Less air usage

[nightdiver]

Ok what are some of the tricks or breathing techniques that can be used to use less air. I breath pretty relaxed, but I had an instructor that never looked like he was breathing at all and would always have used a faction of air compared to me. Would like hear your thoughts.

[Scuba-Bill]

A few tips from someone averaging 12 dives per year... (they might be helpful)

1. Reduce your level of activity
2. Better boyancy control will help reduce your activity
3. Don't use your BC as an elevator
4. Yoga has helped me control my breathing and reduce air consumption
5. Use the dreaded snorkel on the surface

[Charles R]

time and comfort as well as being cardio fit will all help if you smoke quite that will help as well. the bigest is relax and move slow dont work under water

[subsur]

i don't think smoking makes people consume more air. i do quite well on air compared to my non-smoking buddies.
once you achieve a perfect buoyancy (no overweighting lead-wise) it'll improve you air usage.
Also stay warm, don't move your arms if not necessary, use efficient kicks.

[jo8243]

Buoyancy Control.

[diverdad]

Breath nice and easy. But some people just use more air than others. So don't be to hard on yourself if you cannot lower it a whole lot.

[crpntr133]

All the above including not smoking. Ask anyone that works in the medical field

[CrzyJay456]

Originally Posted by crpntr133

All the above including not smoking. Ask anyone that works in the medical field

im gonna agree with the other person (subsur)about smoking not making a difference, or if it does, then not much. i've dove with people that smoke pretty much nonstop, and he had great air consumption. better than most people we dove with, and he does not have that many dives.

[finflippers]

Proper weighting - Make sure that you have the right amount of weight on. The more weight you have on, The more air you have to have in your bladder to keep you off the bottom creating more drag. The more drag you have the harder you have to work to move which means more air you will use.

Trim - Dive in a horizontal position. If during your dive your feet is 6" off the bottom and your head is 3' off the bottom then you are creating a drag that causes you to work harder thus making you use more air.

Take your time - Don't make it a race down there. A nice relaxing pace will allow you to breath slowly.

Breath deep and slowly - Take slow and deep breaths instead of short shallow breaths. I had one dive buddy that made a comment to me after a dive that he noticed that I use one breath to his three breaths. He would use between 500 to 1000 PSI then me on an aluminum 80.

Buoyancy Control - When making adjustments to your BC do so in small increments. If you are slightly negative then put one small blast of air in your BC and give it time to adjust your buoyancy. Otherwise it is a never ending cycle of filling and dumping air to maintain your buoyancy. If you inflate your BC until you fell your changes taking effect then quit inflating, you have already put in to much and will shortly be dumping air to not be rising.

Streamline your gear - the more stuff that dangles the more drag you have.

Dive - The more you dive the better your air consumption will get.

[Kidder]

Buoyancy control and deep breathing have helped me the most. I still use more air than some, but I am a lot better now.