How many of you here practice apnea

[Progen]

Ok, so I only have 20 odd sea dives and countless freshwater swimming pool sessions but I am very sure that I'm comfortable in the water. Buoyancy and trim's fine. I'm in the bottom feeding and gliding category. I know where every piece of equipment is since they're all mine and I problem solve underwater instead of thinking about surfacing when equipment get tangled.

Now the problem is I'd like to be able to get better bottom times because at 20 metres (about 60'), I only get about an hour of gas before I hit the magical 500 PSI mark and need to surface.

I noticed that I breathe pretty often when diving but it's not due to discomfort, unease or any overexertion. Will apnea help?

 

[fjpatrum]

If I understand your question correctly as "will skip-breathing help", from what I've read, it will not. Opinions vary, though, and I suspect you'll get quite a few from the more experienced (than me) divers that have actually tried it.

 

[dfx]

I would suggest more diving first. I've noticed my air consumption improve well after the 25-dive mark, even though I've never had any issues with diving.

 

[kelemvor]

My air consumption is dramatically decreasing the more I dive. When I was at 20 dives my sac was close to 1cuft/min. I'm fast approaching my 50th dive and my sac for my last dive was 0.56cuft/min.

Just dive more. Or get bigger tanks like I did, or both.

 

[Doubler]

Photographers "skip breath" all the time, at least I do. Some critters are really skittish around exhaust so you pretty much have too. I prefer to call it relaxed inhalation. This is not a recommendation, get more dives in and your gas use will adjust naturally. Skip breathing is not recommended and can be dangerous in the wrong situation and believe me you don't want to use an underwater photographer as a diving role model. Ask my wife

 

[Skittl1321]

I'm really new, but is an hour at 20 meters really that short?

 

[kelemvor]

Depends on where/who you're diving with I think. Most boats I've been on have a 1 hour time limit on dives. In fact, the only times I've not had such a limit when boat diving was once with a small 6 pack we chartered and on single tank night dives.

 

[dfx]

I'm really new, but is an hour at 20 meters really that short?

That's a good point. Originally I read the OP as "half an hour". An hour at 20m really isn't all that bad.

 

[phoenix31tt]

Photographers "skip breath" all the time, at least I do. Some critters are really skittish around exhaust so you pretty much have too. I prefer to call it relaxed inhalation. This is not a recommendation, get more dives in and your gas use will adjust naturally. Skip breathing is not recommended and can be dangerous in the wrong situation and believe me you don't want to use an underwater photographer as a diving role model. Ask my wife

and more importantly... photographers don't use it to decrease air intake... they use it just to get that perfect shot!...


and i agree with the above... 1 hour @ 60' is normal... dont sweat it... continue to dive while breathing normally

 

[bygolly]

Ok, so I only have 20 odd sea dives and countless freshwater swimming pool sessions but I am very sure that I'm comfortable in the water. Buoyancy and trim's fine. I'm in the bottom feeding and gliding category. I know where every piece of equipment is since they're all mine and I problem solve underwater instead of thinking about surfacing when equipment get tangled.

Now the problem is I'd like to be able to get better bottom times because at 20 metres (about 60'), I only get about an hour of gas before I hit the magical 500 PSI mark and need to surface.

I noticed that I breathe pretty often when diving but it's not due to discomfort, unease or any overexertion. Will apnea help?

Are you talking about static apnea, the surface exercise that freedivers engage in to extend their breath-hold times? I started these exercises about a month ago using advise from a freediving forum and apps that are available for your iPhone or iPad. In a very short time I increased my breath-hold time from 40 seconds to over 2 minutes. My RMV dropped somewhat from about .6 to .52 cu.ft/min during that time although I am not sure if that was from the exercises or from just diving more. But my tolerance to CO2 buildup certainly increased and I feel much more comfortable during stressful moments.

BTW your RMV at 60 ft is .38 cu.ft/min, a very respectable number. Even if you used an average depth of 40 or so feet it is still less than .5 (Assuming ALU 80 @ 77 cu.ft)