What is your average Air Consumption?

[Atticus]

I plan all dives at 1.0 and have *almost* always done better than plan (and a good thing that is!).

If nothing else, it gives me a margin of safety in the form of extra gas.

 

[DeepScuba]

Ding ding ding, Rick gets the prize!!!!!

SAC rate undersetimated.......EGO's over estimated. Unless your simply "laying" in the water. Which I'm understanding is what most here do by the sounds of things........NOTHING wrong with that!!!!!! SCUBA is meant for enjoyment FIRST!

But don't expect those SAC rates diving wrecks, running reels, pulling against current, changing decks, remembering orientation of the dive in low VIS, diving DRY in the cold.......Ya know, REAL diving.


And uhm Dr Bill, I said "cool" too.

Is this the part where I say, that damn "Cold" (MID 40's) is a Bittch?

Hahaha, I'm just jealous I have to call upper 40's "fairly warm".

 

[Lead_carrier]

coliseum once bubbled...
I have an air integrated computer.. it graciously tells me how many minutes of air I have emaining at the current depth and amount of breathing...

I still dunno how to measure SAC??!?!

And you lay claim to being a PADI OWSI ??? If you are truly an OWSI and you can't measure SAC then how in the name of Jacque Cousteau di you get through your courses? Take the NAUI/SSI/YMCA/BSAC/PADI open water course. To my knowledge SAC is covered in all of them.. or supposed to be. :wacko:

 

[GreenDiverDown]

Lead_carrier once bubbled...


And you lay claim to being a PADI OWSI ??? If you are truly an OWSI and you can't measure SAC then how in the name of Jacque Cousteau di you get through your courses? Take the NAUI/SSI/YMCA/BSAC/PADI open water course. To my knowledge SAC is covered in all of them.. or supposed to be. :wacko:

PADI doesn't teach SAC rates...not in BOW...or any other course. They talk about it a little in AOW and they might cover it in their tec-rec thing...not sure...but one can definitely get all the way thru the IE and not know what their SAC rates are or how to figure them.

SA

 

[GreenDiverDown]

Most of the folks around here aren't doing dives where they need to plan their dives using SAC rates. I'm sure most of them have an "idea" of their air consumption...whether they use it faster, slower, or about the same as other divers...but its obvious that those who know how to calculate their SAC rates and actually apply that to dive planning are in the minority.

SA

For what its worth...

I teach how to calculate SAC rates and how to use that...and "rock bottom" and the "rule of halves", etc in my AOW class. I even give out some cool laminated cards with tables that make figuring DCR, RB, and AAT quick and easy. I make the effort to teach my students the importance of these skills and encourage them to use them on all of their dives until they are comfortable with the concepts. Hopefully, when they do any dive of substance they will remember to plan their dive with these things in mind. But I know that on their average "tour the reef in sixty feet of water" dive that they are just gonna jump in!

SA

 

[Rick Murchison]

Stephen Ash once bubbled...
DCR, RB, and AAT

Just guessing...
"Depth Consumption Rate"
"Rock Bottom"
"Actual Air Time"
Close?
I expect I teach all those things too... and others... never heard the acronyms, though.
Please illucidate and elaborate.
Thanks,
Rick

 

[GreenDiverDown]

Yah, you got it. Nothing new.

But I use AAT to mean Available Air Time...not to be confused with Allowable Bottom Time. AAT is the amount of time allowed at a particular depth given a set amount of air and a specified Depth Consumtion Rate. Obviously, the AAT can exceed the NDL for a particular depth.

Does that make sense?

SA

 

[GreenDiverDown]

Dang it...I forgot...Rick, check your email...the .bz one.

SA

 

[Scuba_Vixen]

That no one has mentioned the "mamalian immersion response" or whatever name you learned it as. It's the technique where you breath without a mask at the surface (snorkel) and then at 15' or so (about 10 mins each) And then go do your dive.....the heartrates drop dramatically (in some cases below 20bpm) and respirations drop to as low as 1 to 2/min. I would imagine that some people's bodies go into some less intense mode of this response as the dive begins. It would go a long way towards explaining the breathing in the video.

Having the advantage of great diving conditions here, I still can't manage better than .44cft/min on average, little higher on the bottom, slightly lower on deco....There seems to be a practicle lower limit for those of us that are mere mortals. As for those who have the sub .2cft rates, they are few, but I know of at least 1 below .2, and another who's close, below .3..... both are small female instructors with Thousands of dives...and maybe small gills.

It's been an interesting thread, and to the "super low sac rate skeptics", Yep, they really do have rates that low, pi$$es me off
incredibly that I'm not one of them..........

Darlene

 

[Rick Murchison]

Scuba_Vixen once bubbled...
That no one has mentioned the "mamalian immersion response" or whatever name you learned it as.

nt
Rick