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I've started to adopt the breathe in for 3 seconds, out for 6-8 seconds, and that not only helps with gas usage, but also helps me to relax and take in more of what's going on around me.
another tip: try learning the frog kick. this will help with your gas consumption because of a couple of reasons. first it will require you to be in a better trim to swim properly, which will [as explained in the video] improve your air consumption. second, and more important - since the frog kick has a "built in" rest phase it allows your body to "recover" and reduce both fatigue and cardio work. the flatter kick certainly has it's implication - when swimming in current or when you need to cover a short distance fast [buddy has a problem for example] but it takes out way more gas since you don't stop moving from the start of the dive till the end of it.
Just have to twin everything up!! That's the easy way. Twins, Sidemount, multi-cylinders side mount. Just carry 6 because it looks badass and you can stay down at 5 meters forever.
43 years ago my dive instructor told us - spend at least 5 minutes before diving under water by using your snorkel to breath and just RELAX and get use to being in the water ! Many divers almost hyperventilate the second they get in and empty their tank FAST . it always take a few minutes for everyone on a dive boat to get in and the first ones in , are already sucking air waiting for them !
Chill people. Just chill n relax. No need to swim around so much. On wrecks you will see and remember so much more by simply putting along at a snails pace resulting in saving gas for a longer dive
I was diving with a newby this past summer who was breathing like a choo choo train and emptied his tank while I still had 1800 lbs left. I had to buddy breathe him back to the surface. Luckily it was a shallow dive. I worked with him a few times more using many of the tips you gave here. He’s still a little heavy on air, but that will change with experience.
Since you got your open water, the #1 rule in SCUBA diving that's been hammered into your brain is to never hold your breath. Many people take this as an absolute, and it also contributes to air supply loss. Many people fear holding their breath, so they will expel the air they just finished breathing in almost instantaneously after inhaling. It's important to recognize the goal of this rule, so you are able to still technically 'break' the rule while remaining safe. Effectively, the rule is meant to prevent people from holding their breath and ascending, as the air in their lungs would expand causing some serious problems. Temporary breath-holding while maintaining a certain depth is effective at helping extend your air supply (because you reduce the rate at which you are consuming the gas in the tank.) On the flipside of the same coin, holding your breath for too long (even while maintaining a certain depth) isn't effective because the CO2 in your body begins to build up, which in turn makes you want to increase your breathing rate (which in the end wastes more air.) *An important thing to note is that you should not close your epiglottis while 'holding' your breath.* There is a difference between waiting a second or two before breathing out, and completely shutting down your airway to trap the air inside. All of that being said, *this is not a technique that new/inexperienced divers should attempt.* Many new divers struggle with buoyancy control, making this technique dangerous for someone who might rise a couple meters without noticing. Wait until you have done a few dives and can confidently maintain depth (+/- 1 meter) before trying this technique. You should also never use this technique while ascending to the surface.
This is dangerous for everyone, regardless of experience. Period. *Never hold your breath* . Even waves could seriously injure you. However, the rule doesn't go into details. You could hold your breath while keeping your epiglottis open. As long as that's open, air can escape on its own. This is still taking a risk as you'd need to be focused to make sure your epiglottis is open, so I'd say you're still better off simply not trying to hold your breath. Besides, you can easily just breathe out slowly.
@@ChaosTheory666 Yep, breathe in deeply and slowly, then breathe out equally deeply and slowly. But never hold in-between. Most important things to reduce air consumption is to be relaxed and to keep "work" to a minimum.
Tell us which school teaches this. What certifying organization teaches this. There's a bloody good reason it's not taught, it's extremely dangerous. Narcosis can overtake anyone no matter what experience level; panic due to any number of stresses and physiological conditions will mean those who follow that above unbelievably stupid advice to hold their breathe may continue doing so while ascending just from muscle memory. I hope you, along with 'simply scuba' accept the ethical/moral responsibility of any harm you've just promoted against the explicit rules of open circuit scuba.. Live with the potential injury and death you may already have caused because you think you know better than every certifying organization of open circuit scuba - it's a choice you've already made.
@@andysPARK Looks like someone needs to 1) Read what I wrote carefully 2) Step down off of their moral high horse 3) Get more than just their open water certification I hope you accept the ethical/moral responsibility of the mental anguish you caused me and others by having to read your ill-informed mighty lecture. Dive safe
@@sirnacly Okay, I accept point 2. I challenged you in a very confrontational way. I considered a softer response less likely to be noticed and most probably dismissed without your full attention (or the attention of other readers of your comment)- this may not have been the case and if so, I apologize. Sometimes it's necessary to shout when a dangerous situation arises. This may or may not have been the case. Yet, I hope it was heard by others who may have taken your authoritative advice without checking it's efficacy. As I see you have edited your original post after some comments, perhaps it was worth shouting; particularly as there seems to be no way to have a discussion on TH-cam in a way that is face saving which ordinarily is my preferred approach in real life. I hoped that my asking you which scuba organization would agree with the advice to hold breath during open circuit scuba would prompt you to try to look for such sources. So you would independently find that there are none and the reasons that is so. I doubt I can change your mind given that I was so in your face, but regardless of my fairly brutal approach, I hope you reasonably minimize the possibility of harm while diving by considering the opinions of expert sources of scuba information. Maybe see you on scubaboard. Dive safe. Best wishes. Andy (Edited for typos)
As a DM I notice that a lot of people waist air when doing gear and buddie checks when you have checked your LPI is working just a quick blast then us oral inflate. also not using snorkel when swimming to a line.
Robbie Murderingminion I completely agree even though I’ve only got my open water and have a lot less experience than you do I always thought it was silly to inflate your BCD when you’re on the surface when you have perfectly good atmospheric and to fill up with and a built-in compressor (your lungs) fortunately in terms of using your snorkel the dance school I went through basically handed it into us that we should use our snorkel went on the surface
i inflate my bcd orally a bit before entering the water. helps to save air, helps with creating positive buoyancy fast, it reduces the depth i reach when jumping in, reducing pressure on my ear.
Fairly new diver here. My best dive happened during a fun dive right after my AOW cert, using Nitrox with a bottom time of 55:05 at 27mts max, average depth of 13mts and used 150bar while filming a helicopter wreck in Anilao PH. The big differentiator for me was to go into the dive with a clear porpuse, I had found that setting an objective or mission besides of just looking around helped me a lot to control my breathing and relax while focusing on the task at hand, this case was pretty simple just filming and spotting for my dive instructor/buddy who was doing proper professional underwater photography. Of course, always keeping in mind to check regularly my gas to avoid tunnel vision. Great video and tips, Thanks!
Yep, make a plan, then dive the plan. Really allows you to relax and focus on enjoying the dive. That goes in hand with the video saying to "visualise" the dive - you can only do that if you've made a dive plan beforehand.
Myself being a gas guzzler (I'm a really big guy), what helped me the most with gas consumption is taking really slow and deep breaths (10+ second cycles). Added bonus of this is, that you learn to control your buoyancy really well, as the lift difference between lungs full or empty is pretty big. Since there is a lot of inertia involved during diving, it is entirely possible to stay pretty much level doing this once you learn how to time your breaths, so that you breathe out once you start going upwards and vice versa. If you decide to go the way of holding your breath, either do it after exhale phase (not nearly as efficient), or learn how to keep your epiglottis opened at the end of your breath in so that any extra air can escape in case of unexpected ascent.
I constantly remind myself to use my fins to propel myself through the water and keep my arms still. One of my dive buddies uses his arms to position himself in the water and he uses his air faster than the rest of us.
I watched your video on why dive doubles. I now dive doubles. Best choice I ever made. Not an air hog , but great way to scuba dive. Lots of air and redundancy. And NO weight belt !!
I am a cyclist, have never scuba. Except for the one time I went under a rock and came out the other end. These tips are a lot like road cycling. You have to play smarter, not harder. Aerodynamics is your best friend. save energy and proper nutrition. Sounds like with scuba, mental health is a huge plus.
When I was diving in the Maldives, my guide taught me how to breath using my stomach instead of my lungs constantly, it added an extra 5 minutes of dive time to my dives
I stick my tongue out into my regulator to create more resistantance that I can quickly adjust. This slows down my breathing and helps me focus on my rate and volume.
Had a bit of fun when diving with my father. Yes I am still a young diver and love it. We both use 12l bottles and I usually end up with roughly 70 bar more air than him. He is an gas guzzler and uses a lot more weights than me. Might use a few of these tips for our next dive. Thanks for the bid might help him a lot and make his dives longer
Firstly I want to say that was a great video guys! I have however met some divers that really love diving but are true gas guzzlers and feel pretty bad about having to be the one to abort the dive early on just about most dives. My recommendation if what is mentioned here in the video might not be an option or enough is to simply go for twins. Yes I know they look advanced and all tech but using a twin setup is not necessarily synonymous with going full tech and and doing very deep dives. If you can manage to pass your Padi Advanced you'll be fine learning a twin setup right after that. Positives= 1. You can never have too much gas 2. You will learn a new way of more redundancy (not very complicated) 3. You might very likely find yourself more stable in your dive profile. The weight is spread more equal since the gear is heavier and you need less weights or no weight belt at all. All in all, it's safer unless you fall over trying to put it on while on land or on the boat. Negatives= 1. It's heavy (but you get used to it) 2. People may give you weird looks and think you work for NatGeo/Discovery channel or looking for treasure ;-) 3. reference to point 1, it's heavy and not as travel friendly and also cost bit more since you have double of everything. We often use twins even when we are out with req divers and while we have to change their tanks between dives we can most of the time just go on without even topping up depending on the depth and time of the dives.
I always piss my dive buddies off because I can do a ~40 minute dive at ~100 ft, if I didn't run out of time or had to surface with them, on a steel 100. It helps that I don't need extra weight with no wet suit or a 3mm, and I keep everything close to me, but I also breathe very deeply, using the entirety of my lungs, upper and lower. I've actually been accused of holding my breath because I breathe so deeply. Breathe slow and deep, filling up and stretching your lungs at depth, and relax, you'll almost double your gas time.
I found your guys videos a few days ago and have binge watched loads of them. Thank you so much, I've learnt loads and now know what to buy before my next trip.
I would also add good equipment to the list: An overbalanced reg that doesn't fight me for air, a harness BC that reduces my drag compared to jackets, fins that get a lot of result with minimal effort (no hinges, holes and slits and other such energy losses), a thick suit so I feel no chill. And then good neutral buoyancy, slow movements, slow breathing. The dive guides are not too impressed when we have 100bar more than the newbies in the group at the end of the dive XD. They have to choose between cutting us short or making the others wait in the hot sun...
Great video!! I found that improving my buoyancy and weighting improved my SAC rate. Buying a new balanced regulator also reduced it. I kept an eye on my SAC rate via my digital transmitter while still not making it a burden on the dive by simply checking it post-dive instead of checking it while diving. The rate dropped from 23l/min to 11.4l/min over my first 60 dives, but after I plotted it over time in a graph, the drop wasn't sudden; it was gradual over time, making me think of a significant factor here. Experience. The more dives you get in (with knowledgable guides/instructors), the more comfortable you are underwater to execute what you know correctly and calmly. The more dives you get in, the more relaxed you are underwater in depths, which improves your average SAC rate.
A senior diving mate used to advise me simply grab on a divemaster's octo to share his air whenever we are running low on our air, so that we could get to stay as long as they could... 😂
I go jogging a lot and I’ll sprint and slow down and then I’ll repeat it several times on my 3-5 mile jog. Then when I’m out walking I’ll sprint off and on to improve my rate for diving.
I just use my 300 bar 12L carbon tank and always dive calm and relax so i can enjoy it for longer time...also good set of fins that gives you good speed with less effort......i have on my log book a summer dive of 10 to 15 meters at a reef for 85 min......came back with 100 bars air!!!!
For me helps stop thinking and worrying about my breathing and relax... focusing on my surroundings instead. My breathing nature slow down and I use less
I have two steel 100 cubic foot cylinders. I usually use the same cylinder for 2 dives depending on depth. In the dive shop's training pool (14 ft. Deep), I can stay underwater for 3 hours with one cylinder.
All good points, but to me depth is the #1 thing on this list when it comes to air consumption. Personally, I'd rather do 60 minute dives on a 30 foot reef with more wildlife and natural light available than a 15 minute dive at 100 feet. Of course, if there is something to go look at deeper, the other tips are great! :)
The problem Is OW students get a lot of weights put on to "help them go down". Easier, faster but definitely not better. Why is it that we can cut weights by 1/3 or even 1/2 the second we do a PPB dive? Practice breathing, learn to exhale when you deflate. And stop playing with that LPI like it's a smartphone ;)
The human reflex in anticipation of the head going under water is taking a big breath in and holding it. People learn to relax and instead breathe out and hold it at very different rates. As a rather negatively-buoyant swimmer myself, it took me many dives before I got control of my reflex to keep a lot of air in my lungs (not holding my breath, just moving my tidal motion towards fuller lungs at all times). On a holday-resort crash-course with a fixed handful of dives until the qualification and a limited amount of time in which to get it done, putting a lot of lead on students is almost inevitable.
how much is too much? we learned diving in the way that we should breathe out to go down and that works. i had 4x lead. i control my whole bouyancy just with my lungs, no bcd inflation under water.
At times it could just be individual difference. From my first OW dive, my buddy and I have been using quite less air than our instructor. Could also due to the fact my the instructor smokes. We have been able to fully utilise the NDL time with around half tank left.
Best tip i can give about conserving your air is to stop panicking about how much air you have. Especially how much your buddy has when you check their air. I used to get anxious about air consumption but experience has taught me that this only makes my tank empty faster. Be relaxed on a dive and enjoy it! Also be careful skip breathing or holding breath under water. If you exert yourself whilst doing this you will build up a lot more cO2 and then rapidly drain your tank with increased catch back breathing. Ascending whilst holding breath can also lead to explody lung and other diving maladies which are better off avoided. Have fun and dive safe!
i never really had a problem with gas consumption and even outlasted some guides :D my dad on the other hand always takes "the bigger bottle" his trick: dont just exhale -> exhale into your bcd that way you at least dont use more air than you need to :D
@@KaiPantheTaiPan but on first dives the instructors often swim way more from diver to diver... and 7m is quite shallow 😃 I remember a couple of years back when i got advanced certified on my deep dive we had to resurface because my instructor had no air left 😂😂
A small person with small lungs will have a lower consumption than a big fella to begin with. A person comfortable in the water will also consume less. The two together can easily match a guide who is actively monitoring the students and therefore is not achieving the lowest consumption they could.
Why has this become such a discussion? 🤷♂️🤦♂️ @Kimon side note: im 192cm tall weigh about 100kg. I havent seen guides much taller or heavier but i still have good consumption because im a high level rower and very well trained (especially aerobically) and the story with my advanced instructor. It was a one on one course so we just swan next to each other neither of us had to exert themselves more than the other 🤷♂️
If you are a strong swimmer, swim regularly--laps even!-- and enjoy skin diving (a snorkeling/free diving combo that was around through the fifties, sixties, seventies and into the eighties), you'll get more out of your SCUBA diving.
tbh yes a bad trim makes you use more air but it also depends on the site youre diving. im almost never horizontal because we're diving walls (with a bottom so basically an L shaped reef) if im a bit more upright i can look at everything without always having to shift in the water. and on drift dives ive even seen guides put weights on their feet so they drift by the reef completely upright like a candle :D
Good content here and useful. Thanks. I took an excellent PADI course on buoyancy taught by Roatan Divers. This greatly helped and pointed to the need to reduce and re-distribute weights, breathe deeply using my diaphragm, dive more, and study pre-dive meditative techniques to increase relaxation. My SAC is still higher than that of an excellent diver, but I'm making progress---It's a process, step by step, one step at a time.
My scuba instructor had us breath as normal as possible, but to always watch gas bubbles in front of our masks an watch them accent, an never ascend faster then those small gas bubbles. Holding breath underwater was called "skip breathing" an that was highly discouraged in four words, "never hold your breath"!
And you where also told, never going into Deco, Deco is bad. Every Tech Book, Advance Photography class, goes over holding your breath as they do it often.
I don’t think I’m too bad, I had buddies getting open water certified who were adults so they probably just use more air than I do, I had been certified nine months and I’m actually getting my advanced today
Cheers for the awesome video! Honestly I've found relaxing/yoga, minimizing exertion, and streamlining gear/excess lead helped me the most in cold water diving. When I did warm (24°C+) dives with alloy tank (I usually use steel) & skin suit only I was shocked how much less air I used than my (dedicated warm water) buddy. E.g. she would be done with a dive @ 50 bar whereas I was still at over 100. Don't get me wrong. I'm not having a whinge. If I could dive again and again with the same buddy, I'd happily do it again. I'd rather a quarter hour less dive time and have an awesome dive than be crapping my wetsuit frantically looking for someone that has just pissed off into the sunset hahaha! It honestly just fascinated me that a trim roughly 55kg lady could use so much more air than my 85kg tubby ass. My cardiovascular fitness? Hell, If I went to a GP to test my cholesterol & BP... they'd start filling out my death certificate ;P
To all the Skip breather this is bad....., please remember that most of your OW Instructors teach you to be Ultra Conservative. There are Many techniques taught the more you advance into your dive career. In a OW class it is often taught Deco is Bad, you will get hurt going into deco, yet Tech Divers go into Deco regularly. Your OW instructor should stress, do not do it until you are trained, but if you mess up (this happens a lot), do not freak out (I have seen this), just adjust your dive plan according to your computer. If you do not have a computer, buy one. Can not afford one, rent one. Still can not afford one, get a second job.
Don't waste air on the descent. Empty all the air from the BCD, overweight and breath out fully prior to dropping in. You sink like a stone and as long as you've remembered to open the cylinder valve you should well below 10m before you first breath. The valve open part is kind of important. Dive with a nutter who claims they can outlast you and ascend when only when your cylinder is empty. This is how respect is earned. No one teaches you the no air part (scary) but after two or three times it gets easier so probably save that to less than 8m. Rocks are better then lead as weight as you can discard after your descent or pick them up when the cylinder nears empty when it is shallow depending on location. If I've not dived for a while I do a couple of dives just concentrating on breathing as little as I can to the point I'm uncomfortable with very shallow breathing and a few fin up and head down exercises. After that it is fine. Air gulpers take one gulp and never stop. My ex who was less than 60% of my weight would use her air and then used my long hose octopus. We still came up with the rest of the divers. If you wan't to learn air consumption conservation dive with some crazy Chinese divers.
I was chatting with a guy who was smoking with me at the back of the boat. He also came up with 100+ bar of reserve like me and I said "Imaging how much extra air could we be saving if we were not a smoker". He said "We are actually training our body to operate with less oxygen by smoking, that might be helping". I could have believed his theory if he was a biologist or something and not a civil engineer... Don't start smoking after reading this, do what Mark says..
actually, because of the added atmospheres the deeper down you go - you are actually breathing MORE oxygen while scuba diving than when you are on the surface. which makes his theory a bit wrong haha
Even though I have my scuba-diving ticket most of my biological knowledge comes from aviation where you basically add 5000 feet to your altitude when you’re smoking so if I’m flying at 5000 feet a person who smokes is breathing like it there at 10,000 feet which is where high poxy starts because of the long-term damage to the lungs TLDR : I agree with you
Get a wing and a 40cf stage, works wonders. So if you're sucking down gas you can use it, or if your buddy is sucking down their gas pass and clip, ezpz
A friend of mine does this, u can hear him zooming by from quite a distance. First time i heard it i was looking around for a boat to pass overhead!! :)
"Skip breathing" (holding your breath) is not a good idea - it will raise your CO2 level, which will increase your breath rate eventualy. It eaven can lead to panic, when your body sudenly think you are not getting enough air, which can then make you hyperventilate untherwater. It is also, as already mentioned in the video, always very dangerous when you hold your breath on the way up. Also in some cases (actually happened to me when I startet diving) you can get a terrible headache from the CO2 build up after you come up. The best way to decrease your bereath rate is to try to always keep calm and breath normal (nice and deep breaths to keep the CO2 low - no shallow breathing) and learn to have a good buoyency and trim. Also as I have noticed on several dives that you seem to breath quite a lot at the beginn of a dive - for me it helps to put my head without goggles in the water for a second or two when I get in the water/before I start the dive - this helps to start the mammalian diving reflex earlyer - your body then also reduces your breathrate to "divingmode" earlyer (and also makes your eyes ready for the sting of the saltwater, which might come if your goggles flood / this also reduces the stress if it happens unterwater). Leaving your tanks in the sun before filling is also not good idea, as warm air expands and you will not be able to get a full fill (and might only notice this as soon as the water cools your tank and you loose 20-40 bars when the air gets denser again). The best way to get a good pressure is to refill your tanks directly after your dive - when they are nice and cool. Also always messure your tank pressure at the divecenter, if it is not up on 180-200 ask the shop to top up your gas. And bigger cilinders 15l (or twinsets or sidemount) are an option if you are a heavy breather, most divecenters will let you use a 15l if you ask friendly ;-) (if you get a bigger tank don`t forget - bigger tanks weigh considerably more - you need to adjust your weights) - happy diving :-)
You do know that Every Tech and Photography Course addresses Breath hold? How am I going to build up that much CO2 on 40% Nitrox during a OW dive, or even 32% on a 112 foot dive at 1.4 ppo2, doing a couple of breath holds. He did not say do it through out the dive. Have you dove outside the US? The man was talking about HP tanks. Many Compressors at dive shops around the Caribbean and the South Pacific can barley make 3000psi on AL80s. Drop a HP tank on them and they burn up.
Use as much gas as you think you need. It is not a competition. Usage will go down, as you get comfortable with your gear and scuba diving. Experience is the name of the game. At least in my experience. 😏
I hum a lot, different tunes, never complete ones which amuses my wife (dive buddy). Of course not everyone can figure out who is doing it and I don't usually tell everyone that I hum. LOL
I use an 18m snorkel , and that way I onlt switch to scuba after about 15m ,,, my dive profile looks odd , but I can stay down a long time ,,, only messing.
That's a SAC of ~17 l/min. It's decent but there is room for improvement, especially since SAC tends to go up the deeper you dive. I'd probably be around 13 l/min at that depth, making 45min almost the half-point of the dive ;) and I know I still have room for improvement.
One thing that should be noted, is that even with every perfect you are never going to be able to override biology. If you are a 7ft tall strong man that makes the Mountain from GOT look small, you are never going to be able to match the air consumption of a 4ft tall Asian woman that swim laps everyday.
I agree to an extent, but there are people who break that rule. My boss, the owner of the shop I DM for, his air usage is legendary. Looking at him, you wouldn't be able to tell, because he's a big guy, and looks like he has eaten more than his fair share of donuts, but can outlast anyone that hops in the water with him. I guess that's what comes with 40 years experience.
Hey my instructor told me to use the weights to weigh me down when I have no air in my bcd like I’ll stay on the bottom until I put air in my bcd is that thing I should do or just have as little weight as possible
The way to tell how much you need is to have an empty cilinder (50 bar) and with an empty bcd hold upright at the surface feet pointed down (best done at the end of a dive) then when u breath normally your eyes should stay above water, when u fully inhale u go up and when u exhale fully u should sink. U can do this with a full bottle but u need to know if it will have a positive buoyancy( Alu most of the time ) when almost empty or a negative one ( Steel ). Beeing too light is often more dangerous because u might shoot up to the surface and not be able to hold at 5m.
In my opinion. In order of importance, the tips are: Don't dive deeper than necessary. Yoga breathing. I would have put this at 1, however there are those who don't have the time or inclination and would benefit most from 1. Again Yoga breathing. I start the process long before getting in the water. I will do 2 hours off a steel 77 when my brother who doesn't do yoga struggled to 1.5 hours out of an 88 alloy. (off Fitzroy Island). All the best stuff is between 9 and 18 metres. Finning technique. I use different finns depending on how I expect to use them. There is no hard and fast rule, Yet if you don't know how to use your fins effectively, you are wasting gas .
Im sorta a bigger guy, got some muscle and I find no matter how slow I try to breathe, im terrible on gas.. New divers out breathe me.... Soooo i bought a rebreather.. Problem solved.
Turn your air on just before leaving the boat. Before getting in the water orally fill your BCD-do not use your precious air. Be one of the last ones off the boat.
are you using the bcd for buoyancy or the drysuit? if you are using the drysuit, this is the problem. try using the drysuit with as little air as possible and using the bcd for buoyancy. if you are using a jacket style bcd i suggest you move to a backplate and wing, specially with a dry suit. this will also help you. but mostly, seek proper training from someone who dives the drysuit as much as possible. nothing beats time in the water with a professional.
@@RoMisSoCool I got the training, and I do all of that, but I personally think my problem is my undergarments because they are more like a snow suit than anything else.
@@scubasteveandunderwaterroc3547 haha it might be the case. Bigger undergarments do take more air in the suit. But practice makes perfect. Remember that cave divers are sometimes diving head down in a drysuit. It should be doable with practice. Good luck 😊
@@RoMisSoCool well I'm not really a cave diver but I was trained by a few in recreational conditions. However, I'm diving in 40+- waters so the drysuit really helps.
I know it is scientifically a factor in air consumption. That said, I've seen some tiny skinny divers guzzle a shocking amount of air, and some fat as hell divers use bugger all air. I think the psychological factor (how calm in the water are they?) is the biggest factor for recreational diving, then gear/trim/lead, followed by cardiovascular fitness. I'm guessing cardiovascular fitness plays progressively more of a part the deeper you go? I've yet to see an overweight oil pipeline diver lol
![เปิด อาณาจักร หมื่นล้าน "สาระตั้ม" l [Nickynachat]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3XE0nPF4YkQ/mqdefault.jpg)
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Mlm. ...
I've started to adopt the breathe in for 3 seconds, out for 6-8 seconds, and that not only helps with gas usage, but also helps me to relax and take in more of what's going on around me.
I grew a set of gills. Really helps with SCUBA a lot, not so much with dating though.
You gotta push the "I can hold my breath *forever* down there" angle... >;)
You're dating wrong then.
How it can help you with SCUBA? Its not SCUBA any more...
@@wojciechgrzesica3249
I would say a set of gills qualify as Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatuses.
another tip:
try learning the frog kick.
this will help with your gas consumption because of a couple of reasons. first it will require you to be in a better trim to swim properly, which will [as explained in the video] improve your air consumption.
second, and more important - since the frog kick has a "built in" rest phase it allows your body to "recover" and reduce both fatigue and cardio work.
the flatter kick certainly has it's implication - when swimming in current or when you need to cover a short distance fast [buddy has a problem for example] but it takes out way more gas since you don't stop moving from the start of the dive till the end of it.
Before any dive I sing "three little birds " by Bob Marley to relax and put a smile on my face. Never fails!
Just have to twin everything up!! That's the easy way. Twins, Sidemount, multi-cylinders side mount. Just carry 6 because it looks badass and you can stay down at 5 meters forever.
43 years ago my dive instructor told us - spend at least 5 minutes before diving under water by using your snorkel to breath and just RELAX and get use to being in the water ! Many divers almost hyperventilate the second they get in and empty their tank FAST . it always take a few minutes for everyone on a dive boat to get in and the first ones in , are already sucking air waiting for them !
I was a guzzler, but learning to use almost no gas in my BCD and to slow down my breathing, holding it for a bit while level, transformed my diving.
Chill people. Just chill n relax. No need to swim around so much. On wrecks you will see and remember so much more by simply putting along at a snails pace resulting in saving gas for a longer dive
I was diving with a newby this past summer who was breathing like a choo choo train and emptied his tank while I still had 1800 lbs left. I had to buddy breathe him back to the surface. Luckily it was a shallow dive. I worked with him a few times more using many of the tips you gave here. He’s still a little heavy on air, but that will change with experience.
Since you got your open water, the #1 rule in SCUBA diving that's been hammered into your brain is to never hold your breath. Many people take this as an absolute, and it also contributes to air supply loss. Many people fear holding their breath, so they will expel the air they just finished breathing in almost instantaneously after inhaling. It's important to recognize the goal of this rule, so you are able to still technically 'break' the rule while remaining safe. Effectively, the rule is meant to prevent people from holding their breath and ascending, as the air in their lungs would expand causing some serious problems. Temporary breath-holding while maintaining a certain depth is effective at helping extend your air supply (because you reduce the rate at which you are consuming the gas in the tank.) On the flipside of the same coin, holding your breath for too long (even while maintaining a certain depth) isn't effective because the CO2 in your body begins to build up, which in turn makes you want to increase your breathing rate (which in the end wastes more air.) *An important thing to note is that you should not close your epiglottis while 'holding' your breath.* There is a difference between waiting a second or two before breathing out, and completely shutting down your airway to trap the air inside. All of that being said, *this is not a technique that new/inexperienced divers should attempt.* Many new divers struggle with buoyancy control, making this technique dangerous for someone who might rise a couple meters without noticing. Wait until you have done a few dives and can confidently maintain depth (+/- 1 meter) before trying this technique. You should also never use this technique while ascending to the surface.
This is dangerous for everyone, regardless of experience. Period. *Never hold your breath* . Even waves could seriously injure you.
However, the rule doesn't go into details. You could hold your breath while keeping your epiglottis open. As long as that's open, air can escape on its own. This is still taking a risk as you'd need to be focused to make sure your epiglottis is open, so I'd say you're still better off simply not trying to hold your breath.
Besides, you can easily just breathe out slowly.
@@ChaosTheory666 Yep, breathe in deeply and slowly, then breathe out equally deeply and slowly. But never hold in-between. Most important things to reduce air consumption is to be relaxed and to keep "work" to a minimum.
Tell us which school teaches this. What certifying organization teaches this.
There's a bloody good reason it's not taught, it's extremely dangerous. Narcosis can overtake anyone no matter what experience level; panic due to any number of stresses and physiological conditions will mean those who follow that above unbelievably stupid advice to hold their breathe may continue doing so while ascending just from muscle memory. I hope you, along with 'simply scuba' accept the ethical/moral responsibility of any harm you've just promoted against the explicit rules of open circuit scuba..
Live with the potential injury and death you may already have caused because you think you know better than every certifying organization of open circuit scuba - it's a choice you've already made.
@@andysPARK Looks like someone needs to
1) Read what I wrote carefully
2) Step down off of their moral high horse
3) Get more than just their open water certification
I hope you accept the ethical/moral responsibility of the mental anguish you caused me and others by having to read your ill-informed mighty lecture. Dive safe
@@sirnacly Okay, I accept point 2. I challenged you in a very confrontational way. I considered a softer response less likely to be noticed and most probably dismissed without your full attention (or the attention of other readers of your comment)- this may not have been the case and if so, I apologize.
Sometimes it's necessary to shout when a dangerous situation arises. This may or may not have been the case. Yet, I hope it was heard by others who may have taken your authoritative advice without checking it's efficacy.
As I see you have edited your original post after some comments, perhaps it was worth shouting; particularly as there seems to be no way to have a discussion on TH-cam in a way that is face saving which ordinarily is my preferred approach in real life.
I hoped that my asking you which scuba organization would agree with the advice to hold breath during open circuit scuba would prompt you to try to look for such sources. So you would independently find that there are none and the reasons that is so. I doubt I can change your mind given that I was so in your face, but regardless of my fairly brutal approach, I hope you reasonably minimize the possibility of harm while diving by considering the opinions of expert sources of scuba information.
Maybe see you on scubaboard. Dive safe. Best wishes.
Andy
(Edited for typos)
I swim a few kilometres a week at the pool trying to use one or two breaths per 25 mtr lap. it has helped a lot. I also quit smoking....
!? 1 or 2 breaths per 25m???? But how?
So basically you should have left out the swimming part and just stuck with the “I quit smoking” part😀
As a DM I notice that a lot of people waist air when doing gear and buddie checks when you have checked your LPI is working just a quick blast then us oral inflate. also not using snorkel when swimming to a line.
Robbie Murderingminion I completely agree even though I’ve only got my open water and have a lot less experience than you do I always thought it was silly to inflate your BCD when you’re on the surface when you have perfectly good atmospheric and to fill up with and a built-in compressor (your lungs) fortunately in terms of using your snorkel the dance school I went through basically handed it into us that we should use our snorkel went on the surface
Thanks man , i waste like 5 - 10 bar on checking itself , this will help me a lot
i inflate my bcd orally a bit before entering the water. helps to save air, helps with creating positive buoyancy fast, it reduces the depth i reach when jumping in, reducing pressure on my ear.
Fairly new diver here. My best dive happened during a fun dive right after my AOW cert, using Nitrox with a bottom time of 55:05 at 27mts max, average depth of 13mts and used 150bar while filming a helicopter wreck in Anilao PH. The big differentiator for me was to go into the dive with a clear porpuse, I had found that setting an objective or mission besides of just looking around helped me a lot to control my breathing and relax while focusing on the task at hand, this case was pretty simple just filming and spotting for my dive instructor/buddy who was doing proper professional underwater photography. Of course, always keeping in mind to check regularly my gas to avoid tunnel vision.
Great video and tips, Thanks!
Yep, make a plan, then dive the plan. Really allows you to relax and focus on enjoying the dive. That goes in hand with the video saying to "visualise" the dive - you can only do that if you've made a dive plan beforehand.
This is breathtaking
th-cam.com/video/kHYiyv68q2o/w-d-xo.html
;-) Brilliant
You're breathtaking
Simply Scuba Hilarious.
Myself being a gas guzzler (I'm a really big guy), what helped me the most with gas consumption is taking really slow and deep breaths (10+ second cycles). Added bonus of this is, that you learn to control your buoyancy really well, as the lift difference between lungs full or empty is pretty big. Since there is a lot of inertia involved during diving, it is entirely possible to stay pretty much level doing this once you learn how to time your breaths, so that you breathe out once you start going upwards and vice versa. If you decide to go the way of holding your breath, either do it after exhale phase (not nearly as efficient), or learn how to keep your epiglottis opened at the end of your breath in so that any extra air can escape in case of unexpected ascent.
I constantly remind myself to use my fins to propel myself through the water and keep my arms still. One of my dive buddies uses his arms to position himself in the water and he uses his air faster than the rest of us.
I watched your video on why dive doubles. I now dive doubles. Best choice I ever made. Not an air hog , but great way to scuba dive. Lots of air and redundancy. And NO weight belt !!
I am a cyclist, have never scuba. Except for the one time I went under a rock and came out the other end. These tips are a lot like road cycling. You have to play smarter, not harder. Aerodynamics is your best friend. save energy and proper nutrition. Sounds like with scuba, mental health is a huge plus.
After watching this video, I tried some of these tips and it improved my SAC rate!
Thanks!
When I was diving in the Maldives, my guide taught me how to breath using my stomach instead of my lungs constantly, it added an extra 5 minutes of dive time to my dives
That's basically singing technique
Kazuma 和真 that helps ? Im a singer 😄 im gonna try it tomorrow
Wally Gator how
I stick my tongue out into my regulator to create more resistantance that I can quickly adjust. This slows down my breathing and helps me focus on my rate and volume.
@Chris Lynch LMFAOO!
Had a bit of fun when diving with my father. Yes I am still a young diver and love it. We both use 12l bottles and I usually end up with roughly 70 bar more air than him. He is an gas guzzler and uses a lot more weights than me. Might use a few of these tips for our next dive.
Thanks for the bid might help him a lot and make his dives longer
Firstly I want to say that was a great video guys!
I have however met some divers that really love diving but are true gas guzzlers and feel pretty bad about having to be the one to abort the dive early on just about most dives.
My recommendation if what is mentioned here in the video might not be an option or enough is to simply go for twins.
Yes I know they look advanced and all tech but using a twin setup is not necessarily synonymous with going full tech and and doing very deep dives.
If you can manage to pass your Padi Advanced you'll be fine learning a twin setup right after that.
Positives=
1. You can never have too much gas
2. You will learn a new way of more redundancy (not very complicated)
3. You might very likely find yourself more stable in your dive profile.
The weight is spread more equal since the gear is heavier and you need less weights or no weight belt at all.
All in all, it's safer unless you fall over trying to put it on while on land or on the boat.
Negatives=
1. It's heavy (but you get used to it)
2. People may give you weird looks and think you work for NatGeo/Discovery channel or looking for treasure ;-)
3. reference to point 1, it's heavy and not as travel friendly and also cost bit more since you have double of everything.
We often use twins even when we are out with req divers and while we have to change their tanks between dives we can most of the time just go on without even topping up depending on the depth and time of the dives.
I used to go through 3 tanks per dive but after this video, I did the same dive with just one pony bottle! Thanks daily scuba.
Sooooo funny!
I get 90 minutes of bottom time out of my Spare Air. So boo yah.
After watching this video I did a dive to 70m on one breath, true story!
I always piss my dive buddies off because I can do a ~40 minute dive at ~100 ft, if I didn't run out of time or had to surface with them, on a steel 100. It helps that I don't need extra weight with no wet suit or a 3mm, and I keep everything close to me, but I also breathe very deeply, using the entirety of my lungs, upper and lower.
I've actually been accused of holding my breath because I breathe so deeply. Breathe slow and deep, filling up and stretching your lungs at depth, and relax, you'll almost double your gas time.
I found your guys videos a few days ago and have binge watched loads of them. Thank you so much, I've learnt loads and now know what to buy before my next trip.
welcome to the Simply Scuba family Jasper! Glad you're enjoying our videos :)
I would also add good equipment to the list: An overbalanced reg that doesn't fight me for air, a harness BC that reduces my drag compared to jackets, fins that get a lot of result with minimal effort (no hinges, holes and slits and other such energy losses), a thick suit so I feel no chill. And then good neutral buoyancy, slow movements, slow breathing.
The dive guides are not too impressed when we have 100bar more than the newbies in the group at the end of the dive XD. They have to choose between cutting us short or making the others wait in the hot sun...
thankyou for the humming trick.
the urge to breathe can be controlled by breathing in to 60% of lung capacity, then to 80% and then to 100%, its a 3 for 1, works wonders for me :-)
Great video!!
I found that improving my buoyancy and weighting improved my SAC rate. Buying a new balanced regulator also reduced it. I kept an eye on my SAC rate via my digital transmitter while still not making it a burden on the dive by simply checking it post-dive instead of checking it while diving.
The rate dropped from 23l/min to 11.4l/min over my first 60 dives, but after I plotted it over time in a graph, the drop wasn't sudden; it was gradual over time, making me think of a significant factor here. Experience. The more dives you get in (with knowledgable guides/instructors), the more comfortable you are underwater to execute what you know correctly and calmly.
The more dives you get in, the more relaxed you are underwater in depths, which improves your average SAC rate.
A senior diving mate used to advise me simply grab on a divemaster's octo to share his air whenever we are running low on our air, so that we could get to stay as long as they could... 😂
I go jogging a lot and I’ll sprint and slow down and then I’ll repeat it several times on my 3-5 mile jog. Then when I’m out walking I’ll sprint off and on to improve my rate for diving.
Relax, be conscious of your breathing, do not exert yourself, streamline your gear, breath normally.
I just use my 300 bar 12L carbon tank and always dive calm and relax so i can enjoy it for longer time...also good set of fins that gives you good speed with less effort......i have on my log book a summer dive of 10 to 15 meters at a reef for 85 min......came back with 100 bars air!!!!
For me helps stop thinking and worrying about my breathing and relax... focusing on my surroundings instead. My breathing nature slow down and I use less
I have two steel 100 cubic foot cylinders. I usually use the same cylinder for 2 dives depending on depth. In the dive shop's training pool (14 ft. Deep), I can stay underwater for 3 hours with one cylinder.
Breathing tips for divers 1. Keep doing it.
All good points, but to me depth is the #1 thing on this list when it comes to air consumption. Personally, I'd rather do 60 minute dives on a 30 foot reef with more wildlife and natural light available than a 15 minute dive at 100 feet. Of course, if there is something to go look at deeper, the other tips are great! :)
you guys are awesome thanks alot👍🏽
The problem Is OW students get a lot of weights put on to "help them go down". Easier, faster but definitely not better. Why is it that we can cut weights by 1/3 or even 1/2 the second we do a PPB dive? Practice breathing, learn to exhale when you deflate. And stop playing with that LPI like it's a smartphone ;)
The human reflex in anticipation of the head going under water is taking a big breath in and holding it. People learn to relax and instead breathe out and hold it at very different rates. As a rather negatively-buoyant swimmer myself, it took me many dives before I got control of my reflex to keep a lot of air in my lungs (not holding my breath, just moving my tidal motion towards fuller lungs at all times). On a holday-resort crash-course with a fixed handful of dives until the qualification and a limited amount of time in which to get it done, putting a lot of lead on students is almost inevitable.
how much is too much? we learned diving in the way that we should breathe out to go down and that works. i had 4x lead. i control my whole bouyancy just with my lungs, no bcd inflation under water.
At times it could just be individual difference. From my first OW dive, my buddy and I have been using quite less air than our instructor. Could also due to the fact my the instructor smokes. We have been able to fully utilise the NDL time with around half tank left.
Wow you guys actually listened to us. Thank you. I'll drop a like
We always listen... Just sometimes we have our headphones in 🤣🤣🤣
Great vid. Thank you. Love the humming suggestion
Best tip i can give about conserving your air is to stop panicking about how much air you have. Especially how much your buddy has when you check their air. I used to get anxious about air consumption but experience has taught me that this only makes my tank empty faster. Be relaxed on a dive and enjoy it! Also be careful skip breathing or holding breath under water. If you exert yourself whilst doing this you will build up a lot more cO2 and then rapidly drain your tank with increased catch back breathing. Ascending whilst holding breath can also lead to explody lung and other diving maladies which are better off avoided. Have fun and dive safe!
i never really had a problem with gas consumption and even outlasted some guides :D my dad on the other hand always takes "the bigger bottle" his trick: dont just exhale -> exhale into your bcd that way you at least dont use more air than you need to :D
I have had a girl outlast instructor on her first dive. Ave depth like 7m we did 45 mins she still had like 120 bar...unbeliveable
@@KaiPantheTaiPan but on first dives the instructors often swim way more from diver to diver... and 7m is quite shallow 😃
I remember a couple of years back when i got advanced certified on my deep dive we had to resurface because my instructor had no air left 😂😂
@@simon1234567ful That's a good one hahahaha
A small person with small lungs will have a lower consumption than a big fella to begin with. A person comfortable in the water will also consume less. The two together can easily match a guide who is actively monitoring the students and therefore is not achieving the lowest consumption they could.
Why has this become such a discussion? 🤷♂️🤦♂️
@Kimon side note: im 192cm tall weigh about 100kg. I havent seen guides much taller or heavier but i still have good consumption because im a high level rower and very well trained (especially aerobically) and the story with my advanced instructor. It was a one on one course so we just swan next to each other neither of us had to exert themselves more than the other 🤷♂️
If you are a strong swimmer, swim regularly--laps even!-- and enjoy skin diving (a snorkeling/free diving combo that was around through the fifties, sixties, seventies and into the eighties), you'll get more out of your SCUBA diving.
Very good tips! Thank you! :)
tbh yes a bad trim makes you use more air but it also depends on the site youre diving. im almost never horizontal because we're diving walls (with a bottom so basically an L shaped reef) if im a bit more upright i can look at everything without always having to shift in the water. and on drift dives ive even seen guides put weights on their feet so they drift by the reef completely upright like a candle :D
Just going from a jacket BCD to a back inflate helped as it leveled me out much better. Thought I was good, but....no.
Good content here and useful. Thanks. I took an excellent PADI course on buoyancy taught by Roatan Divers. This greatly helped and pointed to the need to reduce and re-distribute weights, breathe deeply using my diaphragm, dive more, and study pre-dive meditative techniques to increase relaxation. My SAC is still higher than that of an excellent diver, but I'm making progress---It's a process, step by step, one step at a time.
My scuba instructor had us breath as normal as possible, but to always watch gas bubbles in front of our masks an watch them accent, an never ascend faster then those small gas bubbles. Holding breath underwater was called "skip breathing" an that was highly discouraged in four words, "never hold your breath"!
And you where also told, never going into Deco, Deco is bad. Every Tech Book, Advance Photography class, goes over holding your breath as they do it often.
Your great at this!
Just plug an umbilical and go to dependent dive!! It totally works for me!! 😜😜
I don’t think I’m too bad, I had buddies getting open water certified who were adults so they probably just use more air than I do, I had been certified nine months and I’m actually getting my advanced today
Can you do one for freediving I always end up just holding my breath when I'm underwater
I was taught to never hold my breath while diving. Although it may not always be dangerous it's a good habit in case of deep dives
This really really works !! Thanks ,,
Cheers for the awesome video! Honestly I've found relaxing/yoga, minimizing exertion, and streamlining gear/excess lead helped me the most in cold water diving. When I did warm (24°C+) dives with alloy tank (I usually use steel) & skin suit only I was shocked how much less air I used than my (dedicated warm water) buddy. E.g. she would be done with a dive @ 50 bar whereas I was still at over 100. Don't get me wrong. I'm not having a whinge. If I could dive again and again with the same buddy, I'd happily do it again. I'd rather a quarter hour less dive time and have an awesome dive than be crapping my wetsuit frantically looking for someone that has just pissed off into the sunset hahaha! It honestly just fascinated me that a trim roughly 55kg lady could use so much more air than my 85kg tubby ass. My cardiovascular fitness? Hell, If I went to a GP to test my cholesterol & BP... they'd start filling out my death certificate ;P
To all the Skip breather this is bad....., please remember that most of your OW Instructors teach you to be Ultra Conservative. There are Many techniques taught the more you advance into your dive career. In a OW class it is often taught Deco is Bad, you will get hurt going into deco, yet Tech Divers go into Deco regularly. Your OW instructor should stress, do not do it until you are trained, but if you mess up (this happens a lot), do not freak out (I have seen this), just adjust your dive plan according to your computer. If you do not have a computer, buy one. Can not afford one, rent one. Still can not afford one, get a second job.
Don't waste air on the descent. Empty all the air from the BCD, overweight and breath out fully prior to dropping in. You sink like a stone and as long as you've remembered to open the cylinder valve you should well below 10m before you first breath. The valve open part is kind of important. Dive with a nutter who claims they can outlast you and ascend when only when your cylinder is empty. This is how respect is earned. No one teaches you the no air part (scary) but after two or three times it gets easier so probably save that to less than 8m. Rocks are better then lead as weight as you can discard after your descent or pick them up when the cylinder nears empty when it is shallow depending on location. If I've not dived for a while I do a couple of dives just concentrating on breathing as little as I can to the point I'm uncomfortable with very shallow breathing and a few fin up and head down exercises. After that it is fine. Air gulpers take one gulp and never stop. My ex who was less than 60% of my weight would use her air and then used my long hose octopus. We still came up with the rest of the divers. If you wan't to learn air consumption conservation dive with some crazy Chinese divers.
I was chatting with a guy who was smoking with me at the back of the boat. He also came up with 100+ bar of reserve like me and I said "Imaging how much extra air could we be saving if we were not a smoker". He said "We are actually training our body to operate with less oxygen by smoking, that might be helping". I could have believed his theory if he was a biologist or something and not a civil engineer... Don't start smoking after reading this, do what Mark says..
actually, because of the added atmospheres the deeper down you go - you are actually breathing MORE oxygen while scuba diving than when you are on the surface. which makes his theory a bit wrong haha
Even though I have my scuba-diving ticket most of my biological knowledge comes from aviation where you basically add 5000 feet to your altitude when you’re smoking so if I’m flying at 5000 feet a person who smokes is breathing like it there at 10,000 feet which is where high poxy starts because of the long-term damage to the lungs TLDR : I agree with you
Get a wing and a 40cf stage, works wonders. So if you're sucking down gas you can use it, or if your buddy is sucking down their gas pass and clip, ezpz
Humming eh? Great idea will try it next time
A friend of mine does this, u can hear him zooming by from quite a distance. First time i heard it i was looking around for a boat to pass overhead!! :)
"Skip breathing" (holding your breath) is not a good idea - it will raise your CO2 level, which will increase your breath rate eventualy. It eaven can lead to panic, when your body sudenly think you are not getting enough air, which can then make you hyperventilate untherwater. It is also, as already mentioned in the video, always very dangerous when you hold your breath on the way up. Also in some cases (actually happened to me when I startet diving) you can get a terrible headache from the CO2 build up after you come up. The best way to decrease your bereath rate is to try to always keep calm and breath normal (nice and deep breaths to keep the CO2 low - no shallow breathing) and learn to have a good buoyency and trim. Also as I have noticed on several dives that you seem to breath quite a lot at the beginn of a dive - for me it helps to put my head without goggles in the water for a second or two when I get in the water/before I start the dive - this helps to start the mammalian diving reflex earlyer - your body then also reduces your breathrate to "divingmode" earlyer (and also makes your eyes ready for the sting of the saltwater, which might come if your goggles flood / this also reduces the stress if it happens unterwater). Leaving your tanks in the sun before filling is also not good idea, as warm air expands and you will not be able to get a full fill (and might only notice this as soon as the water cools your tank and you loose 20-40 bars when the air gets denser again). The best way to get a good pressure is to refill your tanks directly after your dive - when they are nice and cool. Also always messure your tank pressure at the divecenter, if it is not up on 180-200 ask the shop to top up your gas. And bigger cilinders 15l (or twinsets or sidemount) are an option if you are a heavy breather, most divecenters will let you use a 15l if you ask friendly ;-) (if you get a bigger tank don`t forget - bigger tanks weigh considerably more - you need to adjust your weights) - happy diving :-)
You do know that Every Tech and Photography Course addresses Breath hold? How am I going to build up that much CO2 on 40% Nitrox during a OW dive, or even 32% on a 112 foot dive at 1.4 ppo2, doing a couple of breath holds. He did not say do it through out the dive. Have you dove outside the US? The man was talking about HP tanks. Many Compressors at dive shops around the Caribbean and the South Pacific can barley make 3000psi on AL80s. Drop a HP tank on them and they burn up.
Use as much gas as you think you need. It is not a competition. Usage will go down, as you get comfortable with your gear and scuba diving. Experience is the name of the game. At least in my experience. 😏
Went through one cylinder just watching this video
I hum a lot, different tunes, never complete ones which amuses my wife (dive buddy). Of course not everyone can figure out who is doing it and I don't usually tell everyone that I hum. LOL
I use an 18m snorkel , and that way I onlt switch to scuba after about 15m ,,, my dive profile looks odd , but I can stay down a long time ,,,
only messing.
If you are neutrally buoyant with 900psi and no air in your BCD, aren't you underweight? Can you even finish a safety stop if you start at 700psi?
I can do a 80-100ft dive and hold around 60min i inhale hold for 6-8 second and then breath out but i make sure wile im holding im not ascending
Does the amount of air in your tank affect your buoyancy?
Yes. Aluminum's will become positive as they empty. Steels will always be negative, but become less so as they empty
ThatJeweler Guy Thanks 🙏🏻
Hahaha wow, actually hearing your normal voice cadence trips me out!
I used 130 bar out of 230 bar on a 45 minute out of a 12L cinder at 10 meters.
That's a SAC of ~17 l/min. It's decent but there is room for improvement, especially since SAC tends to go up the deeper you dive. I'd probably be around 13 l/min at that depth, making 45min almost the half-point of the dive ;) and I know I still have room for improvement.
I’m 6’4” 255 lbs and my dive buddy is 5’ 130 lbs. I just can’t match her when it comes to air consumption
Love it!,
Saviour. I did a 70 feet dive in 20min
One thing that should be noted, is that even with every perfect you are never going to be able to override biology. If you are a 7ft tall strong man that makes the Mountain from GOT look small, you are never going to be able to match the air consumption of a 4ft tall Asian woman that swim laps everyday.
I agree to an extent, but there are people who break that rule. My boss, the owner of the shop I DM for, his air usage is legendary. Looking at him, you wouldn't be able to tell, because he's a big guy, and looks like he has eaten more than his fair share of donuts, but can outlast anyone that hops in the water with him. I guess that's what comes with 40 years experience.
I didnt catch it in your other video, if not flippers, what are they called?
I know that its air, not oxygen, there was one more... lol
Hey my instructor told me to use the weights to weigh me down when I have no air in my bcd like I’ll stay on the bottom until I put air in my bcd is that thing I should do or just have as little weight as possible
The way to tell how much you need is to have an empty cilinder (50 bar) and with an empty bcd hold upright at the surface feet pointed down (best done at the end of a dive) then when u breath normally your eyes should stay above water, when u fully inhale u go up and when u exhale fully u should sink. U can do this with a full bottle but u need to know if it will have a positive buoyancy( Alu most of the time ) when almost empty or a negative one ( Steel ). Beeing too light is often more dangerous because u might shoot up to the surface and not be able to hold at 5m.
Nothing wrong with an underwater hummer! 😊
I'm waiting for that spanner who's going to say "Hold your breath to save more air"
Best tip is to never worried about your sac rate!
I've never gotten an underwater hummer, but I imagine it wouldn't feel as good as above the surface.
Thanks for a long winded video that basically says you need good buoyancy control.
In my opinion. In order of importance, the tips are:
Don't dive deeper than necessary.
Yoga breathing. I would have put this at 1, however there are those who don't have the time or inclination and would benefit most from 1.
Again Yoga breathing. I start the process long before getting in the water. I will do 2 hours off a steel 77 when my brother who doesn't do yoga struggled to 1.5 hours out of an 88 alloy. (off Fitzroy Island). All the best stuff is between 9 and 18 metres.
Finning technique. I use different finns depending on how I expect to use them. There is no hard and fast rule, Yet if you don't know how to use your fins effectively, you are wasting gas
.
Im sorta a bigger guy, got some muscle and I find no matter how slow I try to breathe, im terrible on gas.. New divers out breathe me.... Soooo i bought a rebreather.. Problem solved.
But instructors have more weight with them as they need right? So they can donate some kilograms to their students if they have to.
Im a air guzzler. We solved it by discovering that i empty a 15L tank in the same time as my buddy empties a 12L tank
#3 ☮👌💯
I just don't breathe. Unlimited gas. Thank me later.
Turn your air on just before leaving the boat. Before getting in the water orally fill your BCD-do not use your precious air. Be one of the last ones off the boat.
I try to fin very slowly, keep physical movements to a minimum, and inhale count of 4, hold count of 5, 6, or 7, exhale count of 8...
How are you supposed to stay horizontal when your Diving dry?
When I try to do this i feel like I'm on the edge of a run away accent
are you using the bcd for buoyancy or the drysuit?
if you are using the drysuit, this is the problem. try using the drysuit with as little air as possible and using the bcd for buoyancy.
if you are using a jacket style bcd i suggest you move to a backplate and wing, specially with a dry suit. this will also help you.
but mostly, seek proper training from someone who dives the drysuit as much as possible. nothing beats time in the water with a professional.
@@RoMisSoCool I got the training, and I do all of that, but I personally think my problem is my undergarments because they are more like a snow suit than anything else.
@@scubasteveandunderwaterroc3547 haha it might be the case. Bigger undergarments do take more air in the suit.
But practice makes perfect. Remember that cave divers are sometimes diving head down in a drysuit. It should be doable with practice. Good luck 😊
@@RoMisSoCool well I'm not really a cave diver but I was trained by a few in recreational conditions. However, I'm diving in 40+- waters so the drysuit really helps.
@@scubasteveandunderwaterroc3547 me either. I am giving them as an example to show it is possible. And for sure dry suit helps haha
Biggest tip for better consumption? Regular exercise
Don’t use tank air to inflate your BCD, that’s what the mouth fill tube is for!
Cardiovascular fitness certainly helps. I see so many fat, out of shape divers on dive boats. Get some exercise!
Trust me, I tried
I know it is scientifically a factor in air consumption. That said, I've seen some tiny skinny divers guzzle a shocking amount of air, and some fat as hell divers use bugger all air. I think the psychological factor (how calm in the water are they?) is the biggest factor for recreational diving, then gear/trim/lead, followed by cardiovascular fitness. I'm guessing cardiovascular fitness plays progressively more of a part the deeper you go? I've yet to see an overweight oil pipeline diver lol
John Doe Can’t argue with you there. “Calmness” is certainly the biggest factor.
Doesn't the humming scare off wildlife? That would be quite a shame... being underwater for longer periods but seeing less wildlife.
I'll never get tired of hearing "underwater hummer." Yes, I am like an 8 year old sometimes.
Use a electric scooter
Zachary Shepard that what I use.