Running low on air quickly - need help and guidance

[Teflon-Don]

Hi guys, I just recently completed the Padi OWD course and went straight in to the AOWD. Even though I still have fairly little experience underwater and have logged only around 10 dives, every time I get in the water I feel more at home than the last. I'm loving scuba and can see me doing it for the rest of my days, hopefully improving more and more as time goes by. However I have one main issue that I just really want to resolve, which is that I have a high air consumption underwater which consequently ends dives earlier. Just to give you a closer understanding of what I'm talking about we started our 3rd dive with 220 bars, at a depth of around 18 meters (I cant recall how long exactly we were under) and at the end of yesterdays dive I ended at 70 bars where my buddy was at 130.

My buddy, and other divers haven't displayed any superior skills underwater, we are all on the same level, some skills I do with ease that they may find more challenging and vice versa but they all seem to kick my ass when it comes to breathing. Why, why, why - I just want to get over this hurdle and be able to enjoy my dives more without taking so much air like a fool.

I have read some tips on various websites to improve air consumption which I will of course try. But id like to know if any of you more experienced divers / instructors out there old and new who maybe had a similar experience at the beginning and how you overcame the issue.

Thank you for taking the time to read.

 

[victor]

There are a number of threads on this issue.
Normally it improves with experience.
My suggestions are as follows
Find an instructor and do peak buoyancy.
Get your weight spot on with 50 or 70 bar at 5 metres 15 ft and an empty BC. Make sure you can stay at that depth without moving your hands or feet (empty your BC, cross your ankles and fold your arms across your chest). You should be able to stay at that depth going up and down a feet or so as you breathe slowly in and out.
Slow down, don't you use your hands, don't paddle with your fins.
If you are sinking breathe in, if filling your lungs does not stop your descent add a dash into the BC and breathe out and then back in. That should stop you, if not repeat.
If you are ascending do the reverse, breathe out, if that does not work let out a bubble of air, breathe in and then out again.

I have observed that most novice divers are overweight, paddle their legs and arms to stay at a depth, have their body at 45 to 60 degrees from the horizontal.
Once you get your buoyancy and trim right and you stop moving you will be surprised at how fast your air usage improves.

 

[Gren]

First relax. Take long deep breaths in using your diaphragm, not your chest. Reverse it to exhale. When I was a major air hog, upon descending, I'd take a few breaths counting 7 seconds in, 1 second pause, 7 seconds out to try to set a rhythm.

As stated above, get your buoyancy under control and relax your arms. If you are constantly kicking down you will use a lot of air. Same goes for sculling with your arms.

Also, I made the mistake of adjusting my regulator to be hard to breath to slow my breathing. I later found out, this greatly increased my consumption. When I changed it so that it was easy to breath, my consumption dropped about 15%.

This is something that also just gets better with experience.


Edit:
Especially if diving on a wall, you don't need to be on the bottom. If you decrease your depth a couple of meters, it will decrease your consumption, just don't yo-yo up and down. Keep a constant depth if possible.

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[The Kraken]

The novelty of the experience can generate a level of excitement that will cause you to breathe more rapidly unintentionally.

Don't worry about it. As previously posted, as your experience increases, your consumption will reduce.

Relax and go with the flow.

Safe dives . . . . .
. . . safer ascents

the K

 

[cb5150]

Relax. Move slowly. Keep practicing.

 

[Steve_C]

Stop at depth and slowly check yourself out. Are your arms or legs moving? When you are stopped the only thing that should be moving are your lungs (and heart of course).

 

[Teflon-Don]

Well thanks everyone for all the great feedback, I will try all of the suggestions. My instructor tells me he's really happy with my buoyancy and streamlining although I believe as suggested in one of the above posts that I should definitely do the Peak Performance Buoyancy. I believe (although of course I am no expert) that my weights are too heavy for my body size and may cause me to exert more energy than necessary. For sure I need to lose some weight too as I'm carrying a few extra pounds, so far I'm 12 lbs lighter than I was when I started the course and I will continue to get down to my natural weight. But the thing is, in my course there were a couple guys a lot heavier than me (including my buddy) yet they didn't have the massive air consumption issue.

@ Gren - I didn't quite understand what you meant here: "When I was a major air hog, upon descending, I'd take a few breaths counting 7 seconds in, 1 second pause, 7 seconds out to try to set a rhythm"


Do you mean that you were inhaling for 7 seconds, then pause breath for 1 second and then exhaling for 7 seconds?

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Which makes me think maybe I am taking the "never hold your breath" rule far too literally. Would a better way for me to reduce air consumption to take say a 4 second breath, hold for 2 seconds then exhale slowly?

As well as improving my movements, buoyancy, weight etc... that's what I was wondering if there is a particular technique that I should be using when breathing, because so far it just seems to be for me one big breath in and then one big breath out.

Perhaps I should ask my instructor for a separate session just on breathing.
[h=3][/h]

 

[Gren]

Yes just take a moment on the bottom and focus on long deep breathes. I found that doing that helped get me into a rhythm. For me, 7-1-7 works. It isn't holding your breath, just a natural pause.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[DiamondD]

Deep, slowww breaths. I was sucking down air too and couldn't figure it out. I was breathing deep but way too fast. Like someone mentioned above count your inhalation, one thousand one - one thousand seven, then count your exhalations (I go one thousand one to one thousand nine).

That greatly decreased my SAC, like three fold.

 

[DBailey]

<snip> at the end of yesterdays dive I ended at 70 bars where my buddy was at 130. <snip>

First, you didn't mention anything about you and your buddy. Some people naturally will breathe more than others. Larger people (i.e. bigger lungs) tend to use more air than smaller people. Fit people tend to use less air than not-so-fit people. Non-smokers tend to use less air than smokers. People that grew up around the water or played water sports tend to use less air than people that didn't (i.e. less anxious in/near water). Yes, I can find exceptions to these observations, but they also tend to be consistent.

Second, here are my tips for lowering you air consumption...

1. Dive more.
2. Improve your physical fitness, especially your cardio.
3. Dive more.
4. Breathe as "normally" as possible. Mimic your breathing as if you are about to take a nap on the couch watching golf. Long, slow, steady breaths.
5. While diving, move slowly. Work on your finning so it is kick - glide - kick - glide, instead of kick-kick-kick-kick.
6. Only go deeper if there is something to see.
7. Did I mention dive more?

I don't go along with the inhale for X seconds, pause, exhale for Y seconds. As you dive more, you will become more relaxed. The long, slow, steady breaths will come along with being more relaxed.