Hello, another newbie here with a question.

[NU2DIVING]

My name is Mike and I recently obtained me OW certification. My has been trying to get me to do it for quite some time but I never reallly got motivated. While I was in the Bahamas I did a resort dive and loved it but still when I got back I lacked the motivation to actually get certified. BTW I have many hobbies that I keep busy with so I was not in ahurry to add another one. Anyway, Sports Chalet opened a store in Pleasanton Ca. and they were giving a half discount on all certifications. I had a trip to Hawaii planned so I thought why not I'll get certified. i told my instructor that i could not go on the schaeduled dive weekend for the class that I signed up for but wanted to be certifed before I went to Hawaii. She looked at her schedule I went through the training every night from Tuesday to Friday and did the cert dives that Saturday and Sunday. I did three dives while in Maui. Two of which were boat daives and one Night dive with my buddy. The night dive was by far my favorite. We did the night dive at a spot called Black rock right infront of the Sheriton. SO now that you know a little bit about my dive experience...

Here is my question:

I seem to be an air hog. I stay very relaxed when I dive and I don't have problerms with jerky movements while diving. I try to concentrate on Breathing slow and deep andi seem to always be the first to run out of air. I finish a dive with 500 PSI and he is at 1100. When We were in hawaii I looked at the other people gauges before they removed them and most people had around 700 psi left. Now, my buddy said that he has always used the least amount of air when divng with different people so I guess that somepeople just breath shallower than others. Does anyone have any idea how long if ever it wil take before I learne to regulate my breathing so that I am not such an air hog. I should add that I have played sports my hole life and have been told that I have excellent lung capacity as a result. My hole life I have trained to increase my boddies abililty to Oxygenate my blood. Mainly for cross country running and Soccer. Could this be the reason that I use so much air.

Thanks In advance,

Mike

 

[boney]

Firstly welcome to the board...
Another factor could be how much air you put into your BC. The more you put air in, take out and put in again the quicker you air will run out. You'll get better at this with more dives... I'm still getting the hang of perfecting my bouyancy...

Dive Safe

boney

 

[diversteve]

Here is my question:

I seem to be an air hog...Could this be the reason that I use so much air.

Thanks In advance,
Mike

It's probably mostly due to your inexperience. See what happens when you've got 50 dives under your belt. I tend to always be among the (often the very)first to run low on air. My buddy always has more air when we get back on the boat, even more now since he Nitrox certified.

And some people are either trained or just easier breathers. We went through two 80's on a scooter dive off Airport Beach once and the DM who accompanied us went through 1500lbs. on a 50 for both dives. Obviously due to his experience. Ask your DM how much air he has left after the last people are back on the boat, those guys just don't breathe at all. And the gals use even less!!

There are a couple of temporary solutions till you get more experience that may help: One is rent a larger tank. I once dove with a 100 and my buddy had an 80 and we called the dive at the same time. I had a divemaster once tell me to pause after exhaling, it seemed to help, but I don't always remember to do it - lots of time I'm distracted by filming. A better regulator can help too, especially at depth. For me, getting an Atomic made breathing an effortless experience and the less I concentrate on it, the better my air consumption gets.

I don't think this is anything that won't work out once you have more experience.

 

[Matt the Aquaman]

Hi there Mike,
Welcome to Scuba Board - the greatest online place, the fastest growing, and the nicest! You can meet a lot of helpful people here and it’s an awesome place to get answers about scuba diving. If you ever want to chat feel free to PM me. Take care and safe diving from Matt.

Click here to greet a new member! :happywave
No experience needed and it feels great!​

 

[NU2DIVING]

Thanks for greetings and the info, I appreciate it. I guess I just need to get wet several more times. Boy that sucks

Mike

 

[scubajoe]

Welcome to the board!

No worries, diving is still new and different. Give it time and get more dives. Your air consumption will improve.

Joe

 

[DandyDon]

Howdy!

And welcome to SB - the biggest, the best, the fastest growing, and the friendliest!

You know, Scuba is a potentially life threatening sport, which we try to manage safely - not a hobby like golf. If you think you'll be taking the vacation diver approach, be sure your dives always include a DM in the water with you, and maybe make a point of telling him of your recent dive history, just be keep it all safe.

Completing your Profile with full location will help in future diving discussions. You can use the Quick Links menu above for this. Sizing a photo for your profile or Avatar can be a challenge; I'm a fumbling amateur, but I get the job done, if you'd like any help?

PM me if I can help you learn your way around; that is - click my username to the upper left, then follow the prompts to send me a "Personal Message."

don

 

[headhunter]

Welcome to ScubaBoard! :happywave

Aside from working on your buoyancy and trim to make sure you aren't working harder because you're not streamlined very well, just keep diving and it will work itself out. Some people just use more air, so be prepared to see that be the case. I don't recommend "pausing" much because that could be dangerous. Do some searches on "skip breathing" here on the board for the details on why not to do that. For now just enjoy the dive and continue to concentrate on your underwater skills.

Dive safe!

Christian

P.S. Due to the high volume of new posts in the Introductions and Greets forum, it's not always possible to keep up with all the new posts here. So, please help me out and send me a PM if you post anything you want me to read or repsond to in this forum.
almtree: :sunny

 

[TwoBitTxn]

All I can do is really reiterate what has already been said.

Welcome to the board

and

Ways to improve your air consumption:

1) Check your weighting regularly. As you get more comfortable in the water, you should be able to drop some weight. More weight=more work=more air

2) Keep diving. More time underwater= more comfortable= lower air consumption.

Any time you change something, your air consumption will change. Add a peice of gear to pay attention to and it could go up. Increase exposure protection, and it will probably go up. Decrease task loading and it will probably go down.

Keep diving,

TwoBit

 

[Nomaster]

NU2DIVING,
Welcome to the world of airhogs... and those who are not. I see you're getting a lot of great information already, can't think of anything to add.
This is a great place to meet people, talk about diving, and get information on just about any aspect of diving -or other subjects sometimes- that you can think of. Roaming therough the forums is great help for me.
When you post a question, be as sure as you can that it's in the right forum or you'll probably find it moved.
The folks here are passionate about their diving, some about their specialty, so the reading can get very interesting, sometimes very hot.
Don't forget to fill out you profile as completely as reasonable, it'll save you being asked and having to repeat the information often.
Enjoy!

Tom