How do you breathe under water? Any Advice?

[Splitlip]

5 seconds in, 5 seconds out. pause. 5 seconds in, 5 seconds out (roughly)

also, work on your streamlinging and buoyancy, this makes a HUGE difference as I recently found out (read : http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ba...48-trim-really-does-help-air-consumption.html )

lastly, make sure you're not overweighted. meaning that you have just enough weight to maintain a safety stop with 500 psi left if your tank without floating up. any excess weight needs to go.

try these for 10 dives or so and you might even cut your consumption by a third. maybe more!

hope it helps

I actually pause with my lungs full as well as empty. I am carefull to think of "H" and not "K" so my airway remains open. (if you know what I mean..LOL)

 

[diver 85]

Answer to 1st Q= slowly & basically normally---some are just air hogs but I can promise you 100 dives from now your air consumption will 50% or greater better.....

 

[RJP]

Here's a post I put up recently on the topic:

----------------------------

The actual mechanical "breathing" part of diving has very little to do with your air consumption. Your respiration rate is the RESULT of whatever you're doing, and it's the rest of your technique that effects it the most:

• Are you properly weighted? Extra lead = extra work = more burned gas
  
• Is your trim horizontal? Swimming at a 45deg angle all the time is woefully inefficient!
  
• Are you streamlined? Stuff hanging all over, flapping in the breeze, requires more work to push through the water.
  
• How's your propulsion technique? Bicycle kicking like mad or nice slow, efficient kick cycles? Try a frog kick to really lower your air consumption!
  
• What are you doing with your arms and hands? Most people burn tons of gas with unnecessary arm flailing.
  
• Are you comfortable and relaxed in the water? This is a biggie! If you're huffing and puffing on the verge of panic all the time you're gonna burn through air mighty fast. This one comes with time and experience.
  
• Lastly, the #1 thing you can do to improve your air consumption: SLOW DOWN! Slow EVERYTHING down. Then slow down some MORE. Then, if you think you're going slow...you're STILL going too fast!

Sure it's important to "learn how to breathe underwater" but if you REALLY want to improve your gas consumption try these things.

Ray

 

[Matt S.]

To the OP:

Do you know what your consumption rate is? Maybe you are doing fine, and the people you are diving with are just freakishly good. You are doing the right thing by studying how to improve your technique, but you must have patience.

I think it is OK to compare yourself to other divers, just don't make your breathing rate into a competition. Knowing it is a very useful tool. Say you are picking insta-buddies on a dive boat. All else being equal, it is nice to go with someone who has a similar consumption rate.

FYI, I am an average sized guy. When I was a new diver my average SAC (or RMV depending on who you talk to) was about 1. Today it is about .65 (cold water, drysuit, hiking to the entry) to .45 (warm tropical water, flopping off a boat). Some days are much better, some much worse. It just depends.

I know a guy who does .25 during the same kind of cold-water diving I do. He is smaller than me, which explains some of his edge... but his trim, technique and ease in the water are amazing and that is most of it. Nail those and the breathing will come easier.

 

[lord.harshil]

This is what happens to me. Once I think I have my breathing down okay and my neutral buoyancy going okay during a dive and will go up and down. I then seem to have to try and fight it by breathing in or adjusting my BC. I think what I really need is someone to just spend some time with me to help me with the stuff.

I don't own a BC yet so should I get a jacket style or back inflate? Also what are Camband weight pockets?

Lots of threads about this very question. Read them for detailed information. However, since they can be 17 pages long, I shall leave you with a one liner that should encompass most of these thoughts. backplate with wing type bcds are : more durable, more adaptable to whichever diving scenario, they might even be cheaper than normal jacket BCs, they put minimum 6lbs of weight on your back which means you carry less weight on the belt (I dont use a belt anymore after i switched to BP/W) and they make it easier to maintain trim. Also, I can safely say more than 80% of the divers here with 100 or more dives all use BP/W and 95% of those who went from jacket BC to BP/W didnt switch back.

Rest of the details, go read the threads

Yep how did you know. If I stay perfectly still I seem to sink. Maybe I'm just over weighted. Duh I might have figured out some of my problem. :loopy:

So if I'm a little over weighted then I need to maybe take off a few pounds. Currently like time I dove a few weeks ago I had a full 3mm suit with gloves, and used 12 lbs. I also got a new dive light that most likely weighs 1lb. So maybe I need to drop down to 10 lbs and see how that goes. I'm just nervous that if I don't have enough weight I will either go to the service or can't stop for a safety stop.

I'm about the same size as you. 6', 154 pounds. I use about 6 lbs for a 3mm suit in warm waters, so depending on your body fat % (higher body fat, more weight needed since fat tissue is buoyant) you should be around this region.

also, take note that fitness plays a big role in consumption rate. hit the gym and start running, cutting down on your body fat % will reduce the weight you need to carry hence consumption becomes better and cardio fitness makes your body more efficient, hence consumption reduces.

I'm running after you!!!

come get me mwahahahaha

Btw, the humming works regardless of whether you're tone-deaf or not.

i shall try humming the next time around. i wonder if anyone will hear the imperial march...dum dum dum dum dumdum, dum dumdum. dum dum DUM dum dumdum, dum dumdummmmmm.

 

[HowardE]

Ok so I'm a new diver with only 12 or so dives under my belt. I run out of air faster than all my dive buddies but I think it's more than just being a new diver. I think I might be breathing wrong. I take slow deep breaths and then let them out somewhat fast. I try to slow it down but then I feel like I'm cutting myself short with not enough oxygen. So my question is when you breath how do you do it. Regular like when your out of the water or deep and slow?

Wow... you've gotten a lot of advice. I'll start by saying: When I first started diving. My air consumption wasn't so great either. I seriously doubt that there's ANYONE here who - out of the pool was good on air consumption.

a) You're not used to diving - even if you think you're relaxed in the water. You're probably not. It takes some time to get comfortable diving. Even if you've been a water person all of your life. Diving is DIFFERENT, and breathing underwater is too. Just because your friends can stay down longer doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong. You're just not as experienced. The more you think about breathing, the more air you probably use. My first 20 or so dives... I was just remembering, "don't hold your breath... breathe... breathe slowly...don't skip breathe" - it's too much to think about... Just try to enjoy the dive, and everything will come to you. If you're thinking too much about breathing... Then it most likely won't be good?

2) Not to discount all of the other good stuff that other people said too... A lot of the fine tuning will come when you apply that advice. Trim, Buoyancy, Weighting, Activity. All of that plays a factor... but seriously... just dive for a while, and it will come to you. There's no rush. The ocean's aren't disappearing that quickly.

On another topic, maybe related or not so much but sometimes I hear a very high pitched whining sound sometimes when I'm diving. I thought it was my mask maybe so when blow through my nose sometimes the high pitched sound will go away but then sometimes it doesn't after blowing through my nose.

What kind of first stage do you have? Is it a piston or a diaphram? It could be the piston in the 1st stage is squeaky. Maybe you're pulling a hard breath, or there is too much (or not enough) lubricant on it. You may want to have a technician take a look at it for you.

 

[SkimFisher]

Great thread. Seriously. I'm a very new diver myself and I've got a lot of questions, as most new divers do. Many of which I found answers to here. Air consumption is a problem for me and we never really defined just what "controlled breathing" is in class outside of "deep and slow". I felt like I was doing just that but was always feeling starved for air. Now I have a pretty good idea of what I'm doing wrong. (I'm sitting at my desk doing 4-in-5-out right now, haha)

Not to hijack the thread with my own question - but I jumped right into the "back-inflator" BCD pool (so to speak) once I got certified and while I don't have much of a problem staying horizontal at depth, I do have a problem staying vertical on the surface. I'm not an elf, but I'm a small guy (5'5" @ 147lbs) and I have quite a difficult time keeping my face out of the water on the surface whenever I'm entering and exiting. Does this mean back inflators just aren't for me or is there a way to correct this with some rear/tank ballast? It's almost easier for me to take my BC off and float on it rather than try to struggle to stay upright. The BC just wants to roll me over. I've tried inflating it to less than full but that's not really working for me either.

 

[lespaulsf]

To the OP:

Do you know what your consumption rate is? Maybe you are doing fine, and the people you are diving with are just freakishly good. You are doing the right thing by studying how to improve your technique, but you must have patience.

I think it is OK to compare yourself to other divers, just don't make your breathing rate into a competition. Knowing it is a very useful tool. Say you are picking insta-buddies on a dive boat. All else being equal, it is nice to go with someone who has a similar consumption rate.

It seems like when I dive I can usually go at least 45 mins and have about 700 psi left at about 45ft.

 

[lespaulsf]

backplate with wing type bcds are : more durable, more adaptable to whichever diving scenario, they might even be cheaper than normal jacket BCs, they put minimum 6lbs of weight on your back which means you carry less weight on the belt (I dont use a belt anymore after i switched to BP/W) and they make it easier to maintain trim. Also, I can safely say more than 80% of the divers here with 100 or more dives all use BP/W and 95% of those who went from jacket BC to BP/W didnt switch back.


I'm about the same size as you. 6', 154 pounds. I use about 6 lbs for a 3mm suit in warm waters, so depending on your body fat % (higher body fat, more weight needed since fat tissue is buoyant) you should be around this region.

also, take note that fitness plays a big role in consumption rate. hit the gym and start running, cutting down on your body fat % will reduce the weight you need to carry hence consumption becomes better and cardio fitness makes your body more efficient, hence consumption reduces.

I haven't had a chance to look at the wing type backplate. To be honest I don't even know what one is. Do you have any links that explain what there are or how they work?

I do work out almost everyday. I'm pretty much a lean guy. If you only use 6lbs with a 3mm then I must be using way to much weight. Is the 6lbs the backplate you speak of?

 

[TSandM]

Some information on backplates (and other equipment stuff) is HERE.

To skimfisher -- the symptoms you're describing usually mean that either you are significantly overweighted, and having to blow the BC up to its capacity to float, or the BC doesn't fit very well or isn't adjusted properly, and is riding up your body on the surface. The former problem is easy to fix with a formal weight check. The latter can be fixed either by adjusting the BC correctly, or by adding a crotch strap to keep the air bladder from riding up.