How do I improve my air consumption?

[pasley]

... This was based on my last dive: 57 fsw, 30 min, EAN36, steel 119 tank w/ 3750 psi to start, 100psi end. Any insight, opinion or advice is appreciated. Thanks.

100 PSI at the end, cutting it pretty close there weren't you?

What if you had surfaced to large waves (I once went in with 2-3 foot waves and surfaced to 5-7 foot waves and a beach exit on the rocks!)? You left yourself no margin for error or emergencies. It is a better option to have 300-500 on the beach unless you had an emergency an needed to use your reserve. Air is cheap, your life isn’t. Save some for just in case.

As for air consumption, that has already been covered quite well by theskull: good buoyancy control, proper weighting, physically fit, relax, stay calm, park your hands and don't use them, move slow, don't worry about your breathing, just relax and breath in a slow relaxed manner. It will all come to you with time.

 

[rab]

Just for reference (since I also have a PST E8-119), the "standard" 500psi in an AL80 is the same amount of air in an E8-199@375psi.

I agree that 100psi is very risky.

-Rob

 

[PB565]

100 PSI at the end, cutting it pretty close there weren't you?

What if you had surfaced to large waves (I once went in with 2-3 foot waves and surfaced to 5-7 foot waves and a beach exit on the rocks!)? You left yourself no margin for error or emergencies. It is a better option to have 300-500 on the beach unless you had an emergency an needed to use your reserve. Air is cheap, your life isn’t. Save some for just in case.

As for air consumption, that has already been covered quite well by theskull: good buoyancy control, proper weighting, physically fit, relax, stay calm, park your hands and don't use them, move slow, don't worry about your breathing, just relax and breath in a slow relaxed manner. It will all come to you with time.

I meant to write 1000psi remaining. Sorry, big difference!

 

[miketsp]

I meant to write 1000psi remaining. Sorry, big difference!

Correcting that typo improves your SAC quite a lot if you replace the 100 by 1000 in theskull's calculation.

 

[pasley]

I meant to write 1000psi remaining. Sorry, big difference!

Uh, yeah, it is. Changes the whole picture.

Someone else will do the math. I must confess that I let my computer compute my SAC. But I figure that will put you roughly in the 1.17 SAC rate.

Or in other words, your getting there. What you can do to improve has already been well covered. I just want to again stress a few of the IMHO, important points:
1. Be properly weighted. You should sink slowly, not like a rock, but still be able to maintain 15 Feet for a safety stop. You should not need a lot of air in your BC at 30 feet to stay off the bottom. Example, I am 6 feet tall, 148-150 lbs, age 50 wearing 7 mill suit, 7 mil hood, 3 mil vest, gloves and boots and AL80 tank with 20 lbs of lead. I could probably loose a few more pounds of lead. I have dove with 18 lbs when my buddy was under weighted and needed some of my lead to stay down, and was able to do the dive just fine. I dive a 20 lbs because it was just a hair too twitchy when I got to 700 PSI.
2. One factor I have observed (in myself and others) when we are descending, for some reason, we tend to move our feet (read fin or swim), which of course moves us up. The result, since you can't go down, you add more weight. So stop kicking if you are trying to go down (I see this a lot). When decending, nothing should be moving as movement is lift.
3. Swim slowly if at all. Don't be in a rush. You will see more stuff that way and use less air.
4. Park your hands. They are inefficient at propulsion compared to your fins and waste air. If you are using them to keep off the bottom adjust your BC.
5. Make very small adjustments to your BC and then WAIT. It takes a little while for the adjustments to take effect. For some reason I still don't understand, air added to a BC does not instantly affect your buoyancy. So wait a little while before adding another 1/8th second spritz of air.

 

[PB565]

I appreciate the feedback. I'm really focusing on the breathing/SAC now because I quit smoking 5 months ago, after almost 20 years!, and I want to monitor this carefully.

 

[jham2081]

I'm a newly certified diver, I made my first for fun/ non class dive today, and i realized that i'm an air-hog. What techniques can i practice to consume my air less quickly?

 

[Web Monkey]

Relax and do less work.

You can't just "breathe less", you need to work on the demand side (the amount of energy you're expending), which will then allow you to breathe less.

You breathe more when you're excited or anxious, so one thing that helps is to relax.

The other thing that causes you to breathe more is the amount of physical work you're doing. If you can improve your buoyancy and trim so that you're horizontal in the water, it will take less energy to move you, and therefore you'll be doing less work and will need less air.

Getting your weights correct will take a little work, but will help a lot.

Terry

I'm a newly certified diver, I made my first for fun/ non class dive today, and i realized that i'm an air-hog. What techniques can i practice to consume my air less quickly?

 

[scubatoad]

As Terry said, just relax and breathe deeply and slowly. When you are exited (or exerted) you tend to breathe faster and more shallow ... it is far less efficient and you will speed through your air.

My wife is pretty good on air but she was recently watching our young son follow me through some deep crevaces and caverns and went through a bunch of air just sitting still watching us ... she was "exited" watching us disappear into the darkness and was just not comfortable with the situation.

 

[mania]

As a new diver I bet you are overweighted. So first of all get your weights properly done - tank with 30 bars, 3 meters and check if you are getting neutral buoyancy.
Then remember - air you are breathing is at the higher pressure than on the surface so with every breath you take more air than normally. It means you don't need to take deep breaths.
Next thing - slow down your movements UW. At the beginning I remember i was doing everything a bit nervously and quickly. So it took a lot of energy=a lot of air.
The slower you are the smaller air consumption.
And anyway - it will all come with time.
Mania