold your breath you will actually use more air and it is also dangerous.
Well his rate improved incredibly. He was actually staying down as long as me and he had the same air left in his tank. One dive he had more, I was shocked and very happy for him. I thought all my great advice I had yoda'd out to him had been the be all end all of instruction on air consumption. Then I noticed on the fourth or fifth dive last week he had switched to 120s and didnt tell me. I peed in my wetsuit for the first time laughing so hard.
Well his rate improved incredibly. He was actually staying down as long as me and he had the same air left in his tank. One dive he had more, I was shocked and very happy for him. I thought all my great advice I had yoda'd out to him had been the be all end all of instruction on air consumption. Then I noticed on the fourth or fifth dive last week he had switched to 120s and didnt tell me. I peed in my wetsuit for the first time laughing so hard.
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