Using exhale breath for BC buoyancy

[Ed L.]

Now if the LP inflator button failed and I still wanted to dive with inflator hose disconnected? Yeah I'd do it in a heart beat!

 

[Diver Tim]

I do think people ought to be quite comfortable without a reg in their mouth. I know, as a new diver, I wasn't, and I rushed through any practice that involved taking the reg out. With time, that's changed, ...

I had the opposite "problem" during my open water cert. While doing the "recover your lost reg" drill, the instructor in me came out, and I exaggerated the action a little bit (as if I was showing a student. I'm an instructor pilot...). My dive instructor got a little perturbed with me for not getting my reg back in my mouth more quickly. No problem, no panic, he just felt I was being too casual about it all...

Tim

 

[TSandM]

Well, Tim, I may have gone a bit too far, as well . . . In my recent cave class, I needed to donate a reg to my buddy, and gave him the one I was breathing. As I handed it off, I realized it was the wrong regulator -- it was the one from my stage bottle. So I motioned to him to give it back to me, while I unclipped the one I was supposed to give him. Suddenly, my instructor shoved HIS reg in my mouth, surprising me enormously. I looked at him in confusion, because I wasn't air hungry at all, and I was going to get around to putting a reg back in my mouth once I got the situation sorted. He thought I'd gone too long!

 

[sambolino44]

I think it's a good idea to practice, but the real benefit is, as others have pointed out, being comfortable with alternative practices and building that muscle memory. These things are way more beneficial than the amount of air you might save.

Peter, if you have to remove your reg to scratch your teeth, then you must be using the wrong kind of mouthpiece!

And when I want to think about saving my breathing air by reducing the amount used for buoyancy, since I use a drysuit, I'll just make sure to eat beans before the dive. Methane, argon, what the difference?

 

[gcbryan]

It's good to practice things every now and then if you want to. Certainly you should be comfortable but there's no real advantage. The more relaxed and efficient in your movements you are the less gas you'll use.

Stopping to take the reg out to manually inflate is probably not the most efficient movement you could make.

Regarding manually inflating before you get in the water. I don't generally do it because it's my habit to tap both of my inflator valves just before I get in just to make sure they work.

I can see the benefits of the other method however. It keeps you in practice and it saves a bit of air. I'm not really worried about the air. I do it every now and then just for the practice but it's not my usual routine.

The main thoughts I have underwater regarding practice is just to stop and think every now and then to see if I could be more relaxed or efficient in my movement perhaps to slow down a bit or stop and look at things for a longer period of time. These things conserve far more gas than worrying about inflating your BC manually.

As others have pointed out you're only inflating during the descent so there's not much gas being used anyway.

 

[QatarDiver]

I had to borrow a reg set for a dive, by BCD has an air 2, with the larger diameter fill hose, so I coudnt connect it to the smaller diameter fitting on the LP hose. I did the dive, local shore dive, 15m max, put half a puff in oraly at 15m just to trim, no problem. I woudnt do a deeper dive like that, but it's important to remember that there are two ways to inflate an BCD, one is just more convenient that the other. (and I always inflate oraly on the surface before and after a dive, you never know when you might need it, even after your dive has ended)

 

[fnfalman]

A puff of exhale into the BC may or may not add much lift but if you were to blow in a lungful...she will rise rapidly.