Was never good at this, but getting better.

[Arubandi07]

Sorry about the confusion on that! Has anyone gone from hyperventilating (5-6 quick breaths only, not anything super intense) to the full exhale right before your final breath? I'm interested to see if you've found any differences in the water

IMO, moderate hyperventilation(as you described it) as a 'booster' is not very effective; assuming that by 'quick' you mean rapid, relatively shallow breaths, you're actually just moving around air in the upper area of your lungs, while the lower part stays filled with dead air for several seconds. For longer dives, I use a combination of HV(more intense and deeper than what you seem to describe), and that final deep exhale/inhale. Definitely results in longer bottom time for me.

 

[Hank49]

It's been a couple days since I have been able to get on here and check in. I'm going to see how that final breath technique work for me thank you for posting it.

Here's a quick update on my progress. I'm still working with the CO2 table and it seems to be working. I end up with a new PB almost every day. I finally broke the 3 minuite mark yesterday with a 3:09. I'm hoping that there will be something at the Tacoma Dive Expo this weekend to play with or in.

I was doing the CO2 and O2 tables a couple years ago. It feels pretty good laying on the couch and getting better and better times. But it didn't really translate to longer dives for me.
I think some type of cardio would be most effective. But I'm gettin' too old to run. I just dive...haha.
I'm not sure why, but I just have good and ....not as good days diving. I can do 2 minutes at 35-40 feet on really good days. But it takes me a while to build up to that.....like 15-20 dives. Other days I'm happy to get to 1min 20 sec at 60 - 70 feet. I average about 50 dives on a spearfishing day.
I did 5 minutes in the static breath hold in the PFI class. What that class taught me that lengthened my dive times was just how to relax and how to descend more efficiently using better posture.
I guess my conclusion is, to get better dive times, just dive more.

 

[scubacheeze]

I was doing the CO2 and O2 tables a couple years ago. It feels pretty good laying on the couch and getting better and better times. But it didn't really translate to longer dives for me.
I think some type of cardio would be most effective. But I'm gettin' too old to run. I just dive...haha.
I'm not sure why, but I just have good and ....not as good days diving. I can do 2 minutes at 35-40 feet on really good days. But it takes me a while to build up to that.....like 15-20 dives. Other days I'm happy to get to 1min 20 sec at 60 - 70 feet. I average about 50 dives on a spearfishing day.
I did 5 minutes in the static breath hold in the PFI class. What that class taught me that lengthened my dive times was just how to relax and how to descend more efficiently using better posture.
I guess my conclusion is, to get better dive times, just dive more.

Do you do the warmup stuff they teach at PFI? Like putting your mask on your forehead to get water on your face and breathing like that for a while, and doing a couple really easy decents before you start going all out? I know that helped me out a ton, both mentally (slowly building up to full depth) and physically. I would imagine that if CO2 and O2 tables aren't translating over it's more of a mental thing. At least that's what I tell myself because the same thing happens to me...I don't get in the water as much as I'd like to, and I think you're right that that would be the biggest addition to bottom times.

 

[Hank49]

I try to get the mammalian reflex going, do a nice breath up like they taught us and start with some warm up dives to 30, 35, 40 etc... but a lot of the times we jump in on a school of dog snapper and that goes out the window. I just start hunting fish and diving for them.
Some days when the fish are scarce I just enjoy diving to the bottom and hiding, hoping something might show up. That's when I get my best times I guess because I'm really focused on just diving and not fish.
But almost all...probably ALL..... the bigger fish I've shot (over 20 lbs) have been on dives less than 1 minute.