letting others down?

[Iralub]

Frankly, if my buddy went chasing a fish to 37m, leaving me behind and created a situation that the dive guide had to go and get them, I'd see that as letting me down. Having a higher air consumption is not a let down.
Some people will use more air. Some people (like me) will come up with 150 bar and have to be helped out of the water because they have trouble with weight of the gear being more than half their body weight

 

[gcarter]

hi there,

lately i have become worried about my air consumption and the feeling of letting others down. when i first learned to dive we posted dives of 38-45 minutes at between 14m-18m. as a beginner that was fine and i understood that air consumption would improve with time.

however i went away twice in 3 months last year and i became consciously aware that my buddy is coming out with around 10-20 bar more than me despite having only ever dived with me so we have the same amount of water time and i am usually the 1st to need to indicate i am at the pre determined level to turn back. the instructor/guide had a 10 litre tank and came out with 180!!!!!! obviously he dives every day 6 days a week though.and my times are still 38-45 minutes

we also did a dive around a wreck (our first) at 18m with a 15litre tank rather than 12 as the guide said we used to much to get away with a 12l. and admittedly i got very excited about the wreck and probably breathed too fast and moved to fast and used it too fast. but in general its still a problem.

so to cap of my ramblings. i decided to consciously stay a feet or 2 above my buddy, breathe slowly,deeply and exhale slowly. inflate my BCD by mouth rather than using inflator hose. consciously move slowly and not move my arms, work on my buoyancy and changed from front crawl kicking to slow frog kicks basically anything i can think of to conserve my air. my buddy on the other hand flails, front crawl kicks, spends most of his time vertical rather than horizontal and cant control his buoyancy and on one dive (after we had done AOW) chased an amber jack down to 38m with his go pro and the guide had to go get him. i stayed at 27m and i still used more air. i just don't get it

i worry that people will get annoyed or we will miss out on stuff because my bottom time is terrible. also with now being qualified to 30m its going to get worse unless i improve. is weight an issue? my buddy is stick thin but very unfit whereas i put on a lot of timber after a messy breakup but i am now working to get rid of it. but even for a bigger guy (probably twice the weight of my buddy) i am still fairly fit and swim regularly. could my weight be why i use more air or am i doing something wrong? i am not expecting to get a massive difference and have 100 bar left when i come out but i don't want to be the first one to make people turn back because of my poor consumption

1 week ago. My dive 222, my son's dive 193. 2nd cold water dive of the season. 80cf tank, starting pressure 3000psi. Ending pressure 1100 psi on a dive time of 51 minutes, SAC of 0.61. That is good for me.

My son started with the same 3000 psi, also on an 80cf tank, and finished with 1900 psi.

How much longer do you think he could have stayed down?

I generally use a 117cf tank, he a 100cf tank and he STILL comes up with more air than I.

It is what it is. Some people use more air, some less. It is what it is.

Relax and enjoy your dives. Your air consumption will improve over time. Or it won't. But if you accept your consumption for what it is, you will spend more time enjoying your dive and less time so preoccupied with things you really cannot consciously control to any appreciable degree that your dives become work instead of fun.

Seriously, don't sweat it. Just be frank with potential dive buddies about your air hoggishness, and get a bigger tank.

 

[TMHeimer]

gcarter says it all. We're all different...maybe bigger tank. Having more psi than an instabuddy doesn't bother me. My only pet peeve really is an inattentive buddy--one who doesn't constantly look for me, as I do for him. I've never had a buddy in a serious situation that I've had to deal with though.

 

[Neilwood]

As all the comments above, your air consumption is what it is.

What you might be able to do is improve it with a few things (a number are mentioned above):
1) trim - are you horizontal when kicking or are you at an angle? The greater the angle, the more air you will use.
2) Stress - eliminate as much as you can. Tight muscles use more air.
3) Relaxation - try to find that zen zone within you. Once truly relaxed your air consumption will drop.
4) Weighting (yours) - as a heavier diver, you will use more air than 99/100 divers. I know that issue as I am tall & wide diving with guys that are short and thin.
5) Weighting (diving) - do a proper weight check and not take more weight down than you need.
6) Kicking type - are you doing forceful kicks as opposed to slow gentle kicks? Slow and steady wins the race as far as diving and air consumption is concerned
7) Streamlining - have you stowed as much equipment away in a way that will reduce drag in the water.

 

[dmaziuk]

i am not expecting to get a massive difference and have 100 bar left when i come out but i don't want to be the first one to make people turn back because of my poor consumption

So on this one dive I come up with 800-ish psi, and if I didn't take pictures in between chasing after my better half who likes to swim around a lot, I could've come up with 1,000+. That't be about 1/3rd of the Al80 left. So we're writing down our pressure in the DM's log and this lady in our group shows 2,000+ psi on her SPG. That's less than 1/3rd of Al80 actually used on the exact same dive in the same group over the same time etc.

IOW don't worry about it too much: some people you'll just never match. They have gills and whatever you do your bottom time will never approach theirs. Ever. Get used to it.

 

[seeker242]

As all the comments above, your air consumption is what it is.

What you might be able to do is improve it with a few things (a number are mentioned above):
1) trim - are you horizontal when kicking or are you at an angle? The greater the angle, the more air you will use.
2) Stress - eliminate as much as you can. Tight muscles use more air.
3) Relaxation - try to find that zen zone within you. Once truly relaxed your air consumption will drop.
4) Weighting (yours) - as a heavier diver, you will use more air than 99/100 divers. I know that issue as I am tall & wide diving with guys that are short and thin.
5) Weighting (diving) - do a proper weight check and not take more weight down than you need.
6) Kicking type - are you doing forceful kicks as opposed to slow gentle kicks? Slow and steady wins the race as far as diving and air consumption is concerned
7) Streamlining - have you stowed as much equipment away in a way that will reduce drag in the water.

#8 Hit the gym!

 

[DivemasterDennis]

Here's a short exerpt from the Scuba Snobs' Guide to Diving Etiquette that may be helpful:

AVOID BEING AN AIR SUCKER
...Not everyone uses up their air at the same rate. We get that. But some people are terrible and don’t need to be. Some air suckage is correctable. You can, through good diving practices, reduce your air consumption. Here are some tips for you air suckers to improve your bottom time:
a) Check your weighting. If you go through air faster than everyone else, there is a real good chance you are over-weighted or under-weighted.
b) Trim your buoyancy often. We regularly observe other divers and see that they cannot hover. To remain at a certain depth, they are kicking or moving their arms to maintain that depth. Those movements burn air. Use your low pressure inflater/ deflater- that is what it is there for. Maintain neutral buoyancy and you will use a lot less air.
c) Move less. Swim less. Stop and smell the coral. Look for pretty little things under ledges. Don’t be in constant motion.
d) Stay a few meters above the rest of the group.

If you will do these four things, we are confident that you will suck less air, and for some of you, a lot less air. Even though we don’t all consume air at the same rate, being an air sucker is not good diving etiquette because you may cause the rest of us to have to cut short our dive. That can be a real pisser. Consider the lady on a dive boat off Molokai..... (to read the story, get the book.

DivemasterDennis..

 

[TMHeimer]

One of the things Neilwood lists stands out (assuming you get the rest of his list right)--Kicking type. There are various types of kicks, but no matter what you use, it's SPEED that counts. I've experimented with this often on my typical 30' shallow dives. I would say that when I am going as fast as I can I use about twice the air as when I am relaxed just looking around. This of course has implications for current as well.

 

[Reku]

I wouldn't worry about it too much.

 

[miikey87]

My first dive out of my course was with my partner and friends off a boat. I had a 18 minute dive before I hit 50bar! Things get better with practice!