Coldwater_Canuck
Contributor
By far the biggest thing that helps my SAC rate dive to dive (meaning ignoring things that take a long time to change: body weight, experience; or are impossible to change: sex, individual characteristics) is buoyancy. I'm at that point in diving where sometimes my bouyancy looks excellent and other times it looks like I was still in OW. Part of the reason is I waste less air inflating and deflating my BCD, but also you are just so much more relaxed when you have your buoyancy under control (not having to constantly be fiddling with your inflator or worrying about hitting the bottom or floating up). And I see a noticeable difference in my gas used (or more specifically, dive times since I usually go from 3000 PSI to 500 PSI regardless) between "bad" and "good" bouyancy dives.
And it isn't a tiny difference, my last time I went diving there were two deeper dives. The first was an average of about 65-70 feet, the second was an average of probably 75 feet, the second was also a fair bit colder. Both dives went from 3000 PSI to 500 PSI. In theory, the second day should have been slightly shorter due to being slightly deeper and colder, but my dive was actually about 20% longer. The big difference I can think of? I felt much better about my buoyancy and overall just much more relaxed the second day.
It seems everything in diving comes back to "improve your buoyancy".
And it isn't a tiny difference, my last time I went diving there were two deeper dives. The first was an average of about 65-70 feet, the second was an average of probably 75 feet, the second was also a fair bit colder. Both dives went from 3000 PSI to 500 PSI. In theory, the second day should have been slightly shorter due to being slightly deeper and colder, but my dive was actually about 20% longer. The big difference I can think of? I felt much better about my buoyancy and overall just much more relaxed the second day.
It seems everything in diving comes back to "improve your buoyancy".