Breathing control!

It's simple, you want to waste less air? Then control your breathing.

Yes, But "HOW"?

Just relax? try to breath less? Some yoga apnea related technique?
Someone told me breath with your belly not with your lungs.

Any suggestion?

Just breathe normally.

Thx EastEndDiver, I've been skin diving for all my life, recently I started to scuba dive and I found it amazing. Only problem is that I'm 230 lbs and I pretty much finish my tank in a while.

Your suggestion will be "get a bigger tank?"

What helped me was planning ahead. What I mean is get control of your buoyancy before you get to the bottom and don't fight the current. I use to get to the bottom of the line and then struggle to get control of my dive. That made me anxious and therefore would be breathing harder. During the dive I would fight to stay in position if there was something I wanted to see...because I was not looking ahead. Any struggling meant more air usage. Your body will take in more air when needed so minimize hos much it needs by planning ahead and relaxing. When you think of it - how much air should you need when you are weightless in the water? Shouldn't be much if you are in control of yourself.

That's a good point GLWD, struggling trying to get controlo of my dive sound familiar to me, more buoyancy control can help me.

Sergio a bigger person will use more air,also an athlete will usually use more air.As you get more comfortable breathing from a regulator and more comfortable being underwater,remember "skin diving" and scuba are related BUT different, you will see your air consumption drop.Give it time and learn to relax ,get good buoyancy control,don't use your hands for swimming underwater,take it slow while swimming there is no rush, take time to see what is around you, and most important have fun !

Sergio Longhi:

It's simple, you want to waste less air? Then control your breathing.

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I of cause can be totally wrong but I think this assumption is incorrect.

If you want to use less air you have to reduce production of CO2. CO2 is whar triggers your urge to breath. You still have enough O2 to support you but you have to throw it out with CO2. Gas extenders let you use it more efficiantly by removing the CO2 and reusing the rest of the gas.
If you fool with your breathing without. Reducing the Co 2 production terrible headaches and narcosis at depth will be waiting for you.

I struggled for a long time to improve my air consumption (use less air on a dive). I was always paranoid that dives would end because of my air consumption (ego/pride), so I tried all sorts of breathing methods, tried staying marginally shallower than others, breathed deeply, breathed slowly, skip breathed (no!)... you name it. I was very frustrated.

Eventually I gave up trying and just made the decision to concentrate on enjoying my dives.

Shortly afterwards, I noticed that my air consumption had gotten much better.

Breath control has more to do with buoyancy control than with gas consumption. You want to use a regular breathing rhythm that is slightly slower than what you normally do on land -- more akin to the breathing of yoga or meditation. AND you don't want that breathing rhythm to vary, no matter what you are doing. This is not natural! New divers, when faced with any task, tend to hold their lungs full, which of course perturbs their buoyancy.

Gas consumption is far more related to efficiency in the water. Learning to be quiet and stable has a huge effect on how long your gas will last. Achieving horizontal trim, so that all your kicking propulsion is sending you forward (instead of upward) helps a lot. Slowing down, so you can enjoy the environment, is a huge component -- but is extremely dependent on being stable, so that you don't need constant kicking to maintain your position in the water.

Combine a regular breathing pattern with solid stability in the water, and you have an efficient, stable diver, and diving becomes much more fun!

It seems more fun and simple that "yoga" and other techniques