Keeping reg out of mouth longer

[Tom Winters]

What is this 'zzzzzzzzz' stuff anyway? I'm really missing out on a lot of important stuff on the Scubaboard. I'm going to have to cut out all this diving stuff so I can current.

 

[CameronMartz]

Let me clarify.....I don't create games for my students on who can keep the reg out longest...thats pointless....nor do I condone the reg being out any longer than necessary.

The question was posed to me as what they could do to increase their 'zzzzz'ing time if they had a situation where they couldnt recover their reg right away. Without going into the details of why they thought that I didnt want to answer their question incorrectly, so I told them I would get back to them.

I wasnt sure if it was comfort related, being in shape, or what.....

Initially, most people can dramatically change their breath hold time with a little practice. Mainly, they're just getting used to the fact that they're not going to pass out from holding their breath for 60 sec.

Cardiovascular conditioning will help, all else being equal, because greater vascularization and higher blood volume means more oxygen gets used for each breath. This is actually how fitness "widens" the oxygen window for decompression purposes.

Lastly, and this is a double-edged sword, fit people tend to handle higher levels of CO2 better than less fit people. This is not necessarily a good thing for diving, because high CO2 levels increase narcosis and chance of CNS ox tox.

This all changes if the diver is actually exhaling the whole time. This, of course, introduces the variable of the rate at which gas is being exhaled from the lungs. Another way of putting it, the slower you "zzzzzzz," the longer you will be able to keep your reg out of your mouth. Of course, as others have mentioned, all that is needed to prevent lung overpressure is an open epiglottis- no "zzzzzzz" is necessary, though I fully appreciate the reasons for teaching this to "unknown quantities" in an OW class.

Cameron