reducing air usage

[sbrooks]

I dive in a 7mm 2pc wetsuit with an AL80 and wear 20lbs weight - I weigh 150 lbs. I dropped four pounds of weight after my checkout dives and it REALLY helped my buoyancy control air consumption. I breath long, slow, and deep breathes of air, and exhale slowly - it became second nature when I worked on it for the first few post-check out dives. Obviously keeping a good trim and slim profile in the water helps..

Stay warm, relaxed, calm, and only use as much energy as you need to.

 

[Toolbox-13]

Okay. I understand that the more you dive.. the more comfy you get and the less air you use. However, what I want to know is other ways to reduce air usage. I know the first time I dove with a 7m over my 3m for a deep dive I had my bcd to tight and felt like I was being squished. so in what seemed like no time I went through 3000 psi of air. Next dive I loosened the bcd and was much more relaxed.. used 1000 psi less air.
But during regular dives.. the more experienced divers.. 100+ dives are using on avg 900 psi less than I am for the same dive. Now I try to breath slow and deep. Any tips.. and please no one say don't breath....I just can't see that as a option

Experience and being relaxed in the water is the key. Also get your own equipment and dive often that will help you be more comfortable in the water after you log more and more dives you will see your air consumption come down. My girlfriend gets mad at me because I have pretty good air consumption she says I could breath a coke can and come up with 500...lol...but I dive quite a bit over 130 dives this year alone. So don't sweat it for now, just keep diving and you will be fine.

 

[60feet]

I used to be an air hog. Up until about a year ago, my bottom time never exceeded 30 min. Then I started to do research on how to improve my air consumption and found several helpful articles on scubadiving.com (that's before I found this forum). From then on, I adopted the techniques below (similar to Puffer Fish's great tips above) and was able to double my bottom time right away, even though I'm still a newbie at 25 dives logged. The improvement was astounding. Now on a good day, I can stay down about 80+ min at 30 feet. Things I did/still do:

1) Determined the proper weighting and did some weight trimming
2) Take long and deep inhalations and exhalations (but don't hold your breath at any time)
3) Move very slowly (think sleepy) while underwater
4) Changed to more efficient fins (my old fins were too stiff; took alot of energy to kick and tired out my legs quickly as well as making me consume too much air)
5) Wear my hood on cold days - majority of heat loss is through the head when a hood is not used, resulting in more air consumption

 

[TSandM]

Buoyancy control is a big part of reducing air usage. This begins with proper weighting, and most new divers are overweighted. If you are carrying too much weight, you have too much air in your BC, which means small changes in depth make bigger changes in buoyancy and you end up fiddling with your BC all the time. This wastes gas.

In addition, if your weighting is not properly distributed, you may be obligated to dive in an inefficient position in the water. If you're tilted at a 45 degree angle to the bottom, a lot of the force of your kick is pushing you upward, not forward; because of that, you have to stay somewhat negative so you won't ascend, and that means you have to kick all the time or you'll sink. Playing with your weighting until you can easily hover in a stable, horizontal position means that you can dive truly neutral, and use the energy from your legs only for moving around. This reduces air consumption, too.

Diving neutral and horizontal, using efficient kicks, and not hurrying anywhere will make big inroads in your air consumption.

 

[kelseysmith]

One of the things I found to be the most helpful is to glide inbetween kicks. I also adjusted my trim to be horizontal in the water.

One other thing I found useful is learning to control my buoyancy with my lungs to finely control my vertical position in the water instead of always adding and removing air from my BC.

Above all, relax and enjoy the scenery

Kelsey

 

[pupdiver]

When I first started diving, I was an airhog. Even after I felt relaxed, had my buoyancy skills pretty good, weights correct, slowed my finning, etc., I still was going through air much faster than others.

What worked for me was the opposite of relaxing! I started to concentrate on my breathing rate. I actually used to time it and try to slow down. That did the trick. I don't even have to think about it anymore and I have become very air efficient.

Being in good aerobic shape helps too.

 

[500 PSI]

Great lessons and suggestions from all and something that I think about every time I go uw!

It's nice to know from others that I'm have used the same techniques and it really does help to create a really good dive !!!

Thanks to all SB'ers on replys for this one!

 

[Carribeandiver]

Aerobic fitness helps too.

you only say that because, from your picture, you are obvious fit. and just because of you, I am inspired, I am going workout right now.

 

[BKP]

The guidance of those above is spot on, additionally, there's a good article in the April 2006 issue of Scuba Diving mag on 'Stretching your Tank'... In essence (hopefully in addition to, instead of reiterating the sage advice above):

- Streamline your gear (hanging danglies create drag... not to mention piss off the reefs)

- Streamline yourself -- trim properly -- if you're going through the column obliquely, you're creating drag, work, and hoovering (yes, that's 'hoovering'... not 'hovering'...)

- Stay shallow while you're working on the above (simple formula: shallow=gas conservation)

- Make sure your 2nd is bungied/mounted so it can't free-flow (obvious consequences)

- Go slow (and use the proper kick for the fins: splits=flutter; paddle=frog, scissor)

...and enjoy yourself...

 

[cummings66]

Now I try to breath slow and deep. Any tips.. and please no one say don't breath....I just can't see that as a option

You've got some good tips, the key is to practice. However remember there is always somebody out there who can put you to shame.

IMO do not try any of the tricks like skip breathing like was mentioned in a posting, it's downright dangerous. Not from the lung expansion injuries commonly mentioned, but you can also pass out and drown. I had a buddy who had to rescue somebody skip breathing when they passed out.