Another newbie question: breathing hard through reg

[Badly Drawn Girl]

I'm sure all of these questions will be answered when I take my OW certification course, but because I have an upcoming trip planned this month and am relocating cities I won't be able to start the course until at least mid-April when I'll be down in Wellington (gawd my open water dives are going to be COLD).

So, I was just wondering: when I did my first DSD dive, I noticed that it was a lot harder than I was expecting to draw a breath from the regulator and exhale it. One, is this normal? And two, is this something that everyone just gets used to, or was it partially due to nerves and exertion? I assume that it's because there's some sort of valve in the tank that needs to be pushed open before the air will flow through it...but my scuba diving knowledge is basically zero, so I've got no idea. I just remember finding it surprisingly difficult to inhale and was pretty winded the whole time - and I'm in fairly good shape. I mean, I sounded like Darth Vader. Creepy.

 

[Jimmer]

It could just be a low quality regulator, or a reg that is in need of service. A high quality regulator will be practically effortless to breathe from.

 

[1_T_Submariner]

I would agree with Jimmer. My family's regs are effortless breathing they are all different models by 2 different companies.

 

[Thalassamania]

The reason that you sound like Darth Vader is because they used a regulator to make that sound effect, art imitates life.

 

[H2Andy]

hmmm... well, if you were using a rental regulator, it probably gets a lot of use and little maintenance, so ... it's not the standard by which to judge a proper regulator

like jimmer says, you should have very little effort needed to breathe from a good reg

also, some regs have controls that "adjust" the flow rate, so your reg might have been set to a "pre-dive" setting, or perhaps with the control set on minimum (this is done to prevent the reg from free-flowing, or letting a ton of air out for no reason)

but bottom line is, a good reg set properly will not require much effort to breathe from

 

[Badly Drawn Girl]

The reason that you sound like Darth Vader is because they used a regulator to make that sound effect, art imitates life.

LOL! Well that explains that then.

And thanks for the info...that's fairly reassuring. Trust me, this thing was like sucking air through a straw at 12,000 feet. The dive instructor probably thought I was having a panic attack. I was actually having a great time, aside from the fact that I couldn't breathe!

 

[Bob Vincent]

Something is major wrong with that reg. Even less expensive reg's breath really well and you'd of not noticed it.

 

[divedownunder]

I didnt find breathing through a reg was hard at all. mind youi had done alot of snorkelling, and yeah i guess some people cant get used to that either..
it just takes time. I think i had more trouble breathing out than in with the reg i used while learning

Cheers Richy

 

[Gombessa]

I think i had more trouble breathing out than in with the reg i used while learning

Same here. Breathing in just required the smallest amount of inhaling to open the valve, whereas breathing out required a bit more push from the lungs. I think this may cause some people to feel like they have trouble breathing (don't exhale enough to force the air out the reg, and then find they have "limited capacity" to inhale new air). Just takes a little getting used to, but breathing in should be effortless.

 

[lamont]

i remember having a crappy rental reg in my BOW class... it was like sucking air through a straw...

do not go very deep on those regs, you can get CO2 buildup and have a pretty bad day...

first thing on the list of equipment to own is your own regs...