Air consumption
- Thread starter Bflem55
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fisherdvm
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I think anxiety is the number one issue. Then there is a physical fitness aspect, especially in dives against currents.
I just found out that a tight suit on my chest and abdomen increased my air consumption, and this was as clear as day and night when I took it off.
Overtime, your muscles develop and you will dive much better. But if you are like me, diving only 10 or 15 times a year, we will just follow the pack.
The error in judgement of some folks to try to stay down too long so that they are not the first one up is a big contributor of the injuries we see in scuba diving. If you need to come up first, be the first to surface, just let your dive master know what your tank reads, and if others get upset, tell them to jump in the lake.
I just found out that a tight suit on my chest and abdomen increased my air consumption, and this was as clear as day and night when I took it off.
Overtime, your muscles develop and you will dive much better. But if you are like me, diving only 10 or 15 times a year, we will just follow the pack.
The error in judgement of some folks to try to stay down too long so that they are not the first one up is a big contributor of the injuries we see in scuba diving. If you need to come up first, be the first to surface, just let your dive master know what your tank reads, and if others get upset, tell them to jump in the lake.
Could be a while. I found that using a dive computer to analyze my dive profiles and my air consumption helped a lot. The more you dive, the more comfortable you get in the water. When I first started diving, I thought that a 30 min dive on an AL80 was great. That was when I wasn't diving as often. Since I have been diving a couple of times a week, I gradually got to the point where I was getting about 80 mins off that same tank on a similar dive profile.
I have since gotten a bigger tank in order to be able to keep up with my buddy who dives a HP 119. By being relaxed and comfortable in the water, my sac is now down into the .5 range yet it varies depending on dive objective and dive site. New sites and it tends to be higher, old familar sites and it tends to be lower.
The other thing that really helped me was thermal protection. I was diving a wet suit in the 50 F waters of puget sound and getting a dry suit also made it so that I didn't have to surface due to being cold.
Just keep diving.
Tim
I have since gotten a bigger tank in order to be able to keep up with my buddy who dives a HP 119. By being relaxed and comfortable in the water, my sac is now down into the .5 range yet it varies depending on dive objective and dive site. New sites and it tends to be higher, old familar sites and it tends to be lower.
The other thing that really helped me was thermal protection. I was diving a wet suit in the 50 F waters of puget sound and getting a dry suit also made it so that I didn't have to surface due to being cold.
Just keep diving.
Tim
It takes some time and some dives.
There are some things you can actively affect to reduce your air consumption: Proper weighting, correct trim, and efficient propulsion through the water. There are other things you really can't do anything about except continue to dive, and those are related to anxiety and inefficient breathing patterns. As you learn to relax and stop having to manage everything to dive, your breathing will become deeper and more regular, and you will waste less gas. As your buoyancy control improves, you will also be able to use more of your breathing simply for breathing, and not in desperate efforts to maintain or correct your depth (BTDT).
Keep diving; check your weighting; get balanced in the water so you can be horizontal without effort, and your air consumption will gradually drop.
There are some things you can actively affect to reduce your air consumption: Proper weighting, correct trim, and efficient propulsion through the water. There are other things you really can't do anything about except continue to dive, and those are related to anxiety and inefficient breathing patterns. As you learn to relax and stop having to manage everything to dive, your breathing will become deeper and more regular, and you will waste less gas. As your buoyancy control improves, you will also be able to use more of your breathing simply for breathing, and not in desperate efforts to maintain or correct your depth (BTDT).
Keep diving; check your weighting; get balanced in the water so you can be horizontal without effort, and your air consumption will gradually drop.
Bruce3
Contributor
if you snorkel out to a dive site take a moment to relax and catch your breath be nice and calm before going down. 30min dive at what depths?
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