Breath control

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Painter

Contributor
Messages
152
Reaction score
54
Location
Provincetown, MA
# of dives
100 - 199
I'm now up to 22 dives and one of the major issues that I have is that I go through my air way quicker than anybody else. On my last dive, starting with 3000psi, I surfaced after 35 minutes with about 700psi. One of the people I was with went another 10 minutes and had close to 1000 psi when he got back on the boat. It was a very relaxed dive, but he was much more experienced than I am.

I know that I am breathing wrong, but I am not diving enough to practice breath control a whole lot in the water. Any suggestions on technique and ways to practice when not in the water? I won't be diving again until late February.
 
what was your average depth and what was your tank size? Calculate your SAC rate and then we can have a better idea of whether your buddy was freakishly good, or you were a hoover. Rough numbers say your DAC was 1.7cfm if that was an AL80, so as long as you were at atleast a 35ft average depth it isn't that far out of normal for a new diver. It's high, but not not that high.
 
You got some typical newbie issues.
It's not that much about 'breath control'. It's about being comfortable in the water, warm enough, and not moving excessively. Probably you are not nearly as relaxed as you think and you have a lot of arm and foot motion. Buoyancy and trim control at the learning stage is a far more useful focus than breath control.

You are unfortunately going to go way too long for your next dives. After watching newbies for about 20 years I've got a rule of thumb that you.....minimally.....need to dive at LEAST once every 2 months just to barely maintain the skills you have. The fewer dives you have, the more and faster your skills will deteriorate. On your next dive vacation you'll be doing probably 6 dives to merely get back to where you are now.

Take up swimming. Swim a lot. Get very comfortable in the water if you can't actually dive. The familiarity of being in the water, and the aerobic exercise will do you far more good than any kind of breath control. You can't much concentrate on that and dive when your dive skills are that new, too much task loading. Put your concentration on dive skills.
 
I have seen a lot of newbie divers in the water. It is rare for them to not be swimming too much at depth. Work on dialing in your buoyancy. This can be done in a pool. Water provides little resistance when you are slow but it increases quickly with speed. When I want to move a do a couple of slow full scissor kicks and then glide between kicks. Doing lots of little flutter or bicycle kicks eats a lot more air without much extra to show for it.
 
Good advice already given. Indeed cardio training outside of diving will help. Also just experience in the water will increase your comfort and buoyancy control; over time your air consumption will go down.
 
I'm now up to 22 dives and one of the major issues that I have is that I go through my air way quicker than anybody else. On my last dive, starting with 3000psi, I surfaced after 35 minutes with about 700psi. One of the people I was with went another 10 minutes and had close to 1000 psi when he got back on the boat. It was a very relaxed dive, but he was much more experienced than I am.

Consider switching to a 100 cf cylinder, at least for now. Then you can enjoy your dive and match your buddies.

I know that I am breathing wrong, but I am not diving enough to practice breath control a whole lot in the water. Any suggestions on technique and ways to practice when not in the water?

You're not breathing wrong. Changing your breathing to try to save air is like paying your grocery bill in $1s and $5s to try to save money.

Advice given upthread is good, also, some people just use more air because of their physiology. I'm a big guy and have a fast metabolism, and I'm always going to go through more air than most people. I dive larger cylinders, works for me

I won't be diving again until late February.

I try to get in the water every week. Sometimes I miss a week, especially now that the weather is dicey. More practice, better skills
 
Forget about the breathing for now and work on being able to hang motionless in the water. It's not easy, but it will be the basis for a lot of other things. The breathing part will come on its own.
 
Just be patient. Better air consumption will come. Like others gave said, it's better to work on your trim and bouyancy right now than worrying about air consumption. You may be overweighted so gradually trying to reduce the amount of weight you're diving with will help with bouyancy, trim, and ultimately, how much air you use. I know it help me out tremendously.
 
Thanks for all of the good advice. I am a big guy and do have trim issues, though I think that my weighting is about right. My cardio is pretty good for a nearly 66 y.o. Planning to join the Y soon so I can swim, but in the frozen north of upstate NY, it is unlikely that I will be able to dive until my next trip to warm water in late Feb, unless I can find a pool session somewhere.
 
Short dives are often a social big deal for new divers. You feel badly about shortening your buddy's dive. You can't just 'wish' significant improvements in your air consumption. You can often get a larger tank, and maybe hire a divemaster/guide for the dives. That can take some of the stress off, and improve the experience all by itself.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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