I guess I would first need to know something about your dive and personal habits to possibly give suggestions on better breathing. Like for example, do you smoke? What kind of shape are you in? In terms of when you are diving; are you relaxed or do you have a sense of tension/antisipation(sp?)/stress/ even exhilaration? Do you feel like you have to consentrate on your breathing? Do you use your own gear or do you rent? Has your gear, specifically your regs been properly serviced?
I guess I am trying to say there are many diffferent reasons to be a "hoover". Some are easily controlled, ie good, serviced equipment, and others are physiological and take more time to work out. For example, I find I breath more air the colder the water gets. I have friends that I dive with that aren't effected by the cold water as much. When I started diving, breathing was something I had to consentrate on. I mean even in OW training they are always telling you to keep breathing and how important it is. When I had to think about my breathing I used more air. Once it became automatic for me, like everyday breathing, I found my air consuption dropped.
The one thing that I think has helped me the most is the fact that I am a firefighter and I wear and work with an SCBA on all the time. I believe that I have learned to breath better/easier while working with regulated air. There IS a difference between doing work while on a regulated air system than just breathing open air. You might try this experiment....... Find an activity like riding a stationary bike, and do it for 5 minutes and have a friend count your respirations just breathing normal air. It doesn't have to be a run or anything, and you don't have to end up completely out of breath, just a good solid activity rate. After that rest for a while and do the exact same activity again but this time breathing off your regulator. (Find an activity that you can some how not have to support the weight of your tank on you) I will bet for the exact same activity you will breath more rapidly while using the regulator. Its a different feel and a different resistance level on inspiration. You are breathing pressurized gas with the regulator and not when on outside air. You have to teach your body that the resistance that you initially feel when breathing in a regulator, does not need to trigger a response to breath faster.
Just some thoughts and maybe ramblings...... excuse the spelling errors, its getting late.
