Air Hog

[ScubyDoo]

My advice....dont breathe so much... LOL!! Seriously though, it can be as simple as that. Yes...if you smoke, if your overweight, if your nervous, if your fighting a current, etc...your going to suck air.. but if you consciously make an effort to relax...slow down, take long deep inhales...slow long exhales, you should be able to improve your SAC rate. I suppose its possible that your just a large person who's lung volume is greater than most, and thus simply need more air for your body than the rest of us. For most though...a relaxed 5 second inhale followed by a relaxed 5 second exhale, is a good breathing pattern to get in a rythym of. Don't overexert yourself...especially in Cozumel for petes sake...let the current do the work.

 

[TSandM]

It won't get better with time if you are incorrectly weighted, severely out of trim, or having significant buoyancy issues.

There are lots of threads here about getting your weighting right. If you are badly overweighted, you will be fighting a large volume of air in trying to get through the water, and that costs effort and breathing gas. If you are severely out of trim, you will be very inefficient in propelling yourself forward through the water, and that costs breathing gas. If you have not got your buoyancy down, you will waste gas through inflating/deflating your BC, and waste effort going up and down instead of forward.

Basic buoyancy, trim, and correct weighting can help enormously in getting you more efficient, more relaxed and more comfortable in the water. All of these things decrease your air consumption.

 

[DandyDon]

New Avatar for Brian...

 

[jeckyll]

Just dive more, it'll get better with time.

-Brandon.

+1

All the details are there. Over 3 years < 50 dives. Dive more

Track your SAC. Check your weight. Relax. Then Relax some more.

 

[RLarsen]

Using a larger tank while working to improve air consumption is a good idea. I've been on a couple trips that I wished newer divers would have requested a larger tank. For only $5 more they could have enjoyed a longer dive and would not have had to be accompanied to the surface by others who took turns cutting their dives short to be a buddy on the surface.
All the advice on this site is helpful. Proper weighting and position in the water is important. Being relaxed with the dive plan will help you. My favorite advice from a dive master in Cozumel was to "breath deep and breath slow."
The best and most frequent advice you will hear is to dive more.
Rex

 

[DandyDon]

And I have known a couple of divers who relaxed and did much better when they got better mouthpieces for their regs - SecCure or Manta.

 

[PaulChristenson]

New Avatar for Brian...

Hookie smoke...Dandy Don is passing the mantle...

 

[ManTeeRay]

I,m a bit of a Hoover too. I have a tendency to take a lot of pictures and when I do I am always working to get into the best position for that great shot of my subject. When I'm doing this I'm kind of a "Hoover Wind Tunnel." But, I definately learned that when I am just cruising with good neutral buoyancy, taking fewer pictures, and breathing calmly and normally I'm just maybe a "Dust Buster." I think you can expend energy sometimes, while diving, without even realizing it, thus sucking more air. Diving is like anything else the more you do it the more natural it becomes, the less you have to think about what you are doing which means you work less at the basics (like neutral buoyancy) thus less air suckage (is that a new word?).

 

[tjc]

I believe there are a few things that are key in air consumption (mine is really good, so I'm I'll speak from my experience). Like many have already posted - dive.
Secondly, having optimum buoyancy control is important (this enables you to relax and not expel so much energy). Slow down the pace of your breathing. Remember that the slower you breath not only the more relaxed you will be, the longer it takes, thus enabling you a better rate. Most important that I always tell my buddies is that in order to have good air consumption, you need to constantly be focusing on your breathing throughout the dive. Pay attention to it. Notice your habits. During my dives, my primary focus is my breathing. It's kind of like meditating to me.

 

[CameronMartz]

If I recall correctly there's a point where being physically fit is actually going to make you use more air, i.e. lets say you're Arnold for example. You'll use more air than say Pee Wee...

While I must emphasize that I feel most air consumption issues like mentioned in the original post are best fixed with practice and building water comfort, I just want to clarify this point you raise. Getting *larger* has an upward impact on your basal metabolic rate, whether it is because of increases in muscle or fat. Though muscle utilizes more calories during activity than fat, they are surprisingly close in metabolic demand at rest.

That said, increasing your cardiovascular fitness and even your strength will have downward effects on SAC. You become a more efficient user of oxygen, requiring less to perform the same amount of work.

Cameron