How do you breathe under water? Any Advice?

[Big John]

Hmm so you say not to move my legs. Well currenlty if I stop and try to stay still I will move into a vertical position. One of the guys I dive with stay that some peoples body make up just puts them like this natural. LIke I stated I'm a skinny guy 5'10 150lbs.

I had an ahha moment while swimming laps in the pool as to my feet sinking. I have always had heavy feet and could not figure for the life of me why they sunk, whether diving or swimming the minute I stopped my feet would sink. In the pool on my back my feet always sunk, the other day i was noticing my stayed on the surface and I thought for the difference I had my arms stretched over my head. I rolled over and put my hands into normal scuba position, fingers laced by my belly, feet dropped. I stretched my arms out in front of me and feet rose. Here was the Ahha moment, with a bc and weights your balance is like a fulcrum where the balance point is somewhere on your midsection. Your feet are sinking because there is more weight behind your center than in front of your center stretch the arms out in front of you and the balance point becomes centered. Too far out and you will assume a head down attitude and too far in and you will assume an feet down attitude. Try it an see if that helps. Worked for me

 

[limirl]

Regarding the long deep inhale/exhale most are advising, wouldn't that be problematic on a safety stop. I would imagine taking a 4 second inhale would have you rising to the surface rather sooner than intended. Do you typically shorten those breaths at the safety stop ?

 

[TSandM]

What you want to do with the rhythm of your breathing is to inhale slowly, and then, just about the time you start to rise, you begin to exhale. The net result is that you may oscillate a few inches up and down, which is tolerable.

 

[AZdiver1279]

Regarding the long deep inhale/exhale most are advising, wouldn't that be problematic on a safety stop. I would imagine taking a 4 second inhale would have you rising to the surface rather sooner than intended. Do you typically shorten those breaths at the safety stop ?

As long as you are properly weighted and your BC isn't too inflated you should have no problem on a safety stop.

You should be neutrally buoyant on a safety stop. As you ascend of course you are dumping air from you BC and slowly ascending (swimming under control). Generally around 25 ft I stop or slow down the finning to see where I'm at, make one final adjustment and the just relax between 15-20ft. Slow controlled, relaxed breathing. You control your buoyancy on the safety stop the same way you did on the bottom to stay off the reef. IF you are properly weighted you should be able to hover at 15-20 ft with good breathing technique.

The breathing becomes normal after awhile, I just used the exercise (4 sec in 5 sec out) to get in the good habit of slow controlled breathing and using my diaphragm. Generally while diving I tend not to give it any thought and actually I noticed early on when I was trying to improve that the more I thought of it the worse off I was.........it's key just to relax whether on the bottom or at a safety stop.

 

[RJP]

... it's almost always the case that once someone tries one, they end up owning one ...

(Grateful Diver)

Or two, or three...

 

[BonaireDan]

I had an ahha moment while swimming laps in the pool as to my feet sinking. I have always had heavy feet and could not figure for the life of me why they sunk, whether diving or swimming the minute I stopped my feet would sink. In the pool on my back my feet always sunk, the other day i was noticing my stayed on the surface and I thought for the difference I had my arms stretched over my head. I rolled over and put my hands into normal scuba position, fingers laced by my belly, feet dropped. I stretched my arms out in front of me and feet rose. Here was the Ahha moment, with a bc and weights your balance is like a fulcrum where the balance point is somewhere on your midsection. Your feet are sinking because there is more weight behind your center than in front of your center stretch the arms out in front of you and the balance point becomes centered. Too far out and you will assume a head down attitude and too far in and you will assume an feet down attitude. Try it an see if that helps. Worked for me

Might I suggest a solution for the sinking feet issue. Some things come to mind. Move weights up to the top part of your body. YUou could use the non-dumpable pouches on the upper back of your BC (if you have such a BC). Or you can add a couple of ankle weights around the first stage and tank valve to tip your upper body forward a bit. Then there is the use of a back inflate BC or a BP/W setup that would further force you into a horizontal position.

 

[lespaulsf]

Thanks everyone for the great helpful advice. I dive tomorrow so I will see how the advice works. Things I'm going to work on or do:
1) breath with the 4 in 5 out method
2)put weights in trim pockets
3)drop my weight of 12 lbs to about 8 lbs (this is at a lake)
4)don't move hands so much
5) work on fin pivot technique and hover.

 

[lord.harshil]

What you want to do with the rhythm of your breathing is to inhale slowly, and then, just about the time you start to rise, you begin to exhale. The net result is that you may oscillate a few inches up and down, which is tolerable.

you've seen the video of the dude in the black and blue drysuit on youtube (the 5th dx video)

I've managed to get my buoyancy such that I don't move by more than half a foot or so but how the ^@%@ do you not move at all like that guy??? it seriously blows my mind.

although I have seen a couple of my ex instructors manage something similar, so i'm just gonna hope it comes with experience and practice. but damn that guy is perfect!

Thanks everyone for the great helpful advice. I dive tomorrow so I will see how the advice works. Things I'm going to work on or do:
1) breath with the 4 in 5 out method
2)put weights in trim pockets
3)drop my weight of 12 lbs to about 8 lbs (this is at a lake)
4)don't move hands so much
5) work on fin pivot technique and hover.

ah by the way, i usually do ocean dives (so all the 6lbs blah blah was for salt water).

for fresh water lakes, your body tends to "weigh" more (Archimedes' principle : upthrust = weight of water displaced and fresh water is less dense than sea water hence "lighter") so long story cut short, you'll need less weight in fresh water. cut it down to 8 but i think you'll eventually cut it even more. but yeah 8 would be a good start!

good luck!

 

[ligersandtions]

Thanks everyone for the great helpful advice. I dive tomorrow so I will see how the advice works. Things I'm going to work on or do:
1) breath with the 4 in 5 out method
2)put weights in trim pockets
3)drop my weight of 12 lbs to about 8 lbs (this is at a lake)
4)don't move hands so much
5) work on fin pivot technique and hover.

One thing that might help with your hand moving problem is to hold a light (not a pistol grip one, but just a hand-held tube-like one) between your hands. A friend suggested it to me when I first started diving and it really only took one dive and I had broken the hand moving habit....I did it somewhere in the 0-24 range, like you, so it didn't take much to break that habit!

Also, when you drop the weight from 12 down to 8 pounds, please do a weight check at the end of your dive (purge down to <500psi if you don't breathe it down that far) and make sure that your weighting is correct....add or remove some if needed, but don't just "guess" at your weight.

Have fun....it sounds like you're on the path to becoming a good diver!

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

you've seen the video of the dude in the black and blue drysuit on youtube (the 5th dx video)

I've managed to get my buoyancy such that I don't move by more than half a foot or so but how the ^@%@ do you not move at all like that guy??? it seriously blows my mind.

You dive ... a lot! It's all about timing and relaxation ... which comes more naturally the more you do it. You won't get to this level by taking classes ... you just have to put in the bottom time and let your body find its rythm. There are no short cuts.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)