Guide for Big guys (and gals) for diving

[Drewpy]

Ill chime in as well-Im 6-5" and go about 270. Not necessarliy oveweight( yeah right) but just a big guy! Im an avid Mt Biker and consider my self to be in fairly decent shape for just turning forty!
But I understand what he is saying! There is no way my buddies (who are about 10yers younger and weigh about 170) and i are going to have the same air consumption!It really sucks cutting everyone elses dive short because you are tank sucker-My consumption has improved but there is no way it will ever be equal to my little wimpy dive buddies. Our last trip to Cozumel I chose Aldora because they use the HP120s! What a difference! Over 1 hour bottom times and no hard looks from the air sippers!
What else can I do to try to even things out...?
My DM in Cozumel said "hey your just a big guy-bigger lungs and more tissue that needs o2....just try to relax more...?
What has helped some of you other BIG GUYS and or girls?

Im also off to Roatan in march COCO View! where are you staying Lanshark? anyone know if COCO view has larger tanks for us larger guys?

 

[Dee]

We'll be at CoCo View again in April. I don't think they have tanks larger than AL80's. I know they have a few AL63's, though.

Beast is a pretty good sized fella, 6'6", 275#. His biggest improvement in air consumption came from just relaxing and not worrying about others. At home, he uses a set of '72 doubles

 

[Big-t-2538]

That is my best advice to you larger individuals, take a look at my profile...I'm not skinny and I'm not afraid to say it.

I am 6' dead flat, and tip in at 240 (+/- depending on the day). I have pulled 90 minutes out of an AL80 tank, in 60 degree water at Gilboa quarry. Granted we didn't break 40 ft...but I was damn happy to get 90 minutes out of a tank....

However, my advice remains to relax in the water...I don't want to boast, but I've never met someone more comfortable in the water than myself (you can ask BerRabbit...she knows me pretty well). Spend time in the water without your SCUBA gear..go swimming at the local watering hole, go swimming with your kids, go pond hopping in your neighbors man made hole. A large part of my comfort in the water is due to the fact I've been in and around it since I could walk. When I first started SCUBA 4 years ago, I will say my consumption was higher than it is now, it was something new and it took some "getting used to", but now that I'm comfortable with my gear, and trust my buddy, there aren't a lot of people out there whose dives I'm cutting short.

Advice...get used to the water...it's where you want to spend your time anyway.

 

[raybo]

Big-t-2538 once bubbled...

Advice...get used to the water...it's where you want to spend your time anyway.

I have to agree being relaxed in the water has as much (if not more) to do with air consumption than size. I'm 6'-1", +/-215.

I dive mostly rented al80's. When we're on vacation, I can get as much bottom time as almost everyone on the boat, and have air left over.

Especially on a drift dive. One of the things that helped me wa s to get the weight down. In Cozumel, with 3mm FJ/shorty combo I started at 18-20. By the middle of the week, I was at about 12lbs +/- 1. Biggest person on the boat, and got to where I was last back on the boat with 1200-1500 left. Others with 200-500 left.Just took a look at the Log Book. Running staight tables, I was pretty close to maxed out on bottom time. I know computers add to "bottom time". I have two that I carry now. One wrist, one AI console. But I still run tables just in case.

That's been a pattern. Got a drysuit last fall. Started with 28-30, and the air consumption went in the dumper. Got used to it, and how to "wear" it, and I'm down to 22-24 depending on the underwear, and consumption is back down where it should be.

Don't know about CoCo, but we were in Roatan a year ago November, and al80's were pretty much standard.

 

[Drewpy]

Well so much for my theory( bigger lungs and body =more air) and thanks to all-I did a practice dive at my LDS pool yesterday and found out I was useing way to much weight -started out with 20# and was able to drop to 12# even with 500 left in the Al80-so hopefuly this will make a difference!(will adjust for saltwater in Roatan)
I agree with the relaxation - my first dive in Coz my consumption was terrible-anxiety,nerves,no dives in almost 2yrs etc-but as the week wore on improved greatly. Now that I have my own gear, Im sure that will help as well:diver:

 

[DiverBuoy]

Your story ... is why I always advocate if you can afford only one piece of gear make it your BC first.

My dad 60yrs old, is a big guy and he weighs about 240. We just returned from the Carribean - Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. He is a new diver just certified by me last summer. Of course in the Caribe he had to shed quite a bit of weight dropping down from a 7mm suit in California to a 1mm body skin. But he cut his weight in half down to 12 Lbs. Using his Zeagle Ranger unlimited he was able to distribute the weight and obtain solid trim as well.

I was really pleased ... he just called me this morning as he's telling all of his friends and neighbors about his trip it finally hit him. He said "Son, I hadn't yet figured out what everyone loved so much about the actual diving itself but I can tell you with perfect trim and weighting - I get it now! How soon can we go again?"

My reply "Uh like yesterday dad!"

 

[sparhawk]

I am a larger diver, 6'6" 350lbs, and I have found several ways to improve my diving experience in a much "safer" way than some of lanshark's tips.

First of all the comfort of a BC is very important, I have finally found one that I personally like. It is a Seaquest Pro QD+ surelock, I like it because you can order it in a XXXL which fits me very well.

Second of all the regulator that I have found to be the best for larger divers is one that provides a larger flow of air through the second stage. I have two aqua lung regulators that I find work very well. Once again comfort in use is ultimatly important. Also cheap does not mean better.

The main comment I would like to make is in regards to the tank choices Lanshark mentioned, and that is to be very careful when diving with different Cu.Ft., or PSI. tanks than you dive buddy. I, with the help of a 35yr. veteran in diving (both professionally and recreationally) have devised a system to help improve dive times. This involves the use of a larger low-pressure steel tank for local diving ( I use a 131cuft steel), and double tanks when renting tanks. This first system requires both divers to use seperate turn around times to avoid O.O.A. situations from being too much of a problem. Also when you are a bigger user of air I have found it comforting to add a pony tank to my set-up instead of a octo for OOA conditions.

The rental system is a bit more complicated to use, but my dive buddies are glad I have gone through the trouble, Since my SAC rate is about 60-65, which is about double the average diver. To sovle this "on the road" I use a modified technical cave diving set-up. With the help of my friend from before, we have combined my pony and primary regulators with what are called travel bands. These bands are made of brass, and have the same bands that are found on most BC's to hold the tanks in place. Then I just put a regulator on each tank and draw air in intervals from each 2nd stage, in about 750-1000psi incriments. This trade off between 2nd stages is to avaoid OOA situations cause by a tank blow out or other loss of air. The only trouble I have found was that I had to get rid of my air intergrated computer because it could not calculate both tanks since they are not connected, so I went to a regular computer console.

I hope this helps some people to make their diving, as well as a buddy's much more enjoyable in the future.

I was going to make other comments about weighting and other issues Lanshark made, but others have already addressed this issue.

 

[diver_paula]

What has helped some of you other BIG GUYS and or girls?

I'm 5'6" and very overweight. I've also been diving for 16 years. Primarily cold walter shipwrecks (and quarrys! LOL) but also warm water all over the world.

I've only dove with a couple people that have better air consumption than I do. That wasn't so when I started but came with time.

Air consumption tips:

1) Dive, dive, dive. With more experience you become more comfortable and will breathe more naturally.
2) RELAX!
3) DO NOT try to skip breathe. You'll just end up getting a huge headache.
4) Big, deep, slow, full breathes. It will naturally relax you.
5) Oh course, just getting in better shape will help too.
6) If your air consumption bugs your buddy, find a new buddy. The last thing you need is to be needled about your air consumption. Or for you to worry about running out of air faster than your buddy.
7) Work on getting properly weighted.

Travelling tips:
1) Take your own weight belt (sans weights). It's the only way you can be sure there is one to fit. (& integrated weights just don't work on this body / short torso.)
2) Ditto on the thermal protection - take your own.
3) If the weights at the dive site aren't the type of weights you usually use there are all kinds of ways to add weight. A couple are ankle weight around the neck of your tank. A weight belt with a couple pounds around the the tank.
4) Just have fun!

BC help:
1) Don't fret - you will find a buoyancy device that works. I had trouble given my weight / short torso situation. Larger sizes usually mean longer torso and they just didn't work for me.
2) If you are using a BC there are cumberbund extenders. The ones I had were velcro sleeves that went over the existing cumberbund to extend it.
3) Backplate / harness systems are very adjustable. Try 'em, you just might like it.

Just my 2 cents. Hope it helps someone.
Paula

 

[Norm Keller]

I'm of the same opinion as to BCD inflation. I always use mouth but that's just because I like to keep my mind on the gear. I don't advocate it as a practice but simply find that I'm more comfortable doing so. Having taken up diving in a third world country I could likely write a book on equipment failures so maybe that's why I like to do as much manually as possible. Several times jammed BCD valves would have ended dives but I'm so comfortable with mouth inflation that it doesn't interfere. Having my own gear hasn't made me change the habits formed with third world rental gear. I simply expect to have failures. VBG

I, too, only dive in warm water.

You're absolutely right, I should have placed a caveat with the information that I provided. I should have specified that I was only was speaking in terms of warm water diving. (Yes, I eventually plan on heading south permanently).

I'm currently 250 lbs and was using 20 lbs of lead with a 3mm shorty. My point was that even my amount of experience tells me that integrated is the way to go (I'll add provided that it will comfortably support the amount of weight for the type of person you are and the type of diving that you are doing. Obviously you shouldn't try to use more weight than the BC that you are using can comfortably lift. I will never use a weight belt unless it's absolutely necessary in addition to my integrated weights ( would want as little as possible on a weight belt) (Dry suit diving etc).

As for my recommendations on air conservation. The type of dives we were doing in Cozumel were multi-level drift dives (With computer). With the bigger tank I and my dive buddy could actually finish the dives when scheduled, we would both finish with about 1200 PSI left. The Dive time was based on 35-50 minutes or 750 PSI whichever comes first. Why would I want to purposely shorten someone elses bottom time by using a tank that is too small for me. On a number of occasions on the dive boats we had divers blowing through an 80 cu ft tank at 60 feet in 25 minutes. I'm sure their dive buddy was really happy about it.

My reasoning for not using the elevator button is that the deeper I go, the more air I need to use to inflate the vest to stay neutrally bouyant. That's air I could use myself, as far as I am concerned, every little bit helps. remember that little jar diagram on day one of the first course we all took? Same thing applies here.

My pet peeve is that when I get on a dive boat. the O-ring on the rental tanks that I will be using for life support should be in perfect condition. On multiple occasions I've had to change tanks even though the O-ring looked good but leaked like a seive anyway. I'd offer to change the O-ring and use one of my spares but they would just tell me to use another tank instead. Fortunately there were always extra tanks on the boats. Sometimes it would take up to four tries before we could find a tank with an O-ring that looked good and actually was good. I would look at other divers and be blown away by the amount of air leaking from their O-ring and in some cases, the rental gear they were using. The dive master would even have gear that I wouldn't dive with.

This happened at two dive shops I dealt with in Cozumel, Dive with Martin and Papa hogs.

The Other issue that bugs me is that I expect a tank to be full when I mount my regulator. I hate shortened bottom time because of tanks that are at 2750 PSI instead of the rated 3000 or so. On a dive, that can be an additional 5 minutes or more of bottom time.

 

[5615mike]

The air you will use to inflate your BCD at depth to maintain neutral is a very small ammout, it won't make a difference, it's not more than a breath or two.

I dive with a number of people that in the 200lbs+ range that have noraml or better than normal air consumption, being a "big" diver doesn not necessarily mean you have to be awful on air.


I can't comment on much else since I dive only in cold water, although the rule of thirds seems a bit extreme for a shallow reef dive, and although it may seems simple enough, it's actually can be a tricky rule.

Ditto

If your properly weighted then your not using much air in cell anyway.