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

[JimC]

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.

I find newbies tend to be the worst offenders often boasting and bragging about how much better they were and how much longer they can stay down.

Hey if thats fun, have at it. Me, I find it discouraging and very unfun. One of my friends got certified late last year and only dives a few times a month. He is a big guy and I usually dive with 150-260 cf of gas to his 80-100 cf. He sucks air like no tomorrow compared to me but when I come out with nearly full tanks I say great dive.. did you see that eel!

Its my choice to dive. Its my responsibility to make sure the people I dive with I will have fun diving with. If I were going to be ticked because I only get 45 minutes @ 60 instead of 100 then I need to pick appropriate buddies.

This is NOT a problem with this guys air consumption. While he likely wants to be better the real problem here is his buddies make him feel like he is ruining there experience and its his fault.

 

[The Kraken]

JimC,
That is one of the best posts I've ever read.
Absolutely eloquent in its summation of buddies and the diving experience.

the K

 

[RiverRat]

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)

True. I didn't even start thinking about breathing like this until I had at least 50 dives or so under my belt. I was just trying to relax, fine tune my buoyancy control by breath control, dropping a little lead as I got more relaxed in the water etc. etc. I had enough to worry about. The important thing early on is getting your weighting/trim dead on, learning to relax (less anxious=less lead=better air consumption=more relaxed diver= less anxious=less lead etc................) and just keep diving! The rest will come along and then you can start to work on the finer points of trim, buoyancy and breath control.

 

[dandrian]

I did not read every response but another thing to consider besides just giving yourself more time to become comfortable is your gear. Not only what you are using but how well it has been maintained. Most all regulators need to be serviced yearly except for some like Atomic which is on a 2 year cycle. Often a poorly adjusted regulator will make you suck air. Besides the regs, what is your equipment configuration? Do you use split fins? Are you weighted properly? Do you have a lot of stuff hanging to create drag? Not saying that these will solve a air problem completely but every little bit helps. The less you have to work underwater the more air you will conserve.

Good Luck and keep diving.

 

[pasley]

You have received much good advice here. Your neighbor gave some bad advice. Holding your breath will only increase your CO2 load and therefore the urge to breath. This is also a great way to blow out your lungs. Your neighbor has forgotten the basics.

My qualifications to comment – none beyond a SAC rate of 0.38-0.41 depending on currents.

About me: I am 6 ft. 145 lbs 51yr old male (52 in 3 months).

Two dives for comparison sake from my dive log:
Dive Number 24 (when I started in 2001): Max Depth 41 Feet, average depth 32 feet, dive time 45:00 AL 80 tank pumped to 2930 at start. End of dive: 550 PSI left. Weight used: 34 pounds. Surface Air Consumption Rate 0.69 SCFM.

Dive Number 213 (last week) to 42 feet with average depth 32 feet, dive time 72 minutes,AL 80 pumped to 3000 PSI at start. End of dive: 740 PSI left. Weight used: 20 pounds (and I have dove with 16 and 18 but prefer the 20) Surface Air Consumption Rate: 0.41 SCFM.

What changed in the past 4 years? Several things:
1. I am in better physical condition today than I was then, and then was not bad shape either. At dive Number 24 I was running 2 miles in 18:30 and thought I was going to die. At dive number 213 I was running 2 miles in 16:30 (and last year I officially clocked a 15:38). I beach dive weekly which involves a bit of a hike to get down to the beach
2. I am very comfortable in the water.
3. I no longer fin (kick) up when I am trying to descend (watch your buddy the next time you dive. It is amazing to watch how much leg and arm movement is going on all of which is pushing you towards the surface when you are in fact trying to go down.
4. My hands remain at my sides at all times unless I am checking my gauge. If I want to turn right, I tilt my head right, stop my starboard (right) fin and increase the revolutions on the left (port) engine….er fin. Moving your arm and sculling with your hands is inefficient. My fins will propel me forward, left, right and reverse as well as spin me in a 360 circle over one spot all without the aid of my inefficient hands.
5. My breathing technique? I simply do not think about it. Breathe in a normal breath and exhale slowly (normally). The only time I think about my breathing is when I take a larger breath to rise up a few feet (and I do not hold it just larger breath) or exhale a bit longer to descend a few feet.
6. I am never in a hurry. My fins move as the fish fins do, very slowly in small fin cycles (not large kicks) to keep the fins pretty much in line with the body.
7. I am very streamlined. No dangling equipment.
8. I don’t diet, but I do eat sensibly, small portions, good food choices, vegetables, salads and water, lots of water. When I do eat out, I put half the plate in a doggie bag at the start of the meal. Restaurants over feed patrons terribly. Meat the size of my palm, and vegetables and I skip most of the junk. Soda, never more than 1 can a day, and many days I don’t have that.
9. I am properly weighted and know how to use a BC correctly. When you add air to the BC allow time for the air to over come the inertia by waiting 10 seconds before add another small squirt of air. No yoyo buoyancy.

Bottom line, give it time, run, bicycle or swim at least 3 times a week for a good cardio work out, eat in moderation and relax. The air consumption will improve. Also never compare your air consumption with females. They are a different species and use less air than males.

 

[RiverRat]

I did not read every response but another thing to consider besides just giving yourself more time to become comfortable is your gear. Not only what you are using but how well it has been maintained. Most all regulators need to be serviced yearly except for some like Atomic which is on a 2 year cycle. Often a poorly adjusted regulator will make you suck air. Besides the regs, what is your equipment configuration? Do you use split fins? Are you weighted properly? Do you have a lot of stuff hanging to create drag? Not saying that these will solve a air problem completely but every little bit helps. The less you have to work underwater the more air you will conserve.

Good Luck and keep diving.

One thing I changed early on was getting rid of Danglies! In my OW I had a Sherwood depth ga./pressure console I was dragging all over the quarry. I was the perfect candidate as a photography model you see in all the magazines Well perfect as far as dangling gear goes anyway. But that thing really started to annoy me. Just another task loading thing I did not need. So I got a Sunnto Vyper wrist computer and then stuck my pressure guage in a single boot and clipped to my left side D-ring. Bingo, one less headache. Also, as soon as I got my own gear I really started to build my own streamlined rig and I was much more comfortable in the water.

 

[pakman]

OK last post for me tonite (your morning...

Here's a good article from scubadiving.com on improving air consumption. Most of the tips have been well covered in this thread.

Use Less Air (2005)
http://www.scubadiving.com/training/basic_skills/use_less_air_(2005)/0/

 

[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."

vs

"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."

Not the same things at all. Not in the slightest.

Old sarge used to teach "When scuba diving, if you hold your breath you'll bust your lungs. So don't hold your breath!!!"

Old sarge was right. It's a bad habit to get into. While it's obviously safe if you are not ascending, if you get in the habit, one day you will hold it, ascend, and get embolized.

 

[Web Monkey]

First, just to get this out of the way, your friend is going to kill himself (or someone else). Don't listen to him.

Next, just like Lay's Potato Chips, "breathe all you want, they'll make more."

If your dive isn't long enough, get a bigger tank.

If they're diving 80's get a 95 (or maybe a little bigger). It should put you about even with the rest of the group. If you're going to biuy your own tanks, it's still a great investment, since nobody ever came back from a dive and complained about all the "leftover air" they had.

Your consumption will drop as you dive more, and get your buoyancy and trim worked out, but it's not something to worry about when you're just getting started.

Terry

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

 

[lamont]

buy a PST E8-130 or two. eliminate that whole stress over how fast you're sucking down gas. then just try to relax.