Tips on Lowering Air Consumption

[cirwin]

Hi All,

I am a new diver (a dozen logged dives), and I tend to go through my air pretty quickly. I know none of you are suriprised to hear this, but on an aluminum 80 (the local shop fills to 2700 psi) at 30 feet, I am down to 500 psi in about 35 minutes. My dive instructor claims he can get 2 hours out of the same setup and the same conditions. I have no idea if he is full of it or not, but I am wondering if any of you have any tips for me. Here is some other info about me:

I believe that I am properly weighted
I don't have hoses dangling everywhere
I am not nervous underwater, and I feel pretty relaxed

Thanks for the help!

 

[Diver Dennis]

Give it time. The more you dive the better you'll be on air, there is no magic bullet.

 

[TheRedHead]

You'll get more relaxed as your gain experience. Some people, particularly big guys, use more air than others. Women generally use less air than men. You want to make long inhalations and exhalations. Count to 3 while you are inhaling and count to 5 while exhaling. You can also use a larger capacity cylinder if you are not getting enough dive time. Don't sweat it right now. Don't let the instructor make you feel bad about your air consumption.

 

[SparticleBrane]

Sounds like a big claim on your instructor's part...
edit: Well...I can see it, I guess. It'll take a little time; you'll get there.

 

[Skyjunky]

Dive more. Strive for inhaling 6 seconds and exhaling for 8.

 

[Firefyter]

Learn to be still. Seriously, lots of people move more and faster than they have to. Slow everything down, don't use your arms or hands, and just plain stop moving once in a while. Find a training platform, or someplace with a hard bottom that you can see, get neutral, and hover a couple of feet from the bottom and don't move. This helps with bouyancy skills as well as being able to relax, and has the potential to increase bottom time as well. You may think you're relaxed now, but try this and see if it doesn't help.

 

[Rick Inman]

Gary D. always suggests using the xaler method, and it works!

 

[TSandM]

Something that can help enormously is getting into trim. If you are tilted feet down, then when you kick, you force yourself upwards; that requires that you keep yourself negative all the time. It's very inefficient.

Try just holding absolutely still -- no kicking, no hand movement -- and see what happens. If you're stable and horizontal, that's wonderful. If you tilt, try moving some weight around until you can hover horizontal. At that point, all your effort moves you forward, and you waste much less energy.

 

[Doc Harry]

Concentrate at all times on keeping your breathing under control. If you don't always pay attention your breathing - especially when you're doing something else - you'll suck through a lot of gas before you know it.

For instance, if you need to fiddle with your mask - do so, but also concentrate on keeping your breathing under control during that time frame.

You'd be surprised to see how much gas you can suck down with 30 seconds of excited inattention.

 

[stevetim]

I didn't see it in earlier posts but...you do understand the importance of "don't hold your breath" while trying to go through your tank slowly? I caught myself a couple of times trying to slow my breathing to the point it was literally a breath hold. As a new diver myself I can assure you it comes with time. My first 5 dives or so @ 40fsw were about 40 minutes until ascent @ 700psi. Now at that depth I go around 60 minutes with a 700psi ascent. These are boat dives starting @ 3000psi. For me the biggest change was just getting used to my gear which in turn cuts out any unnecessary movements. Bouyancy control is probably one of the biggest factors in air consumption. If you keep hitting that button and pulling that exhaust valve, your air does go quite quickly.