Once a gas hog...

[Gombessa]

I'm sure most everyone is a gas hog when they first start diving, and experience promotes calm, familiarity, and technique to help sip air.

I'm interested in hearing about the latter - what techniques have you tried/discovered that have helped you reduce your air usage? I remember reading in a vacation tour book that one person found that breathing continuously but very slowly was the epiphany for the author to move from being the first in a group to go LOA to the the last. So what have other people found?

 

[Skyjunky]

I had an instructor that told me to focus on inhaling for 8 seconds and exhaling for 6. It made a big difference.

 

[TSandM]

You're looking for breathing techniques, but I'd say getting correctly weighted and trimmed out horizontally, and learning to frog kick, had more effect on my gas consumption than anything else.

 

[RJP]

You're looking for breathing techniques, but I'd say getting correctly weighted and trimmed out horizontally, and learning to frog kick, had more effect on my gas consumption than anything else.

Quite right - maximizing "consumption" of gas is not about how much passes in and out of your mouth, but rather about how efficient you are in "burning" the gas in your muscles.

 

[brdr882]

keep your hands still. the only thing they really do is waste air. some people fold them across their chest, others clasp them. the main idea is the less excess movement the less your body has to work and that uses less oxygen making you breath less.

 

[PerroneFord]

Getting neutral, getting "quiet in the water", getting into proper trim, frog kicking, not rushing during the dive, breathing slowly.

Beyond that, might want to work on your fitness.

 

[fisherdvm]

Well fitted wetsuit with minimal compression on the chest and abdomen makes a big difference. A few weeks ago I met this very large man, who said he could hardly breath once under... The largest of the suit at the dive shop could barely fit him.

Others have argued with me, but try to put on a tight suit, and you would realize that your tidal volume is greatly diminished.

 

[SparticleBrane]

keep your hands still. the only thing they really do is waste air.

Amen to that! You've touched one of my pet peeves.

90% of divers, including most instructors (no surprise there) and a good number of tech divers, wave their hands around all over the place. WHO the heck are you waving to?! All it's doing is showing me that you're uncomfortable being in the water, and you're not stable in your rig (thus you toss your hands out to steady yourself). Everything you need to do for maneuverability you can do with your fins...there's no need whatsoever to flap your arms all about like a chicken with it's head cut off.
Not only does it increase air consumption and serve no purpose whatsoever, it just looks...ridiculous.
Keep you arms still unless you specifically need them--run a line, shoot a bag, use your light, a signal here and there...other than that, keep 'em still.

This is something that we harp on with new students from day one, when they won't even be on scuba for 3-4 more weeks. It's a small technique issue but it's a big issue later down the road. When our students hop in the water and they're hanging on the side of the pool, half of them are sitting there waving their arms about even though they're hanging on the side. We get on their case to stop it right then...and we don't let them wave their hands about when they're doing skin diving...and we get on their case again if they do it while on scuba.

With many people, stopping waving your hands all around is a difficult habit to break. Personally I've found that getting people to clasp their hands across their chest, as suggested above, works well.

People are generally lazy. Why they want to do more work while underwater is beyond me. Be as lazy as possible and avoid extra movement like the plague.

 

[Gombessa]

90% of divers, including most instructors (no surprise there) and a good number of tech divers, wave their hands around all over the place.

No hands?! How else are you going to turn or go backwards?! I keed, I keed.

Of course, in my OW course I wasn't taught the various kicks and such, but the frog kick in particular seems very conducive to saving energy, taking advantage of "coasting," and also promoting good trim.

Thanks for all the replies; on my next few dives I'll definitely work on being quiet in the water and eliminating unnecessary movements.

Regarding fitness: sometimes I feel I should have taken up strength training rather than running. I can run 8-10 miles with less exhaustion than I can fin 8-10 minutes :shakehead I'm telling you, it's that unlimited access to air and near-zero viscosity that's been spoiling me all my life.

 

[Charlie99]

Focus on making diving easy. As a new diver, you are working hard at diving. Being excited and working hard increases the amount of air that you NEED to breathe.

As you settle down, get neutrally buoyant so you can stop finning and stay in one place, and get horizontal for easier movement through the water diving will become much easier. You won't be getting tired. You won't be feeling out of breath. And your air consumption will magically decrease.

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Your number 1 focus should be buoyancy control. You should be able to stop finning at any time, and still feel in control. With no movement of fins or hands, you should ascend when you breathe in deeply, and descend when you exhale.

It is very common for new divers to be negatively buoyant (note: this is NOT the same as being overweighted). Since they don't have enough air in their BCD, they have to be angled feet down/head up and finning away to stay at the same depth. If you stop finning, you sink. Finning all the time is hard work. Sinking everytime you stop finning makes life hard.