I always have a small stream of bubbles coming out my mask as I have facial hair and constantly have a small amount of water in my mask so I will blow out my nose to clear from time to time. Now it is a habit that I do without thinking but I can stop if I want maybe you do the same without knowing. I do have a question why is that making you negative?
Exhaling while Inhaling: How Do I Stop It?
- Thread starter Ryan Neely
- Start date
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I did that until I had an uncontrollable ascent from around 35’... turns out the air was leaving my mask and gathering in my hood which overlapped the top of my mask skirt. Since it was one without vent holes I basically turned the hood into a lift bag.
I now make an effort to exhale through the reg AND I always look for vent holes when buying a new hood
I now make an effort to exhale through the reg AND I always look for vent holes when buying a new hood
All my hoods - neoprene and lycra -- have homemade holes in them made with hot nails.
PfcAJ
Contributor
I vote for reg Venturi effect. You’ve got a little positive pressure goin on and it’s just venting out your ‘stache.
OP
Ryan Neely
Contributor
Here's my assumption (though, I only have 75 dives under my belt so I could be wrong--we didn't delve into in class as to why it was driving to make me dive negative):
Keep in mind, it isn't this trail of bubbles leaking from my nose right now that is the issue. By inhaling through my mouth, I'm bringing a certain volume of gas into my lungs. By exhaling through my nose, I'm expelling a different certain volume of gas from my lungs. Typically, because the passage is smaller through the nose, I believe I'm expelling less gas when I exhale than when I inhale. This, over time, inherently makes me more buoyant.
So, I dive with less gas in my wing (negative) ... until I do exhale all the gas from my lungs and then I start to sink. So, I add some gas to my wing, readjust my depth, and continue. But the cycle starts again, and this time I start to rise ... so I dump gas and am negative again.
At least, that's the best explanation I can think of.
What I know for certain is this: During Fundies, I was having a terrible time controlling my buoyancy. When we discovered this, I began making every dive with my nose plugged (with my fingers) until I could train myself to breathe only through my mouth. In doing so, I had my buoyancy in check to the foot. It was an amazing thing.
... of course, it could all be psychosomatic, so who knows.
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In the meantime, I will try to use a nose clip, switch off the Venturi assist, and attempt to replicate the issue without the mask to see if there's a more obvious way to pinpoint the issue.
I see what you are saying. To me it sounds like you are carrying to much lead in general and are using your wing to compensate. I try to dive with as little lead as possible which in turn means little to no air in your wing. You described what I call the yo yo effect which means you continue to change the air in your wing as you go up and down in the water column which also affects your air consumption. If you get the amount of lead you actually need dialed in you will have less air in your wing and use your lungs for fine tuning your buoyancy. The nose clip my help to train yourself to just breathe out your mouth but learning how you breath will also teach you how your lungs affect your buoyancy and then you can use that to make your diving more efficient. I also track the amount of weight I use with different setups, water type salt or fresh and how it feels so I can dial it in.
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