How to control breathing while descending?

[TMHeimer]

After 12 years I still am fairly slow and methodical. There are a lot of things to do--in the correct order--even if you have done it over 700 times. I occasionally will forget something if talking with someone while gearing up. I've started a walk down the beach and had to embarrasingly ask someone to turn on my air a half dozen times--mostly during my first 100 dives or so. Am extremely careful of that on a boat, needless to say.

 

[Chavodel8en]

Is it just a practice thing? Will i not have these problems the more i continue to dive? I LOVE scuba more than anything but always having this issue tends to get very frustrating. Granted, we took a verrrrry long surface swim each time which tends to get me breathing heavy. All i can think about is getting my AOW eventually but i need to be able to calm my breathing. Any tips?

A lot of the advice so far seems in the context of boat dives, where you jump off the boat into the water.

It seems like most of your dives have been shore dives in NorCal. I do these type of shore dives all the time, and the surface swims can really get you breathing heavy. At Lobos, you probably swim at least 150 yards to get to the nice parts of Middle Reef, and even more if you want to go further afield. Most of the Monterey/Carmel sites have similar swims.

Do you allow yourself time for your breathing to slow down after the surface swim? I will relax on the surface for the 2-3 minutes to return to that slow, long breathing pattern. If I don't, I feel like I breath heavy throughout the dive.

Hopefully, your buddies are patient with that, and they don't get cold (and you don't get cold as you relax). And hopefully, you can fully relax on the surface -- no finning, so skulling - just completely resting and slowing your breathing.

 

[Neilwood]

A lot of the advice so far seems in the context of boat dives, where you jump off the boat into the water.

It seems like most of your dives have been shore dives in NorCal. I do these type of shore dives all the time, and the surface swims can really get you breathing heavy. At Lobos, you probably swim at least 150 yards to get to the nice parts of Middle Reef, and even more if you want to go further afield. Most of the Monterey/Carmel sites have similar swims.

Do you allow yourself time for your breathing to slow down after the surface swim? I will relax on the surface for the 2-3 minutes to return to that slow, long breathing pattern. If I don't, I feel like I breath heavy throughout the dive.

Hopefully, your buddies are patient with that, and they don't get cold (and you don't get cold as you relax). And hopefully, you can fully relax on the surface -- no finning, so skulling - just completely resting and slowing your breathing.

I would agree with that - if you are doing a surface swim it does take a couple of minutes of relaxing prior to descent to get me settled.

If I dive stressed (either due to surface issues or a surface swim) I generally find that my dive gets way shorter as the first 10 minutes are spent trying to get to that relaxed state I normally dive in.

 

[TMHeimer]

It's amazing how much gas you use while slipping fins on after even a short walk to the water. And I do it very quickly with the spring fin straps. Plus you have to inflate your BC or you'll wind up sitting on the bottom. I guess I could just stand there a bit before donning fins (well, not in February).

 

[Scubamat]

I had the same thing for my first couple if dives post OW. I was stressed and not comfortable on the surface which made it harder to decend as I wasn't breathing out. What helped me was making sure I was relaxed before doing something I would get ready and make sure I was relaxed before I splashed from the boat. Once in the water I would lay on my back and just breath or if the water was clear and not choppy I put my snorkel on and just look down. I try to be first in so by the time everyone else is ready I had a few minutes to relax and get in the right frame of mind.

 

[Satrekker]

It sounds to me like over exertion. I've had a couple of dives when I started back where I was impatient waiting for people ahead of me to descend a line, so I just kicked past and did a straight descent without the line. When I reached bottom, I was sucking hard on my reg and could feel that sense of panic wanting to rear its ugly head. I promptly chilled out and made certain to focus on breathing full breaths in and out until my body recovered. It happened to me twice early on and was no fun, but it was great experience in hindsight. Now, I'm never in too much of a hurry, and I'm always aware of exertion and fatigue, as well as hydration.

 

[Blueringocto_73]

I had the problem of over-exertion from the swim out and shallow breathing. CO2 retention. Felt like the regulator had too much resistance. Which of course was not the case. Once I got horizontal breathing was better.