One thing that no one has mentioned is getting in shape. Go to the gym, do some workouts at home, or go for a run/job/walk/swim. The more in shape you get the less strained you will get kicking underwater and your lungs will begin to use air more efficiently. Everything else others have mentioned is good advice, most of it will come with time though.
need help because i use too much before everybody else
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I can't believe it . . . I wrote a long, detailed answer to this thread, and it's not here!
First off, as everybody has said, high gas consumption is more the rule than the exception with new divers. At the end of this post is a link to a little essay I wrote about this.
Second, you have had two important lessons on why you should keep your early dives shallow and simple. You're not ready to go deep yet -- your gas consumption is too high, and worse, you don't have the tools to know how long you can safely expect to be at depth, nor do you appear to have built in the good habits of gas checking that would have had you ascending before you had to go on someone else's gas (TWICE!) It's nice that you got to practice air-sharing, but ideally this is done in SHALLOW water, as a drill, when everybody has plenty of gas. Running out of air is the precipitating factor in many deaths -- you need to change things around so you don't do this.
HERE is an article on gas management that you might find educational.
And HERE is the link to my essay.
First off, as everybody has said, high gas consumption is more the rule than the exception with new divers. At the end of this post is a link to a little essay I wrote about this.
Second, you have had two important lessons on why you should keep your early dives shallow and simple. You're not ready to go deep yet -- your gas consumption is too high, and worse, you don't have the tools to know how long you can safely expect to be at depth, nor do you appear to have built in the good habits of gas checking that would have had you ascending before you had to go on someone else's gas (TWICE!) It's nice that you got to practice air-sharing, but ideally this is done in SHALLOW water, as a drill, when everybody has plenty of gas. Running out of air is the precipitating factor in many deaths -- you need to change things around so you don't do this.
HERE is an article on gas management that you might find educational.
And HERE is the link to my essay.
I
idocsteve
Guest
I was hoping to add something that wasn't already covered in this thread but I see my two suggestions were already posted, nonetheless I'll throw in the two things that made the biggest difference to me, aside from becoming more experienced over time.
1) If you're overweight and out of shape and a quick trip up the stairs or mild physical exertion causes you to get short of breath, then spend 3-5 times a week doing aerobic exercise such as a treadmill to trim the extra weight and increase the efficiency of your lungs.
2) At the start of a dive, many or even most divers are a bit anxious, because submersing your body under water goes against instinct. Even seasoned divers are not always immune to this phenomena. Plus the physical exertion required to gear up and get in the water gets the heart rate going and the respiration faster. Add them both together and you're sucking more air than you need to be, and as another poster said, the air at the surface is free. So don't rush to get to the bottom of that anchor line. Give yourself a minute or three to calm down, use the time to double check your rig and make sure you can reach all your BCD buttons, and you can find your knife, and your light, and whatever else you might need to reach for during the dive.
1) If you're overweight and out of shape and a quick trip up the stairs or mild physical exertion causes you to get short of breath, then spend 3-5 times a week doing aerobic exercise such as a treadmill to trim the extra weight and increase the efficiency of your lungs.
2) At the start of a dive, many or even most divers are a bit anxious, because submersing your body under water goes against instinct. Even seasoned divers are not always immune to this phenomena. Plus the physical exertion required to gear up and get in the water gets the heart rate going and the respiration faster. Add them both together and you're sucking more air than you need to be, and as another poster said, the air at the surface is free. So don't rush to get to the bottom of that anchor line. Give yourself a minute or three to calm down, use the time to double check your rig and make sure you can reach all your BCD buttons, and you can find your knife, and your light, and whatever else you might need to reach for during the dive.
fnfalman
Contributor
I can't stress it enough and at the risk of sounding repetitive but PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do not rely on Divemasters and Instructors any more during the dive. Rely on yourself. Make up your own dive plan and stick to it. By all means let others in the group know what you're planning to do and get their buy-in. But if you're not comfortable with something then terminate the dive.
Head back to the surface on your own if you have to, but DO NOT stay until you run out of air or narced out of your mind.
You can pay for a divemaster's/diveguide's service but in the end they are not jointed at the hips with you and you need to look out for yourself first.
Head back to the surface on your own if you have to, but DO NOT stay until you run out of air or narced out of your mind.
You can pay for a divemaster's/diveguide's service but in the end they are not jointed at the hips with you and you need to look out for yourself first.
Aloha John
I was with her and I let her us my air at the end of our safety stop she was not out but very low 100-150 we were only doing a max depth of 55' when we started up she had, what seemed to be enough air. But she has been having to kick a lot just to hold her safety stop, i'm thinking that was most if not all the problem. The DM had her remove 6 lbs on the boat, it seemed better but at the next safety stop he said she was a little lite? I don't know if she was still kicking or if she had air in her BC? I will work with her on our next dive. Yes we are very much newbes and are always learning and doing training in our pool, which we had just done an emergency out of air situation on Friday. In noway I wound I want to put her or myself in any danger, she is my wife and dive partner. We have been trying to figure out what is the actual problem so we can learn from our mistakes but be safe also. She was weighted down with 22 lbs of lead, as was added to by our AOW instructor on the PPB dive. He also had me at 16 lbs which I knew we were both way over weighted, we both have 3mm full wetsuits on. We were both very unhappy with our PPB dive it seemed like the instructor just was no help with her, we even had talked to him before we went out about the issues she was having, using a lot of air and not trimmed out good.
I have been working on lowering my weight, i'm at 12 now, and have been talking to her about hers. I want her to feel and be aware of the over weight issue so she can fix it and know what she is fixing. We talked to the DM, about doing the full PPB class with him rather then at the other LDS, which has been a great place for us and maybe the instructor was just having a bad day.
I want to thank everyone for all the feedback you have been giving we need it, we all learn from our mistakes and will grow to be better divers.
Randy
pacificgal
Rest in Peace...
22 pounds sounds like way, way too much for a 3 mil wetsuit in warm water.
LeadTurn_SD
Contributor
aloha scuba mom and Scuba_HI,
Like a lot of new divers, it sounds like you came out of basic OW overweighted. You do need to get this corrected ASAP, because in addition to the air-use issue, it poses potential safety problems (in the event of a BC failure).
Please keep asking questions, there is a wealth of knowledge on this board. I'd also direct you to the Hawaii O'hana section of this board, to get recommendations for good local instructors / DM's in your area to help get your buoyancy "squared away".
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/hawaii-ohana/
I'll chime in with the rest giving you warnings about "too deep, too soon". Stay shallow until you get your buoyancy and air consumption issues handled.
Oh, and welcome to scubaboard!
Best wishes.
Like a lot of new divers, it sounds like you came out of basic OW overweighted. You do need to get this corrected ASAP, because in addition to the air-use issue, it poses potential safety problems (in the event of a BC failure).
Please keep asking questions, there is a wealth of knowledge on this board. I'd also direct you to the Hawaii O'hana section of this board, to get recommendations for good local instructors / DM's in your area to help get your buoyancy "squared away".
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/hawaii-ohana/
I'll chime in with the rest giving you warnings about "too deep, too soon". Stay shallow until you get your buoyancy and air consumption issues handled.
Oh, and welcome to scubaboard!
Best wishes.
fisheater
Contributor
Any local dive club (that does regulars dives) you two can join?
Having your wife as a dive buddy is a great blessing. My wife and I dive together and I diving just does not get any better!
Find a mentor or good instructor that does not immediately pack on the lead to teach you buoyancy. That's signal #1 that they are not interested or capable enough to really give you solid instruction.
Finally, congratulations on your certifications and making this a couples activity. Remember this as well; Scuba is not a race or a competition. Scuba is supposed to be fun and (to me) one of the best things a couple can do as a team. Continue with your training but most of all, keep diving and have fun!
In re the kicking at the safety stop -- having to kick to avoid sinking does not necessarily mean you are overweighted. It means you are negative, just as having to kick at any depth in order to avoid sinking means that you are negative.
Most people try to weight themselves so they are neutral at 15 fsw with 500 psi in the tank. I don't, because I want to be able to control the subsequent 15 feet of ascent, so I add a couple of pounds. Therefore, if I had no gas in my BC or drysuit at 15 feet, I'd sink. So I add a little gas, and voila! I'm neutral, and not finning. This is the skill you need to master.
If you have access to somewhere where you can do some simple, shallow diving, burn up a couple of tanks playing with this. Get yourself into maybe fifteen feet of water. Try to hover five feet off the bottom. See how quiet in the water you can be. Try exhaling, and see if you sink. Try inhaling and breathing with your lungs full, and notice that you rise. Go up five feet and stop, and hover there (you'll have to adjust your BC!) Just play with various spots in the water column, with being neutral and then deliberately going positive or negative, and then reestablishing neutral at a different depth. It may not go smoothly at first, and you may have some splats into the bottom, or some corking (which is why you do this shallow!) but time spent playing with this will pay off handsomely in more relaxed, more enjoyable dives.
A good, formal weight check at the beginning of this session will help a lot, too.
Most people try to weight themselves so they are neutral at 15 fsw with 500 psi in the tank. I don't, because I want to be able to control the subsequent 15 feet of ascent, so I add a couple of pounds. Therefore, if I had no gas in my BC or drysuit at 15 feet, I'd sink. So I add a little gas, and voila! I'm neutral, and not finning. This is the skill you need to master.
If you have access to somewhere where you can do some simple, shallow diving, burn up a couple of tanks playing with this. Get yourself into maybe fifteen feet of water. Try to hover five feet off the bottom. See how quiet in the water you can be. Try exhaling, and see if you sink. Try inhaling and breathing with your lungs full, and notice that you rise. Go up five feet and stop, and hover there (you'll have to adjust your BC!) Just play with various spots in the water column, with being neutral and then deliberately going positive or negative, and then reestablishing neutral at a different depth. It may not go smoothly at first, and you may have some splats into the bottom, or some corking (which is why you do this shallow!) but time spent playing with this will pay off handsomely in more relaxed, more enjoyable dives.
A good, formal weight check at the beginning of this session will help a lot, too.
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