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

[MXGratefulDiver]

I'll play the idiot here. First the disclaimer, my SAC is .5 and I'm getting better all the time but I don't time my breathing so I can't tell you my times or any formula I use other than trying to be relaxed and not race from point a to point b. That said;

Lets assume I breathe like I do on land and have roughly equal inhale and exhalation times. We'll use your times for comparison. 6+2=8 second cycle times. Now assume a normal 6+6=12 second cycle time, that gives you two thirds more time per cycle than yours does and I would think a lower SAC.

Why is your method better? I'm puzzled by the fast inhalation and what it buys you in terms of SAC and I'm always curious about things I've never heard of and why they are. So if you could explain the theory I'd love it.

Here's what I was taught, no shallow breathing and breathe like normal. We didn't really talk a lot about ways of getting a better SAC and were basically told that that comes with more diving.

OK, I'll take a shot at explaining it. Although I use a slightly different "timing", the method he described is basically correct.

The reason you have a different breathing cycle is because underwater your body is under pressure, and you breathe pressurized air to compensate. And therefore the manner in which your body processes the pressurized air you are breathing is different. For all intents and purposes, your body produces higher levels of CO2 underwater than on land. For that reason, a more effective manner of releasing it from your body is desirable.

Also keep in mind that breathing affects your buoyancy ... think of your lungs as a 6 to 8 lb BCD that you're constantly inflating/deflating.

With these two things in mind, the deep, slow breathing cyle introduces two advantages. First, it provides a more effective escape mechanism for the CO2 your body is producing ... that long, slow, exhale gives your lungs a longer time to make the O2 for CO2 exchange, so you can expel the CO2 from your body more efficiently. That's also the purpose of the slight pause I mentioned in an earlier reply.

The shorter inhale allows you to inflate your "internal" BCD without as much impact on your buoyancy, since water is very dense and it takes a bit of time for your body to rise through it.

A slow breathing pattern is preferable to a rapid one for buoyancy reasons, as well as efficient gas exchange ones. If you were to think of it as a graph, where the X-axis is your buoyancy change due to breathing and the Y-axis were time (in seconds), then look at the delta change over any given period of time, you'd note that with a slower breathing rate, the change in buoyancy over a given time period is rather small when you are breathing slowly, as opposed to breathing more rapidly.

Most new divers start out breathing deeply and rapidly, which is why they not only go through their air quickly, but tend to have buoyancy issues. That's normal, because it's the first time in your life you ever have to THINK about breathing. However, since you're going to think about it anyway, think about the whole picture, and logic through not only what's happening to your buoyancy, but also what's happening inside your body that's affected by the changes in pressure while you're diving. You'll discover ... as you will eventually anyway simply through experience ... that a relatively short, deep inhale followed by a relatively long, deep exhale, is the most efficient way to breathe ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Diving-Dragons]

Diaphragm breathing is what you need

It goes like this breathe in but allow your diaphragm to drop your stomach, if you watch a baby breathe there stomach goes up and down not there chest.

So breathe in pause exhale slowly try humming on the exhale, do not take a huge deep breath in as the body's natural reaction is to want to get rid of it and it all comes out in a whoosh.

So take a gentle in breath but not a huge one, just a normal breath as you would on the surface, Pause for a second or 2 slowly exhale and there you have it.

 

[gangrel441]

Just as the others have said, your best method of improving your SAC rate is experience.

If your neighbor is breathing using the same method he was telling you to use, he is a statistic waiting to happen.

If he is not using that method, but recommended that you use this method, he is trying to kill you.

Plain and simple.

 

[tekdiver170]

Everyone has some great advice on how not to be that "Air Hog." But here's the skinny.

1) Don't worry about it, the more you practice the better your air consumption will be. You'll become more relaxed and it will grow with time.

2) You're lungs are twice the size of your GF and that means you take 2x as much air to fill them to breath - you may never catch her with air consuption - back to point one don't stress about it

3) If you try to concentrate on your air consumption it will get worse. Better yet concentrate on the fun you're having on the dive.

4) The whole goal is to breath slowly and relazed. Nice long inhales (NO BREATH HOLDING - but breast holding is ok), and nice slow exhales. A good way to control your exhale is to hum a song (hopefully something mellow, Jimmy Buffett always worked for me as a new "air hog" diver).

Too many people get hung up on how much air they use. Don't worry about it just have fun. When I first started diving I was lucky to hit :35 min on a tank, after diving, and diving and diving I can now reach 1:30 on a recreational dive rather easily.

So damn it, go diving!

 

[toodive4]

Practice sitting in your chair at home while you watch TV.

Take a long extended breath in... then exhale it as slowly as you can. Do not hold it (not even for a nano-second)... Breathe in... Breathe Out... nice deep controlled breaths.

When you're ready to get in the water again - make sure you are weighted properly... overweighting causes overexertion and overbreathing. When you start your initial descent... RELAX... Don't move your arms, don't move your legs, move nothing but your finger on the deflator button until you begin to sink... It's all about relaxing from beginning to end. While diving move as minimally as possible. Kick only when you must... try not to use your arms... concentrate only on your breathing on your next dive... in and out very slowly and controlled...

It sometimes takes 20, 30 even 50 dives before most people can relax to the point of improving their air consumption. When I started diving I would surface with 500 PSI while my wife would surface with 1500. I'm 6' 220lbs... she's 5'6" 105.

Now, I surface with the same amount of air as her... it takes time, relaxing and patience... but you can do it...

Ken

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

 

[Scubageezer]

Sorry that I haven't read all of the posts - bedtime and all, you know. Just wanted to say that there is hope. I'm 6'2" and 250lbs and thought that I might need to carry a portable air compressor with me when I first started. With time, experience and controlling my breathing (no skip breathing, just controlled breathing) my consumption rate is down markedly (no more jokes). Practicing controlled breathing is an excellent way to finesse your bouyancy control, too. Happy diving.

 

[fmw625]

During OW at first I thought I could not get enough air. After trying 3 diffrent regulators, I decided it must be me. I made a mouth piece with an opening about the size of a straw and practiced breathing with it. I discovered that at the end of an inhilation cycle I needed a slight pause (not breath holding) to allow my lungs to expand fully. I tried this the next OW session and it worked great. I have been using it ever since. I don't have as many dives as most of you, but my SAC has come down from .65 to .42 in the few dives that I have done.

 

[NutJob]

It's a zen thing, and will come with time.

 

[BarryNL]

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.

Ask him what he's going to do when he's already held his breath as long as possible, goes to take the next breath and...... nothing there! He's really going to wish he wasn't already desperate for that next breath when he has to swim 15 feet to his buddy and find his octopus.

 

[jopperdepopper]

after having read most of the posts here, and the articles mentioned in a few of them, I am wondering if, and what kind of, breathing exercises you could do (when NOT diving) to improve your overall breathing techniques? Any tips or links on this one? Or would that mean to start doing yoga or something like that?

best,
job