What's a good target SAC rate?

[thesmoothdome]

Without turning this into an ego contest, what's a good target SAC rate to shoot for? Obviously, the lower the better, but what's realistic for the average diver?

[tc_rain]

I just figured mine out the other day and ened up with an average of around .45 I also checked the rate on a couple drysuit dives and they were alot higher of course. One dive was.54 and the other was off the chart at .84 Not sure what happened there.

[texdiveguy]

.50

[awap]

Originally Posted by tc_rain

One dive was.54 and the other was off the chart at .84 Not sure what happened there.

<DIV></DIV>
<DIV>I'll tell you what off the chart is. For my for first open water dive after cert I sucked down an Al80 in about 30 minutes at about 30 ft - so that should be something around a 2. After a weight loss of about 40 pounds and lots of work/thought on air consumption, I'm usually running around .5. </DIV>

[ntburchf]

Well, you .5'ers, .50'ers etc.
I just did my SAC rate calculations from last weekends 4 checkout dives.

28 1/4 cfm. 158 lb "AIR HOG"
Have no clue what my target should be. Being new, with 14 lbs of weights prolly did not help. (yea yea, smoking does not help either).

Would go this weekend to watch the new class as CSSP, but the ENT says no diving until she can re-evaluate my inner ear barotrauma.
Might go out there and watch on Sunday and float around with snorkel.
(might be too tempting to bring all my gear though and get wet. ..

Wonder if the ENT would kick my butt, if I just got a tank with 500psi and figured out how much weight I needed to be ..

[TxHockeyGuy]

I haven't ran my latest dives, which are no doubt my best SAC rate dives yet after I made a few adjustments and well, paid more attention to my breathing pattern (I know they were better based on having more air in the tank after an hour too). That being said previously I was doing good to get a .6. I'm still fairly new so I'm working on it.

[TxHockeyGuy]

Originally Posted by ntburchf

Well, you .5'ers, .50'ers etc.
I just did my SAC rate calculations from last weekends 4 checkout dives.

28 1/4 cfm. 158 lb "AIR HOG"
Have no clue what my target should be. Being new, with 14 lbs of weights prolly did not help. (yea yea, smoking does not help either).

Would go this weekend to watch the new class as CSSP, but the ENT says no diving until she can re-evaluate my inner ear barotrauma.
Might go out there and watch on Sunday and float around with snorkel.
(might be too tempting to bring all my gear though and get wet. ..

Wonder if the ENT would kick my butt, if I just got a tank with 500psi and figured out how much weight I needed to be ..

There's no way you're running at 28.25 cfm. You'd suck your tank dry in under 3 minutes.

The best advice I can give about air consumption is to stop worrying about it. If you stop worrying about it and just concentrate on improving your comfort and skills underwater then it will come all on its own.

Has your ENT seen you? If not I'd stay out of the water entirely, you don't want to risk infection.

[ntburchf]

Yea,
Saw the ENT yesterday.
On some 12 day regiment of steroids (prednisone)
+ some nasal sprays. (Veramyst and Nasonex)
Have to take 6 pills at one time for 7 days,
then 5 pills for for 1 day, then 4 pills for 1 day, etc..

ENT said I blew WAY WAY too hard trying to equilize. ruptured some capillaries / blood vessels right behind the ear drum. So no diving / flying for a week.
I see the ENT again, next week, 29th I think.
Talk about bummed out, was looking forward to seeing you guys on Sunday ...

Does floating around count as diving If all else fails, guess I could park by butt on the bench at the ST pavilion and watch you guys have fun. (at least I then would have an excuse not to do that dang "Honey-Do" list that I'm supposed to be working on to get this house ready to sell...

Looks like I'm flying out around the 1st to look for either new location to build a house, or see if they have an existing house that meets our needs.

Good thing about it I guess, we'll have corporate housing for 7 months, company paid for. Even has a screened in pool, Lania(sp).

Gone for good it looks like around the 11th.
Spend 2/3 years in Orlando, then off to live in the EU somewhere.

[ntburchf]

If reading the Naui SAC rate table correctly

Start PSI 2845
End PIS 625
Depth 25 ft.
Time 37 min

So, burned 2220 gas in 37 mins at depth of 25 ft
which = 34 or is that 3.4 ?

[Joew]

First, convert the amount of air you used to cubic ft. If you used an AL 80 then there is 77.4 cf at 3000psi
(2220/3000)*(77.4 cf) = 57.3 cf

Then find out the ambient pressure.
(25/33) + 1 = 1.76 atm

Then divide actual air used by the ambient pressure. This will give you the equivalent amount of air you would have breathed at the surface.
57.3/1.76 = 32.6 cf

Divide this by your bottom time and you've got your SAC rate.
32.6 cf/37 m = 0.88 cf/m