Skip breathing Vs Buoyancy control

[lexvil]

Try using you fins for those momentary changes in depth, breath slowly and steady, if you take in a breath and start to rise (intended or not) exhale slowly, you have to learn to anticipate the changes in depth and react early, slowly, small adjustments will get it done better than over reaction. Relax it will come in time and you’ll not have to spend time thinking about it. Use your fins.

 

[Dody]

Thank you all for your comments. Helped me a lot.
Why are diving sessions so short because of tank capacity :-( ? I could do that all day. At shallow waters and within the NDL of course

 

[Diving Dubai]

Sorry but I still don’t get it. I must be dumber than I thought

Allow me to see if I can assist.

firstly. Visualise the fuel gauge on a car. Your "normal breath" position ins midway (1/2 full) sit at home relax, neither breathing in nor out with yoru mouth open. OK?
So taking a normal inhale - gets you to the 3/4 mark. And addition inhale to the FF mark

Going the opposite way, a normal exhale (from relaxed point) takes you to the 1/4 mark, and another hard exhale to the E position

Again sit at home, breath and visualize.

Your normal breathing cycle is from 1/4 to 3/4

Now when we breath normally we don't inhale then immediately exhale, we pause. You're NOT holding your breath, your airways are open. (try this with your mouth open while at home)
Breathing on drylane is automatic, we don't think about ti, but try to visualize what your doing normally in a relaxed state.

When I was tryign to get into a relaxed breathing rhythm I would mentally count.

Slow Inhale.. 1..2..3..4 Pause 1..2..3..4.. Slow exhale 1..2..3..4 It's a slow easy rhythm (the amount you count is up to you - as long as its slow and relaxed.

Remember your OW course? Buoyancy changes take a little time to happen - if you add gas to your BCD you don't immediately move upwards

The same with breathing

Once you get practiced with your breathing technique - it'll help relax you, and also you'll be surprised how much control your lungs have.

One more thing to consider

When you're not relaxed you tend to breathe in the top half of your lungs. your brain can do this happily, until you suddenly relaxes and your brain switches back to default, and you're suddenly negative (breathing in the top half, you're buoyant and thus have adjusted for it) and crash into the reef

Equally if you have a "moment" or are taks loaded, you suddenly unconsciously start breathing from the top half, suddenly you're positive and up you go.

The primeval fight of flight reflex also has an impact, where if you're stressed your diaphragm drops increasing your lung volume ready for more oxygen to deal with what ever threat you're encountering (the second part is the adrenaline hit)


Thus understanding how you're breathing and what's happening with your lung position improves your buoyancy & gas consumption (a little) etc

 

[Hartattack]

Hi Dody, congrats on your certifications. While most here have given excellent advice, sometimes folks also need a visual. With that said, take a look at this video to assist you on your quest. Also, remember, good buoyancy takes time, patience, and practice, so please don't give up and keep working at it. Cheers!

 

[Blackcrusader]

Thank you all for your comments. Helped me a lot. Why are diving sessions so short because of tank capacity :-( ? I could do that all day. At shallow waters and within the NDL of course

There are many reasons dives are short. One this dive I joined a group of OW divers who dive mainly on vacations once a year. So they see turtles or krait snakes or the Sardine Run or other marine life and they tend to chase it. So for me this was a shallow dive 20m but most of the dive around 12m - 15m. Guide signals to me at 50 mins safety stop time as they have a max 55 - 60 minute dive time as we need to get back on the boat to go to another site. I'm quite a large chap 185cm tall but weigh between 125 - 130kg during the year. People think my air will last around 20 minutes due to my size. By the way my heart beat on dives is in the low 50 beats per minute as I am completely relaxed with little movement.

Apart from breathing techniques there are other things, like moving a lot less. I've been called The Corpse by some of my friends because I move like one on a dive. Barely using my fins and letting the water carry me along. You will improve and you can learn how to control your breathing where it helps but it is the combination of diving practices as well as breathing that will help. Regular diving helps. I've been diving 35 years. So look at my air on a AL80 210 bar start. See what I have at 50 mins when I am about to begin my safety stop.

A lot of the other divers were down to 60 bar 50 bar and one 40 bar. When she asked me about my air I just showed them my gauge. It was shocking for them as they could not understand how I had so much air left.

 

[ChuckP]

Exactly what Dubai said - I can only add, just breathe, don't pay attention too it, just relax.

Be aware of what happens when you get stressed or multi task - I call it breathing at the top of your lungs, closer to full - it happens naturally and thru experience that natural reaction will go away.

You're aware of how your lungs will help you rise and fall, your aware of the slow reaction - now just relax, don't focus on your breathing, let it happen naturally and go dive!!

 

[The Chairman]

Here's a quick synopsis on breathing.

First, let's define some terms:

Tidal Volume: The volume of air you normally inspire
Vital Capacity: The greatest volume of air you can expunge from your lungs
Inspiratory Capacity: The greatest volume of air you can inhale
Glottis: The space between your vocal cords
Excess buoyancy: the extra air in your BC from being overweight.
Super inhale: Inhaling more air than your tidal volume requires
Super exhale: exhaling more air than your tidal volume requires.​

As we progress through the water, we must breathe in order to oxygenate our cells and to remove CO2. The normal tidal volume can and will cause us to rise and fall a bit, but not much. Normally, this is only about 500ml or right at a pound. However, many divers are taught to make long slow inhalations and exhalations which can easily double or triple this, exacerbating the change in buoyancy. In other words, if you are truly breathing normally, the extra pound shouldn't make much of an impact unless you're trying too hard. Yeah. Don't try so hard.

The first rule of Scuba is to keep breathing or to never hold your breath. But what does that really mean? In real life we normally pause a moment after inhalation, don't we? Is pausing holding your breath? Is it skip breathing? No and no. Holding your breath happens when you close your glottis. The glottis is that gap between your vocal cords that you close to cough. It's regulated by muscles that are stronger than your lung's alveoli. Go ahead and cough, so you can feel it. You can cough gently or more forcibly depending on how tightly you close that glottis. Closing your glottis is a bad, bad move while Scuba diving. No, not so much as you descend, but definitely dangerous as you ascend. Doing so can rupture the alveoli in your lungs giving you barotrauma which can result in an embolism and death. Don't do it. It's important that you always keep your glottis open, open, open while underwater. If you pause your breathing and ascend, bubbles should freely pass out of your mouth and through your regulator. That's IF you keep that glottis open. Know your glottis and keep that bad boy/girl open while you dive.

So, how do I adjust my depth? I think it's important to learn how to ascend and descend with using just your breathing. That depends on how neutral you are to begin with, so make sure you have the absolute minimum amount of weight you need to submerge. Extra weight will cause extra problems. You should have little to no air in your BC and be pretty neutral right at the surface. That means with your BC empty, your head should be right below the surface, within a quarter of an inch. To descend I need to vent my lungs more than my normal tidal volume. Dip into your vital capacity and do a "Super exhale". Whoooosh... and pause wth your lungs mostly empty. You'll feel your ears, so don't forget to equalize early and often. If you invert so that your head is down, you'll find you're starting to accelerate. Flaring, or getting more horizontal will slow this so adjust to your preference. Soon enough though, you'll need to breathe in, so do it. No need to push that limit. When you do, you'll find you come to a stop. If you need to go deeper, just repeat those super exhales until you get close. If you're wearing exposure protection, you'll have to add a bit as you descend, but be careful not to overdo this. I usually take a breath 10 feet or so off the bottom, which stops my descent and then add as I need so I don't descend any further.Tiny adjustments are best and wait a bit to see what effect they have.

Ascending is the reverse process, but you must take care to not close your glottis. Do a super inhale and magically float over that coral head or begin your final ascent. If you don't hear or feel bubbles as you're ascending, you're doing it wrong and should exhale immediately. They'll be gentle, so you'll have to pay attention. If you added air on the way down, be sure to release it on the way back up. You should have total control of your ascent with your breathing and slow is always best. No, slower than that.

FWIW, the first years of my diving (since 1969) were without the aid of a BC. I just didn't own one. All my buoyancy was controlled with my lungs. If I was a tad heavy I had to learn to adjust my tidal volume to where my lungs were a bit fuller. When I paused my breathing, my chest and diaphragm were used to keep more air in my lungs and my glottis was always, always open. If I was a tad light, like during my safety stop, I learned to adjust my tidal volume the other way. I learned to pause when my lungs were mostly empty. Oh yeah, you can pause your breathing anywhere in the cycle to achieve the desired depth. Crazy huh?

I will end this with three caveats:

1. Never hold your breath by always keeping your glottis open.
2. Don't overweight yourself!
3. Get horizontal!!!
   • Nothing screws with your neutral buoyancy quicker!
   • It's the angle of your fin thrust that causes you to feel you need more weight

I hope this helps. FWIW, skip breathing also causes problems with buoyancy. You can usually identify them by those who time the length of their inspirations. Get a bigger tank or be happy with shorter dives. Getting neutral and learning to frog kick will increase your time way more than skip breathing can. It will also help you to stop sculling with your hands. That's a huge energy waster and will cause you to need to breathe more.

 

[Angelo Farina]

"skip breathing" is not a proper concept describing what was taught in the seventies during my first course.
We did call it "total breathing control", and it did involve a short inspiratory pause, of just 5s max. Of course not used when ascending (for the risk of lung overexpansion).
The total breathing control was also including a very slow inspiration, a slightly faster expiration, and a much shorter expiratory pause (just 1s).
The inspiration and expiration were very long, the idea was to expire as much as possible for eliminating CO2 in the scrubber, before inhaling the same gas again from the counterlung.
We were using the ARO CC rebreather, of course. The gas was almost pure oxygen.
With those rebreathers this was the only safe way of breathing.
When later we were given air in OC, we were told to keep using that total breathing control, as this prevents dyspnea and narcosys, ensuring to avoid CO2 retention.
However this approach never catched up in the US, were pure oxygen CC rebreathers were not used as the basic equipment for training new scuba divers.
So no wonder that US-based agencies did never teach how to get this total breathing control.
Also because it takes several months for mastering this technique, spending at least 100h breathing underwater.

 

[Blackcrusader]

Allow me to see if I can assist. Thus understanding how you're breathing and what's happening with your lung position improves your buoyancy & gas consumption (a little) etc

Allow me also. OK in this video you can hear my breathing. As Diving Dubai has said you have a range neither completely empty or full. I let say I have exhaled, my lungs never completely empty. More or less 1/4. I may breathe in another quarter, then wait till I feel the need to breathe again inhale another 1/4. So now I'm at 3/4 capacity. When I feel the next urge it will be to exhale back down to 1/4 but sometimes to 90% empty. To really empty your lungs you have to exert yourself to do that.

So I may take short breaths but again I am not exerting myself, just floating in the water which is my sofa. Also the less bubbles you make the closer some marine life will come. I don't chase the fish I let them come to me. Others chase the fish which they can never catch and waste lots of air. So don't try to be me now. You have only been diving a few weeks. Try to dive with experienced divers and you will see they do not move around so much. This was a dive to the wreck below at 35 meters. The we stayed within NDL by around 2 - 3 minutes to 20 meters then followed a reef wall where it met the sea bed at around 15 meters. Total dive time was 93 minutes and I had 50 bar left. It takes lots of dives, experience in many dive conditions and understanding yourself.

 

[TMHeimer]

You can practice smaller breaths intake/exhale using the mid range of your lungs while you are sitting idle on land relaxed. It takes practice to achieve this technique, so don't wait to go diving to practice.

Yeah that. Keep in mind that you can keep your airway open without inhaling/exhaling. But of course make sure it is open.
In the OW course you know that instructors tell you to exhale and say "ahhh"-- this is so the instructor is sure your airway is open. If not sure, you shouldn't mess with this.
As far as being exactly still while breathing-- keep in mind that every breath you take makes your tank slightly lighter, so only for a split second on any dive are you actually "perfectly" weighted. I guess those aquarium diver performers who do all sorts of interesting buoyancy tricks have perfected all this.
I think you are suggesting skip breathing in order to accomplish your buoyancy goals rather than the usual idea of conserving air (which doesn't work due to physiology, and can possibly be dangerous). Either way, it's just not worth the bother.