Oh no its ME!!!! I'm the dive ruining HOOVER!!!!

[DavidHickey]

Well I went out this weekend with 4 OW certification dives and 2 quarry dives under my belt. It was the 1st time me and my girlfriend have been diving with no assistance it was just us. We went to a quarry in Ohio called White Star to meet our neighbors who were doing some training there. Well our 1st two dives by ourselves were GREAT!!!! Visibility was awesome. My Fiancee who was getting real down on diving especially after our last 2 dives in almost zero visibility was thrilled and actually as excited about diving as I had ever seen her "she was actually talking about the new equipment she wanted to buy" did hell freeze over and I missed it!!!!! By the way I did the deepest dive I've ever done which was not much but hit 61 feet which was a little spooky till I was there and realized it was no different than 15 feet. ANYHOW enough of that, our neighbors finished their training and we did one last afternoon dive with them. I averaged sucking 800 psi more than all 3 of them. Sunday we all got up and did another dive, same thing again!!! At this point I'm feeling a little self conscious about it and the neighbors are kinda rolling their eyes when I signal my remaining air. So we all get out and of course the Hoover jokes start rolling. We then did one more dive and I did a little better, I had used about 600psi more than the rest and our total bottom time which averaged 45 feet deep was about 40 minutes including safety stop. Just wondering how much I can hope to gain with experience? I'm 6-1 and 245 my fiancee is about 5-4 and 120 and the neighbors are about 185 and 160 pounds each. Does my physical size pretty much indicate I will always be a hoover compared to them??? Or is their still hope? At this point all I can think of is I need a bigger tank? Any thoughts or advice? And also my neighbor is going for his Master Diver Certification which doesn't mean a whole lot when your still under 50 dives. But he kept telling me what I need to do is take a breath of air and hold it in as long as I can and when I think I can't hold it anymore hold it for just a few seconds longer and then blow it all out at once and take another breath and hold it. I may be 35 dives behind him but it seems to me that is the absolute wrong way to control your breathing under water. Any comments on that?
Well if anyone has some air saving advice I'd be more than happy to hear it. At this point when under I'm always thinking about my breathing, just wondering if my consumption will go down when I'm comfortable enough underwater that I do not even think about breathing.

Thanks
Dave

 

[matts1w]

1. Do not hold your breath while diving or skip breath or any other idea like that.

2. If you neighbor is trying to become a Master Diver he needs to go back to open water class and learn about proper breathing technique.

3. You are almost 75 pounds more than the others you are diving with. Your consumption is bound to be higher.

4. Work on relaxing while you dive. Think of your breathing like meditation or yoga. Experience and practice will slow your consumption.

5. Since you are a big guy you might want more cf in a tank, especially when diving with your girlfriend.

6. Again- DO NOT HOLD YOUR BREATH.

 

[Halthron]

At an equal level, the bigger person will always use more air than the smaller person. But it's not something that can't be overcome. An experienced and comfortable person at 250 lbs. should use quite a bit less air than a new-to-diving person at 120 who is likely to be a hoover. Practice & comfort will reduce your air consumption. Contrast your breathing rate right now, as you sit at your PC vs. your breathing rate underwater just being there. Most likely, you recall taking bigger breaths underwater. As you dive more, your breathing will be calmer.

 

[PADI Knight]

"But he kept telling me what I need to do is take a breath of air and hold it in as long as I can and when I think I can't hold it anymore hold it for just a few seconds longer and then blow it all out at once and take another breath and hold it."

Well I can't add much since I just received my OW card over the weekend but rule #1 was Never, Never, Never hold your breath under water. Given your size I wouldn't worry much about it. From what my instructor told us you eventually become accustomed to SCUBA and your consumption slows down. He was quite surprised that I had 2200 left after the last certification dive after exploring the area and the compass course (In the pool and the first two cert dives I only had about 1000 left). I'm 5'9" 200#. Just keep diving and don't worry about it that's what I was told and it's been good advice for me to follow so far.

 

[pakman]

edit: oops, looks like you got a lot a quick responses before I could hit my post button. gotta love SB...

You are correct on two things:

1) I'm sure some of the more experience divers here on SB will agree you DO NOT HOLD YOUR BREATH. You're gonna get a mean C02 headache as your body builds up C02 and in certain situations it may lead to something worse...

2) the more comfortable you are the less air you are going to use. Considering you've basically just started diving, I don't think you're doing that badly. I wouldn't worry to much about it. Its something a lot of us have probably experienced at the beginning (I too was a hoover after my OW class). My suggestion is relax, don't skip breaths, and relax some more. Try to work on your trim/ weights/ buoyancy so that you're not constantly finning to stay in one place. Use only your legs to swim and try to limit unnecessary arm movement (keeping your arms folded in front helps a lot). And try not to be so self-conscious of it (it only makes it worse).

 

[Martini]

Matt's advice was perfect. Your breathing will get better as you relax underwater. That being said based on your size and all things being equal you will always use more air than your girlfriend. You could always go to larger tanks. At this point just gets some dives under your belt and try to relax and have fun. This alone will help your consumption rate.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

And also my neighbor is going for his Master Diver Certification which doesn't mean a whole lot when your still under 50 dives. But he kept telling me what I need to do is take a breath of air and hold it in as long as I can and when I think I can't hold it anymore hold it for just a few seconds longer and then blow it all out at once and take another breath and hold it. I may be 35 dives behind him but it seems to me that is the absolute wrong way to control your breathing under water. Any comments on that?
Well if anyone has some air saving advice I'd be more than happy to hear it. At this point when under I'm always thinking about my breathing, just wondering if my consumption will go down when I'm comfortable enough underwater that I do not even think about breathing.

Thanks
Dave

Dave, I'm a NAUI instructor ... a fairly big fellow, and someone who started out diving by breathing down my cylinder like it was attached to the intake end of a shop vac. Now, with practice and proper breathing techniques, I can outlast most of my smaller dive buddies. The key is practice and relaxation.

I have some comments I want you to think about.

First off, your neighbor may be going for his Master Diver certification, but given the advice he gave you I have to say he must've slept through Basic Open Water ... what he told you to do is patently dangerous. Don't do it. DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT DOING IT! You can injure or kill yourself using that method of diving.

OK,let's start with breathing. The "proper" way to breathe underwater is slowly, deeply, and continuously. You should take about 3 second to inhale ... then a slight pause (don't close your throat) for maybe a second ... then a long, slow exhale that should take about 4 or 5 seconds. This method does two things for you ... it allows your lungs to make a good exchange of the oxygen you're breathing in for the CO2 your body is expelling. Keep in mind that it's the CO2 building up in your body that triggers your breathing reflex, and if you don't get rid of it, your brain will keep telling you to breathe more ... most new divers breathe shallow and rapid, and don't get rid of the CO2, which is one major reason they suck through their air so fast. OK ... so remember, this is the first time in your life you have to think about breathing ... practice slow, deep, relaxed breaths on land, then go out and try them on scuba.

Next thing ... your gear. Have you done a weight check? How much weight are you using, and with what kind of exposure suit? New divers typically pack on too much lead because they have difficulty descending and think they need it ... when in reality all they really need is to learn how to descend properly. The problem with too much lead is that you need to compensate for it at depth by putting more air in your BCD, and this leads to buoyancy issues that'll cause you to cycle way more air through your BCD than you need to. You'll have trouble maintaining neutral buoyancy because all that extra air in your BCD expands and contracts with even slight changes in depth. Proper weighting is key to many aspects of diving, including your air consumption because you're constantly struggling with buoyancy, which causes you to breathe harder. So do a weight check. If you're uncertain how, search for "weight check" in this forum ... there are many threads on the subject.

Another big factor is swimming speed. Move along slowly ... it's like the difference between walking and running, when you run you breathe harder. Down there, where your air is limited to what's in your cylinder, you'll really notice the difference between finning hard and poking along, relaxed, and barely finning at all.

There are other factors that will come with practice, but those are the major ones to improving your air consumption ... that, and simply getting out there and diving.

It DOES get better with practice. Forget the hoover jokes, I heard 'em all too. Just keep diving, focus on proper breathing technique, and you will improve ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Charlie99]

Right now, the best thing is to concentrate on improving overall dive skill. Air consumption will pretty much take care of itself once

1. you are more comfortable
2. you get your weighting right so you don't have to work so hard
3. you learn to stay neutral, so you don't have to keep finning
4. you learn to slow down.

 

[Bo-jan]

Here's something you can try.. inhale normally but exhale slowly, over a period of time. Works for me. As other chaps said, don't hold your breath.. it will only give you a headache.

Cheers
Bojan

 

[pakman]

Dave, here's some stories that might make you feel better. I was recently on a liveaboard trip and had a very petite lady in my dive group (maybe 5'2", very slim). The DM and I couldn't believe it but she was a HOOVER in a small package!! She was burning thru her air quickly and was always the first to call out of air. I couldn't figure it out at first as most gals I dive with tend to still have nearly half a tank by the time us guys are low. Well the next few dives I watched this lady and she's like a little bumble bee underwater! Arms flapping all over the place and swimming here and there... She also had horrible buoyancy control and was constantly finning and waving her arms to keep level... And the thing that cracked me up was she would wake up early and do yoga excercises everyday...

On another dive trip, our DM happened to be quite a round fellow. Real nice guy and an excellent DM but he was close to being as large horizontally than vertically. Well, his air intake definitely didn't match his body. He was coming out with less air than most of us... Just watching him underwater was impressive, you notice he never made any uneccessary movements. Absolutely perfect buoyancy - he would just sit there motionless and hover. He'd do a casual frog kick once in awhile to keep on top of us.