Another newbie question: breathing hard through reg

[spectrum]

The shop regulator was probably not a finely tuned item so that could be a part of it. The hiss of delivery and thunder of exhaust can make you think you are tied to a respirator at first.

If you were in a vertical position kneeling or otherwise you would have felt a difference since your lungs would have been deeper that the second stage that sets the delivery pressure. This goes away when you are prone in the water.

You may not be accustomed to sustained oral breathing, go do laps in your mask, fins and snorkel to make this second nature before your class. It will also tone and cramp proof your legs for swimming with your fins.

With all of the excitement of taking your first breaths underwater I would not read too much into it. With just a little experience it should become a very natural and relaxing experience.

Pete

 

[Biodiversity_guy]

When we started we bought our own regs. we were new and did not realize that they could be "tuned" and also had a (not really but) on/off switch that help set the venturi currents or somesuch to make the reg less likely to freeflow at the surface when "off" but one would want to flip to "on" when ready to start using it. There was also a knob on the side that could be adjusted to make it easier to breath in a current for example

Anyway, the point is, the first time my wife used hers she made no adjustments and had to pull hard to get it to breathe. Once we figure out what that knob and switch were for, life and breathing got easier.

May be something similar at play here.

 

[wulvrine74]

I have to agree with everyone else.
Low quality reg. plus the nerves didn't help any.
I know that when I go shark diving, Im all sorts of excited and breathing heavy.

Just remember to calm yourself down, or your dive is only gonna last a few minuted cause you are going to suck all your air up!

 

[jonesbf]

Sounds like a reg issue. Though if you do get into a situation where you start breathing heavily you will feel starved for air even w/ a good reg. I've seen this before with divers who are out of shape and/or trying to fight currents.

 

[Web Monkey]

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?

It's not normal, however there are a few possible causes that come to mind.

1. The reg is broken/misadjusted (as mentioned in all the other posts).
2. Your wetsuit or BC or weightbelt is too tight.
3. You were vertical, not horizontal. The regulator is designed to compensate for the water pressure by matching the air pressure it delivers with the surrounding water pressure (measured at the regulator), which will make breathing pretty much effortless.
   
   If you're vertical, your lungs are at a greater depth and greater ambient pressure than the regulator is matching, making it harder to breathe.
   
   If this is the problem, you can fix it by remaining more or less horizontal (which has the added benifits of mkaing it easier to swim and reducing your air consumption).
   
   If you're horizontal and your gear isn't too tight, and it's still hard to breathe, your regulator needs service.

Terry