Skip Breathing

[PhotoTJ]

Cardio, cardio, cardio! That will get your sac down!

 

[BigJetDriver]

Hoo, Boy, Dnew,
You may well survive for years being reckless. But on the day your luck runs out, you'll wish you had colored inside the lines!

HOO-HAW! That is a wonderful way of putting it! May I borrow that for my students?

:rofl:

 

[Rick Inman]

Inhale slowly up to maybe 60-75% of your lungs' capacity, hold for a few seconds then exhale fully and do it fast to reduce the CO2 buildup in your body ... hold a couple of seconds before you start to inhale again.

I love it! On the Internet, you can get detailed instructions on how to skip breath. :11:

Well, my buddy Tony has less than 100 dives, more body fat than me, never exercises and dives with a BC and console, and the guy breathes like a teenage girl. After an hour dive at 40', I have 500psi left in my 95, and he's got 1100 in his al80. We all have taken to calling Tony, Girly-Man. He doesn't skip breath, doesn't think about it at all.
Some people just breath less. I say, just go diving and have fun and don't worry about it. It isn't a competition. All you can really do is dive more and get a bigger tank - darn! More diving and more gear!

 

[Kennedydive]

Just don't do it! It Dumb, Dumb, Dumb! The only thing that improves your sac rate is Cardio and comfort level. As you become more experienced you slowly realize that you can get longer out of a tank than when you were a tadpole. Some people are better on air than others.

I can give you an example of how people differ and there is not a thing you or the next person can do about it.

At 30 feet me and two of my buddies can go diving and after the allotted length of time one guy comes out with 800psi I come out with 750psi and the other guy comes out with 650psi

The same three guys do a dive to 200 feet and the first guy comes out with 1100psi, I come out with 1025psi and the third guy will come out with 400psi.

We are as equally comfortable at the depth but as we go deeper the air consumption gap between him and the other two divers gets larger. My theory is that his lungs are larger and at 2ata the difference in consumption is not that much but multiply it to a depth of 7ata than it is more noticeable.
Jason

 

[Keysdrifter454]

My understanding is that skip breathing significantly increases the chance of blacking out from excessive CO2 buildup.

I skip breath in a way that scares most people, usually one cycle every 45-50 seconds.

I inhale slow, hold, exhale quick.

I control bouyancy and overall depth (perfectly) with breathing control.

The fact is, it -can- cause CO2 build-up, and -may- cause blackouts, but like everything involved in leaving the natural human environment, and entering a sub-aquatic one, the risks and dangers involved vary for each person.

Dweeb (the guy that got kicked for no reason) was a 165 lb decathlete. and I'm 5'9" and 300 lbs, with a 48 inch waist, and my air consumption is as good or better than his.

I breath slow, and relaxed, just not at a natural rhythm like topside.

I frequently hold inhalation to adjust depth, or exhale to drop.

The only time I've ever had a CO2 hit underwater was trying to keep up with a diver named Rich Lesperence, who is (maybe) second only to Dan Volker for speed underwater.

The most experienced diver I know, with incredibly low consumption, admonishes students continually not to skip breath.

Then he got a new video camera, and guess what, you can time his breathing during dives.

Very enlightening.

Skip breathing is a big term, make sure you know what it encompasses.

 

[BigJetDriver]

Try skip-breathing with a FFM, as I did for an experiment, and the absolutely blinding headache will convince you not to do it again! (Done shallow, with an experienced buddy who was well briefed.) Ouch!

 

[liberato]

...I frequently hold inhalation to adjust depth, or exhale to drop...

After reading some of the descriptions here I skip breathe but did not know that is what it was called and I only use it for momentary buoyancy control. Full breath, half exhale, full breath, half exhale to go positive; half breath, full exhale, half breath, full exhale to go negative. I don't remember being taught that, it is just something I stumbled upon and thought everyone did as they became a more refined diver. My regular neutral breathing is normal, though. So, is that not how breathing is supposed to be applied to buoyancy control?

 

[Keysdrifter454]

After reading some of the descriptions here I skip breathe but did not know that is what it was called and I only use it for momentary buoyancy control. Full breath, half exhale, full breath, half exhale to go positive; half breath, full exhale, half breath, full exhale to go negative. I don't remember being taught that, it is just something I stumbled upon and thought everyone did as they became a more refined diver. My regular neutral breathing is normal, though. So, is that not how breathing is supposed to be applied to buoyancy control?

Depends on who you ask.

Works just great for me.

I'd say that more experienced divers are skip breathers than are willing to admit (and may not even know).

Frankly, I think if anyone doesn't know what Insperatory Reserve Volume is, they don't know as much about bouyancy and/or air consumption as they think.

 

[lamont]

i'll inhale deeply, hold, exhale slowly, then inhale. my understanding was that skip breathing was holding your breath after exhaling, or not breathing in deeply enough. i'll do skip breathing sometimes for buoyancy control, where i'm breathing out of the top or bottom of my lungs, but that's never more than a couple of seconds...

i was breathing like this last night and had no headache issues...

 

[ShakaZulu]

i'll inhale deeply, hold, exhale slowly, then inhale. my understanding was that skip breathing was holding your breath after exhaling, or not breathing in deeply enough. i'll do skip breathing sometimes for buoyancy control, where i'm breathing out of the top or bottom of my lungs, but that's never more than a couple of seconds...

i was breathing like this last night and had no headache issues...

I do the same, I think more people do it with knowing.