First time Saltwater/Boat diving.

[DanMont]

Hello all,

I have been reading through this Forum for a couple of days and thought I better sign myself up. I got my certification in October last year (through BSAC) and have only dived in freshwater quarries so far (training plus another days diving). In a couple of weeks time I am going off for a weekend's boat diving and as I have not dived from a boat before or in saltwater was wondering if there were any bits of advice you could give me.

I know I will need more weight in saltwater, but how much extra should I need? I will be diving with a drysuit and have used 12kg (26 pounds) in my freshwater dives and have been comfortable underwater with no real buoyancy issues.

I also find that i use up my air quicker than my buddy while diving, which is annoying for both of us! Any tips for a newbie like me to try and minimise air consumption? Reading through the sticky about weighting i had been wondering if i had too much weight on (I am 5"10' and weigh 70kg) but I don't really need to fiddle with putting air in/out of my drysuit too much (i think!).

Sorry if these are idiotic questions! But i would appreciate any advice or tips.

Dan

 

[TartanFrog]

Doing a weight check just like you learned in OW course is the best way to know you are properly weighted. And add a kg for compensating for a lighter tank toward the end of the dives.

Breathing: Relax and take long, slow breaths in and slow breaths out. When I feel I am sucking a lot of air I intentionally time my breathing for a few cycles and then try to slow it down accordingly. Everybody consumes air differently. I dive with some very experienced divers that seem to come back with more air then what they had when we entered the water. Just kidding, but there is no way I can match their breathing skills. At least not yet.

Have fun and keep diving. Your buoyancy and breathing will get better over time.

 

[susanlouise]

I use 32 lb in a drysuit, freshwater, and i'm much heavier/buoyant than you, so I suspect you might be a tad overweighted. Will you be with a divemaster? He can help you take the time for the weight check, hand you more weight until you can go down. Also divemasters will generally carry a little extra weight just in case you need some more during the dive.

Improvement with air comes with time and it's almost like the more you think about it the worse it gets. With experience you will relax more and move less and your air consumption will get better. It's well understood that newbies use more air and the divemaster should have a plan for that.

 

[alan_lee]

What I advise my students to do is to check if they are having problems maintaining their buoyancy at their last safety stop, ie. too much weight if you need to put it more air to stay at that depth, need more weight if you're floating up even though you've completely deflated your BC. This is also usually the time when your tank is running lower on air.

As for your consumption, there could be a lot of reasons for your consumption rate: could be weightage, could be too much movements (eg. use of hands), etc. The best thing to do is to get someone like your regular buddy to watch you and give you feedback.

Have fun!

 

[DanMont]

There are a group of 12 of us going 5 of which are dive masters so I am sure I won't have any problems!

I suspected I would just have to practice and gain more dive time to work on my air consumption, was just hoping there might be some tips that could give me some quick improvement.

 

[LowDrag]

Go with what others above have said above. Do a good weight check, think about slowing your breathing and work on buoyancy. Getting your buoyancy down will help keep you from moving your arms around so much. Good luck with your dive, let us know how it goes.

 

[Dsix36]

I weigh about 150 lbs and the difference in weighting for me to go from salt to fresh water is 4 lbs.

 

[faze]

You will drive your weight and your air usage down over time if you concentrate on it - two years ago I was on a 15l tank with 8kg's... most dive centres were happy with that and let me continue, happy with my dives. I'm now a 10l with 4 kg's because I started diving at a centre that wouldn't allow me to simply be lazy a diver - totally changed my diving!

 

[TSandM]

The rule of thumb is that you add 2.5% of the total weight of you and your gear, when you go from fresh to salt water. That's generally in the range of 5 to 7 pounds, unless you are very big or very small.

As far as gas consumption goes, I have written a number of long posts about it, which you can search for, but I'll give you the Cliff Notes version:

1. Efficiency is the big driver of gas consumption. The less you move, the less gas you use. If you can hover, motionless and horizontal, then the only moving you need to do is what you have to to get you somewhere.

2. The slower you go, the less energy you use, and the longer your gas lasts (and the more you see).

3. Rapid, shallow breathing is an inefficient way to use your gas -- longer, slower breaths optimize lung ventilation.

4. Neutral buoyancy is important. If you are not diving neutral, then you are expending energy simply to prevent sinking or rising. If you are neutral, you don't have to do that. (Of course, if you are neutral and not horizontal, then when you do kick, you will drive yourself off depth. This is the big reason for correcting your trim!)

5. Correct weighting makes buoyancy control easier, and the less unstable you are, the less you have to move around to stabilize yourself -- and the less gas you use.

6. The more muscle mass you have, the more metabolism you have, and the more gas you will use. Therefore, it's unlikely that a 6 foot man will ever be as efficient with gas as a 5 foot woman. Give up and get bigger tanks

 

[Edward3c]

There are a group of 12 of us going 5 of which are dive masters so I am sure I won't have any problems!

I suspected I would just have to practice and gain more dive time to work on my air consumption, was just hoping there might be some tips that could give me some quick improvement.

I'm a little confused. You say you qualified with BSAC yet your going out with Dive Masters (not a BSAC grade)?


During your Ocean Diver theory lesson (OT3) your instructor would have gone over the change in weighting between fresh and salt water.


As its you first time in the sea (and off a boat) you should ideally by buddied with an instructor. But if you were my student I would take you in the sea, via a shore dive (easier to add/remove lead), then off a boat. Its all about learning progressively learning one new thing at a time.

Kind regards