letting others down?

[Antmany2k]

hi there,

lately i have become worried about my air consumption and the feeling of letting others down. when i first learned to dive we posted dives of 38-45 minutes at between 14m-18m. as a beginner that was fine and i understood that air consumption would improve with time.

however i went away twice in 3 months last year and i became consciously aware that my buddy is coming out with around 10-20 bar more than me despite having only ever dived with me so we have the same amount of water time and i am usually the 1st to need to indicate i am at the pre determined level to turn back. the instructor/guide had a 10 litre tank and came out with 180!!!!!! obviously he dives every day 6 days a week though.and my times are still 38-45 minutes

we also did a dive around a wreck (our first) at 18m with a 15litre tank rather than 12 as the guide said we used to much to get away with a 12l. and admittedly i got very excited about the wreck and probably breathed too fast and moved to fast and used it too fast. but in general its still a problem.

so to cap of my ramblings. i decided to consciously stay a feet or 2 above my buddy, breathe slowly,deeply and exhale slowly. inflate my BCD by mouth rather than using inflator hose. consciously move slowly and not move my arms, work on my buoyancy and changed from front crawl kicking to slow frog kicks basically anything i can think of to conserve my air. my buddy on the other hand flails, front crawl kicks, spends most of his time vertical rather than horizontal and cant control his buoyancy and on one dive (after we had done AOW) chased an amber jack down to 38m with his go pro and the guide had to go get him. i stayed at 27m and i still used more air. i just don't get it

i worry that people will get annoyed or we will miss out on stuff because my bottom time is terrible. also with now being qualified to 30m its going to get worse unless i improve. is weight an issue? my buddy is stick thin but very unfit whereas i put on a lot of timber after a messy breakup but i am now working to get rid of it. but even for a bigger guy (probably twice the weight of my buddy) i am still fairly fit and swim regularly. could my weight be why i use more air or am i doing something wrong? i am not expecting to get a massive difference and have 100 bar left when i come out but i don't want to be the first one to make people turn back because of my poor consumption

 

[Storker]

Don't worry. I've dived with lots of folks. Sometimes I'm the n00b and limiting their dive, sometimes I'm the guru and they're the n00b, and they're limiting my dive. A good buddy realizes that we've all been there and lives with that. IMO, if I can't accept that, I don't deserve a buddy.

A good dive is a dive where everyone surfaces safely. If I have to cut my bottom time a little short to achieve that, so what?

Besides, your gas consumption will improve as you get more bottom time

 

[Fogest]

Yes being twice the weight of your buddy can likely be a factor, and you may want to re-asses whether you actually are in the best of shape. Just because you aren't huffing for are after a few kicks may not be an indicator of how good of shape you're in. Since they are smaller they probably just need to use less air and don't have to breath as much air.

I suggest you not worry about it so much though. I am in the same boat. I just look at it this way. When I stand beside my buddy you can very clearly tell I am much taller and more built. I probably have almost 100lbs on him and a foot extra height wise. It is not surprising that I will run out of air first, and my buddy knows that and is okay with that.

 

[undrwater]

Worrying about your air consumption is increasing your air consumption I would bet. Relax. Think about being in your living room on your comfy couch on a lazy day.

If anyone is bringing a camera along, have them take a picture or video of you swimming. Then do some research of "proper trim in SCUBA".

 

[Edward3c]

As other have said, don't worry or think about you gas consumption, you'll just use more. If you dive regularly it will get better.

Have you recently done a weight check (at the end of the dive) being overweighted can lead to higher gas consumption.

 

[2airishuman]

hi there,

lately i have become worried about my air consumption and the feeling of letting others down.

i worry that people will get annoyed or we will miss out on stuff because my bottom time is terrible. also with now being qualified to 30m its going to get worse unless i improve. is weight an issue? my buddy is stick thin but very unfit whereas i put on a lot of timber after a messy breakup but i am now working to get rid of it. but even for a bigger guy (probably twice the weight of my buddy) i am still fairly fit and swim regularly. could my weight be why i use more air or am i doing something wrong? i am not expecting to get a massive difference and have 100 bar left when i come out but i don't want to be the first one to make people turn back because of my poor consumption

Use a bigger tank. Having enough air will make the dives more fun because you won't have to worry about whether you'll be making everyone else turn the dive early. I don't know what standard sizes are there but my U.S. tank works out to 14.5 liters at 240 bar. Get something like that, and you'll be fine. If you dive buddies have great big tanks, well, consider learning the skills to use more than one tank.

 

[fmerkel]

Get a bigger tank?

In general everyone gets better. IMO if you dive less than once every 2 months you really won't improve much, though week+ vacations with lots of dives will certainly help.

That said, some people simply have very good inherent consumption, other people suck....literally. Until you spend the time taking care of the suggestions posted over several YEARS, you won't really know which category you are in. I improved slowly over 5-7 years. 15 years later I'd say I topped out at that point, though on any given day I can be a little better or worse.

 

[Storker]

If you end up realizing you generally use more gas than your buddies, get a 15L. Or a D8.5. Problem (probably) solved. You'll probably need a few kilos more lead, though...

 

[Bric Martin]

Sometimes new divers are their own worst critic. Newer divers forget that we were all new at one point. It sounds like your working on all the right things, weighting, streamlining, not wasting movement.

Be patient, relax, and someday you will be the mentor to the next generation of divers. With time your air consumption will be in the ballpark of your buddies.

 

[sheeper]

focus on buoyancy and trim and breathing. the more you dive the better is should get.
of course some things will just mean you use more air. your age, sex, weight, general health are all factors