I need advice on...breathing.

[lostcajun]

Most everything posted here has been very helpful to me and I'm glad to see them posted. My consumption has improved because of some good suggestions from more seasoned divers, and the suggestions here I think made the difference. Buoyancy is huge. Relaxing is huge. Slow down, and don't use your arms. These all made a difference including learning to frog kick.

 

[Mikko Ilari Laakkonen]

You should not worry about your sac. You should however worry about things that affect it but just breathe as much as you need to. It's easy to carry a bigger tank. Get weighting, buoyancy, trim and propulsion in order and just enjoy.

I am an experienced diver and instructor, my trim and buoyancy are excellent and I am very relaxed underwater. Still my SAC does not drop below 16l/min even on most relaxing sandbottom dives. However with training it does not go over 23l/min in a cold water drysuit deep wreck drift dive.

I am planning to try yoga to improve it though

- Mikko Laakkonen -

I love diving and teaching others to dive.

 

[Goodtime Adventures]

Many valid points here. Get a bigger tank for now and then just dive dive dive, you will find you improve naturally the more relaxed and comfortable you become.

We're also in agreement with the moulded mouthpiece suggestion. In addition, you could look try a new breathing technique. You know that 'airway control' they talk about in some OW classes? Basically using your toungue against the roof of your mouth as a splashguard? Try breathing like that all the time. You'l still get the volume of air you need, but will avoid wasting extra by inhaling super large breaths. It also helps with slowing down your breathing rate.

Good luck and happy diving

 

[The Kraken]

Bourj,

Surprisingly, the things you do right before a dive can have a profound effect upon the dive itself.

You've been given some excellent advice here and asked some excellent questions.

Given the dry weight of your rig, your breathing is going to become quite labored before you even enter the water. You'll continue to need additional oxygen several minutes into the dive to overcome the oxygen usage as you labored to get into the water.

Pace yourself. The excitement, anxiety, and apprehension before a dive can serve to elevate one's pulse rate and thus require, what could be considered to be, an unusually high SAC/RMV.

Safe dives, safer ascents . . .
the K

 

[scububa]

Yeah, all the comments made are good ones.
Now you have to pick them out, prioritize them and make a plan to work them.
The number one thing is to get a good mentor or set of buddies that you can give/receive feedback.
The first three I'd pick
1.) Regardless of the actual value of weight needed, get your weighting right or you'll waste air on continuously inflating/deflating
Do this with a mentor that can help you and handle weights as you add and subtract and give you feedback. As this gets dialed in, check and refine your trim.
2.) Practice a ritual in getting ready get ready the same way and then take a pause after you have hooked, clipped, and put on you last piece sit still, close your eyes and get relaxed...then when you get in the water, on the surface, relax again...finally, drop down to 20 ft or so and get it together, hover, stretch your arms and legs out to 'settle' the drysuit and harness, check your gauges, mentally repeat your dive plan...they all go to having confidence in what you are about to do and not anxiously thinking about each move...if you can't do these things, surface and relax on the surface and begin again
3.) Do a few dives where it doesn't matter where you get to and move slowly thinking about kick/glide, kick/glide and at your predetermined turn pressure, stop, hover, relax, note your pressure and return to the start point (I am often amazed at how much less my return pressure is on a dive in a new location or with a new piece of gear or a new 'mission' where I must be more relaxed returning than embarking. This is a clear indicator to me to make sure I do all the things I mentioned above at the beginning of the next dive.)

Just relax. You have the main thing it takes to get better, the desire to be a better diver. Now add a disciplined approach to applying solutions and just let it happen.

You mention Bonne Terre, if you are in the StL area, pm me and I'll give you some suggestions of where to keep an eye out to join in on dives where there will be folks willing to help you along. Mermet Springs is a great place to do the very kind of things you probably want to work on.

 

[Doomnova]

Pretty much what has been said here. From a "newish diver" to another new diver.
I started out I had a SAC of about 1.10-1.00. For the first 10-15 dives it wasn't getting much better. I found I was fighting my gear and the environment. So I took a well taught Peak Performance Buoyancy(PPB) class with a friend who took me through proper weighting (I turned out to be under weighted at the end of the dive). Learning proper breath control and breathing and most of the kicks which I since have mastered all but the back kick but my new jet fins are helping out there. Right after that class I noticed my Sac drop down to around 0.70-0.60 depending on conditions. As comfort continued to set in and I got used to my gear configuration and the environment I now run somewhere between the 0.42 and 0.47 range in our cold waters.

The biggest things I can say here are these which should really come back to what others have said.
1) get out and dive. its simple your still adjusting to a new environment.

2) get a mentor be it formal or not. They can help you get over the hurdles of point #1

3) Buoyancy control, buoyancy control, buoyancy control.This is in my books the biggest one I have seen in all the drop ins and dives I do I see it here all the time when people are blowing through their air like no ones business (some
people are larger and need more air but there is a reasonable value to this). If your adding or subtracting air all the time your not comfortable then you end up burning air on both the adding or removing of air all the time and on stress elaborated more in the next point.

4) Trim control. If you do not have They have poor control and cannot readily relax because if they do they turn upside down, pitch forward and that freaks you out as your loosing control. needless to say your body preps for fight or flight and well your metabolic rate goes through the roof. High metabolic rate= higher air consumption. By being able to just hover and not be torqued one way or another you can just relax and go wit the flow.

points 3 and 4 lend themselves into the following points.

5) Slow down. Diving is not a marathon and many things you will miss by rushing about as well as blowing through your air supply. I've found that when people tend to rush around they also tend to have higher consumption of air and if I look closely enough its because they cannot hover if they do points 3 and 4 come into play and cannot maintain their position in the water.

6) Be relaxed. If your relaxed and have the points above your body will not require anywhere near the air it was and you'll find your dive time increases a lot, but do not force longer dives by breathholding. It will come with time and experience right now when you hop in the water your mind has 1000 things bouncing around.

7) By slowing down and relaxing you'll allow yourself to tune your breathing rate into a nice rhythmic cycle. I found I settled into something like a 4sec in 2sec pause 4sec out, but I adjust based on my needs.

8) Learn more efficient kicking styles. flutter/free style is ok for powering around but its not really efficient as your body doesn't relax frog kicks let you get into a kick glide cycle. Helicopter turns are great for changing direction without using energy inefficient hands.

9) Final point. Be patient with yourself your adjusting to a completely new environment and it takes time for your mind and body to adjust to it. Your motor cortex is rewriting itself to this environment and your body is probably working muscles that are not being used a lot as these get adapted you'll find it easier and easier to stretch out your dives along with the above points.

Anywho I hope this helps. Good luck and be patient. Remember you didn't learn to go from crawling to walking in a day. Its the same for diving.

 

[t4e]

Second, you are overweighted, third, I doubt you are trimmed out, fourth, you were uncomfortable (whether you know it or not).

Get your weight on BMI, continue working out (great!!!!) and work on getting your ballast (lead) down.


N

i haven't read the whole thread to see if anyone commented on the bolded points but are you serious, he/she is overweight?

BMI? well i call that a load of baloney...does not take into account the muscle mass, which you should know very well that is heavier then fat, so as you build muscle, which weight lifting will do, you might find your weight going up instead of down

i played professional basketball for 15 years, when i quit i lost 10 kg in the following 2 months, that was all muscle mass

 

[Doomnova]

i haven't read the whole thread to see if anyone commented on the bolded points but are you serious, he/she is overweight?

BMI? well i call that a load of baloney...does not take into account the muscle mass, which you should know very well that is heavier then fat, so as you build muscle, which weight lifting will do, you might find your weight going up instead of down

i played professional basketball for 15 years, when i quit i lost 10 kg in the following 2 months, that was all muscle mass

I'm pretty sure the BMI system is on its last legs. Its pretty much a touch to the back of the hand to determine if you have a fever or not. If your way over odds are there is something wrong or way under but if your hovering around the borders of over/under weight there might not be much concern. There are other metrics out thee but they require a lot more than just standing on a weight scale and seeing what you clip in at.

 

[Nemrod]

i haven't read the whole thread to see if anyone commented on the bolded points but are you serious, he/she is overweight?

BMI? well i call that a load of baloney...does not take into account the muscle mass, which you should know very well that is heavier then fat, so as you build muscle, which weight lifting will do, you might find your weight going up instead of down

i played professional basketball for 15 years, when i quit i lost 10 kg in the following 2 months, that was all muscle mass

Apparently you cannot read, I said OVERWEIGHTED, not overweight. Do not adjust my words. Your lack of attention is not my problem. If it is not helpful, do not read it. As to BMI, that is an unknown for the OP at the time of my post you find issue with, and, yes, I do think BMI is an excellent guide, though not the last word. I will stay with what I said.

N

 

[daz88]

just dive. It's about being relaxed in the water. You are too new to be relaxed in the water, everything is new too you. Stop worying about it and just enjoy diving. Has you dive more, you will learn (hopefully) how to move properly in the water, how your equipment works, and hopefully how to breathe for diving. I wouldn't worry about counting while you breathe, just every once in a while...check yourself & be sure you are breathing slowly. Just enjoy your diving, once you learn to enjoy it....you're be more relaxed and use less air.