Advanced breathing technique

[Beeleist]

I was diving with 3 other people in hawaii, and after the expected 45 minutes or so for our depth, my buddy and I started running low on air and had to start heading up. My brother and his buddy still had another 10-15 minutes of air and ran into a huge octopus right after I went up. I asked about it afterwards and he told me that he conserved his air by basically just taking a long slow breath, and then "holding it" (while keeping his airway open as not to overexpand the lungs) as long as he could before the next breath.

In my PADI class we were taught to keep breathing evenly, but is my brother's method a more advanced breathing technique, or just a bad idea? Had I conserved my air, I wouldve been able to go to the octopus' garden too! are there other breathing techniques and air conservation secrets to be learned out there?

 

[HBO MD]

You are indeed partly correct ; this is in fact an advanced technique of sustaining injury, and a poorly thought out method for catastrophe.
I know of no one who can assure their depth while cavorting with an octopus. Breath holding with an open airway is used when trying to find a solution for cold fusion, and other scientific mysteries.
The bottom line is all the complications of breath holding can occur despite his protestations. While staying with an octopus is tempting, out of air emergencies, barotrauma etc probably isn't.
Get a new dive buddy.

 

[tstormdiver]

No, it is skip breathing & it is dangerous. Besides the possibility of a lung over expansion injury during an ascent, it can cause a build up of CO2 in the body which could lead to black out, especially in a very stressful situation or a feeling of air starvation that could lead to hyper ventilation &/ or panic. The best way to learn to control your breathing is to take long slow inhales & long slow exhales. Breathe using the diaphragm & filling the entire lungs, not just using the upper chest muscles & filling the top part (most of us breathe that way). Start slowly, inhale for 3 seconds or so (whatever is comfortable to you) & then exhale for the same length of time, nice & controlled. Slowly, over time. build the length of the inhales & exhales up to 5 seconds, 6 seconds..... take it easy, let your body become accustomed to the new breathing pattern. Also cardiovascular fitness helps this tremendously. The healthier the heart & circulatory system is, the more efficiently it will get oxygen to the body.

 

[jagfish]

Your brother and his buddy are practicing what is known in the industry as skip-breathing. Your OW text should have addressed that. While it can result in less air usage, it also has some serious downsides as the above poster alluded to.

One is the risk to lung expansion injuries, though your brother seems sensitive to that point in his declaration that he keeps an open airway.

The other affliction is retained carbon dioxide, since that gas will build up in a skip breathers blood, since it is not being flushed out a with proper exhale rate. The results at best will be headaches (often strong ones) after some dives. At more extreme depths, CO2 which is even more narcotic than Nitrogen, can cause intense narcosis and sometimes feelings of panic or shortness of breath.

Dive a lot, improve your buoyancy and fining efficiency, become more relaxed and your air consumption will come down normally...

 

[ohmdiver]

I think Tstorm has the right answer but I would expand by adding:
1. What is your experiance level compared to your brother?
2. If you are a relative new diver you may not have zeroed in on your weighting and breathing yet. Or your comfort level. You would be surprised how much your air consumption gets better by dropping a few pounds of lead and you gain some in water confidence.
3. Also your physical condition also play alot into air consumption.

I relize that I am making some asumptions.

There are a lot of variables that dictate your consumption rate.

Your air consumption is also unique to you, as everyone does not have the same rate.

 

[tstormdiver]

Excellent points, jagfish & ohmdiver on the comfort- in- the- water part. That IS very important also to air consumption rates. Most (but not all) beginner divers are in a "survival mode" on about their first 30- 50 dives (give or take a bunch for some individuals). Trying to remember everything from their training & sometimes, even feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all. Yes, becoming comfortable & skillful in the water goes a long way.

 

[TSandM]

I agree with the others; this is skip breathing, and leads to CO2 retention, which has a host of deleterious effects.

Virtually all new divers bemoan their gas consumption. There are a lot of reasons behind it, which include a relative degree of anxiety, frequent overweighting and consequent unsteady buoyancy control, inefficient propulsion techniques (both from technique and from trim issues), and rushing through the water, among other things. Do a quick search on my posts using "efficiency" as a keyword, and you'll find a rather long writeup on what I've learned about improving one's gas consumption.

A steady, slow and deeper than normal-on-land breathing pattern IS more efficient underwater, but one does NOT want to make the pauses at the end of inhalation and exhalation more than exactly that -- very brief pauses.

 

[LowVizWiz]

Often, no matter what you do there will be times when you and your buddy will have drastically different consumption rates and the only way to offset the difference is to plan on using larger cylinders for the person with higher consumption so that you both enjoy similar bottom times.

As previously stated, don't skip breathe, work on your buoyancy, being relaxed, the right amount of weight and dive dive dive to improve your consumption. And if after that you still find yourself having shorter than average bottom times then maybe consider a larger tank.

Wiz

 

[fisheater]

Beeleist:

You've gotten good advice from experienced divers here. I'm relatively new to this and have been working on my breathing technique and bringing my SAC down as a consequence.

I write to add this tip. Practice slow, diaphragmatic breathing while you're walking, watching TV, driving, anytime. Try slowly moving your upper abdomen out, holding it a second (NO MORE) and then slowly pulling it in as far as it will go and repeating. When you find yourself doing that without thinking, then you're ready to apply it underwater. Keep track of your SAC on your dives and see how it improves with your breathing technique.

I've also found that breathing that way calms me down, whether underwater or in nasty commute traffic.

 

[HBO MD]

These guys are absolutely correct. Breath holding does nothing more than convert a situation where you are catering physiologically to the demands of your body in terms of O2 requirements. Once you challenge those needs, CO 2 increases, but also the potential for initiating anerobic metabolism arises, if protracted, which can contribute to what is known as a metabolic acidosis. This has metabolic consequences in terms of blood chemistry and other complications which we've already alluded to.
The best way to extend bottom time is by working on overall fitness and competence underwater.
Safety is a prime concern of all the respondants to your post. We'd like you to stick around.
Dive safely