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

[Talon]

First - let me agree with EVERYONE else here. That may be some of the worst advice I've heard of that your friend gave you. Even for those of us who DO skip breath every once in awhile. You should't FORCE it like that.

Second - YOU ARE NOT DOING THAT BAD!!!!! For a beginner, a 40 minute dive is actually pretty good! My first 4 or 5 dives (similair avg. depth) were only 25-35 minutes. I was the Hoover at first also. Now VERY FEW people I dive with use less air then I do. So don't be surprised when in 3 months YOUR rolling your eyes at them

Seriously, the biggest advice I can give you right now is the same as what everyone else has already stated. Work on relaxing, get your gear and weighting down, and one that a lot of people miss is concentrate on conserving energy. If you want to swim somewhere while under water - do is slowly. Think of it this way, what uses more energy - walking 100 yards or running 100 yards? Another mistake I see a lot of new divers make is using their arms (another waste of energy). That is a really hard habit to break to break for some people as we have done that all of our lifes. Try folding your arms and putting your hands in your arm pit.

And last, but not least - tell your friend to buy plenty of headache medicine and that A BUNCH much more experienced divers thought he sounded like he had his rear up his.... well, you get the point

Welcome to the GREAT adventure.

Michael

 

[JimC]

Its not a competition.
Its not a race.
When your out, the dive is over - full stop.

Comparing, taunting or otherwise being a jerk to a new (or any) diver about his air consumption is juvinile and a good way to get someone hurt as they try to strech there tanks/skip breath/etc.

Tell them that if its a problem for them not to dive with you.

 

[UnixSage]

I good Article on breathing

I am a new diver also (Grand total of 5 dives) I am 6' tall and 325 Lbs. During my checkout dives I was the largest person in the water but I was down with the DMs as far as air consumption.. My last dive was a SAC of .7 which I am told is good for a beginner (maybe they neglected to say of my size). SCUBA is new to me but being in the water is not so I am very comfortable in water. I am sure you will be improving soon.

Of corse some one may reply to me and say at those rates I AM a hoover

Good Luck

 

[Wayward Son]

"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."

Worst

Advice

EVER!

He keeps this up, he's going to get someone killed.

 

[HowardE]

Dave,

If you are renting gear, or if you own... perhaps you should look at a larger tank capacity. Since you are diving with your girlfriend who is MUCH SMALLER than you... A larger tank for you might equal things out. If they are using 80's... Maybe you should use a 100 CU FT. Tank. You will always breathe more air than her, especially if you progress together in your diving adventures. Like other people have said... your bottom time for a beginner is excellent... Just breathe slowly... Don't hold your breath or skip breathe to keep up.

 

[Rick Inman]

Its not a competition.
Its not a race.
When your out, the dive is over - full stop.

Comparing, taunting or otherwise being a jerk to a new (or any) diver about his air consumption is juvinile and a good way to get someone hurt as they try to strech there tanks/skip breath/etc.

Tell them that if its a problem for them not to dive with you.

Usually a person who is upset about a dive being shortened due to a buddies high air consumption is someone who doesn't dive much.

 

[pakman]

now here's something interesting I found after doing a quick google search...

An article from scubadiving.com
http://www.scubadiving.com/index2.php?option=content&task=view&id=3861&pop=1&page=0

I wonder if this is what your neighbor was trying to suggest... sounds pretty dangerous for a magazine like scubadiving to suggest, even with their warnings...

"RULE #3: Hold Your Breath
What we're advocating is to reverse your normal breathing pattern from inhale-exhale-pause to exhale-inhale-pause--the pattern many experienced divers adopt naturally over time. The pause while your lungs are full of air allows more time for gas exchange, so you take in more oxygen and dump more carbon dioxide with each breath. Therefore, you need to breathe less and will get more cycles out of your cylinder. It only takes a pause of a few seconds after each inhale to make a significant improvement in your breathing efficiency.

Telling you to hold your breath during that pause gets close to the fundamental no-no in diving, so let's be careful here. What you certainly don't want to do is to hold your breath by closing your throat and relaxing your chest against it, because that makes your lungs a closed container. You risk an embolism if you ascend with your throat closed because the expanding air has nowhere to go. It is safe, however, to hold your lung expansion with your chest muscles instead and keep your throat open. Now, expanding air can escape up your throat so there's no risk of embolism.

Instructors don't teach this breathing technique because they're afraid students will become confused and close their throats. The difference between a closed-throat breath-hold and an open-throat breath-hold is small--the difference between making a "k" sound and an "h" sound--but it's critical. To make the difference clear and to prevent you from inadvertently closing your throat, just keep trying to inhale slightly during the pause after you've taken a fairly full breath. Your goal isn't to take in more air, but to hold your throat open.

Since holding your breath is only dangerous if you ascend, practice it under conditions where you can easily control your depth--while holding an ascent line, for example. And if you think you may become confused between the "good" breath-hold and the "bad" one, don't try it."

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

now here's something interesting I found after doing a quick google search...

An article from scubadiving.com
http://www.scubadiving.com/index2.php?option=content&task=view&id=3861&pop=1&page=0

I wonder if this is what your neighbor was trying to suggest... sounds pretty dangerous for a magazine like scubadiving to suggest, even with their warnings...

"RULE #3: Hold Your Breath
... etc ..."

No, it's not dangerous ... it's the proper technique, as I pointed out earlier in this thread.

That slight pause allows for a good exchange of the O2 you breathed in with the CO2 you want to breathe out, which is important for the reasons pointed out in the earlier linked article.

The important things to remember are ...

1) Keep your throat open, so that if you do ascend a bit on the inhale, the expanded air has an escape route.
2) That pause between inhale and exhale is relatively short ... on the order of 1 to 2 seconds.

There's a huge difference between this technique, and what the original poster's friend was suggesting ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Talon]

Pacman - nice find...

And yes, it is an advanced technique. But not one I would suggest for an entire dive. Not only is it dangerous (if you do A LOT of up and downs) but WILL give you a nasty headache. I did it once for an entire dive just to see how low I could get my sac rate. While it worked, and I took a chunck out of my average SAC rate (.4 to a .35), I almost had to forgo my 2nd dive because my head hurt so much.

But, are there times for it. Yes, but not many. Main one for me is when I am hoovering over something and don't want to move an inch. But even then, I don't do it with a full breath of air in my lungs.

 

[The Kraken]

To add to what NWGD stated, employing a slower, more regulated breathing pattern will go a loooooooooooong way to reducing the dry mouth syndrome so often encountered by newer divers.

the K