5 Top Tips To Improve Your Air Consumption

[@ScubaDiverMagazine]

Do you have any other tips that will help new divers stay down longer?

[@leehouston4395]

I’d say the 2 things that noticeably improved my air consumption the most. 1) gently clasp my fingers together and keep my arms still. 2) change to Frog kick!!!!

[@ScubaDiverMagazine]

Excellent. And in doing so, this would naturally get you into a nice flat trim position. The odd time I am not in the water with a camera, I tend to dive with my hands clasped in front of me, feels nice and comfortable. Can't get into this 'happy H-ing' techie position.

[@hagendf]

@@ScubaDiverMagazine or a GoPro with a handle grip. I point it out ahead with both hands.

[@olivergilpin]

Nice tip about not worrying about air consumption and just enjoy… thanks!

[@CRXhome]

As Mark mentioned, gear can make a huge difference. Since a few years I am diving with a backplate and wing and that almost automatically fixes a lot of your trim, because the majority of the weight is where it should be: directly on your back and it gives you a way lower profile

[@AlexanderLiffers]

Diving is in 3 dimensions unlike walking, so if you're in an environment like a wreck, under a pier or anything where there's stuff at varying heights don't spend the whole dive with your belly on the sand, where you're going to be needing the maximum amount of air due to the pressure on your dive.

[@fullmetal1002]

I heard that belly breathing can help in breathing underwater. Haven't tried it yet, but will do that.

[@YZFoFittie]

I switched to steel 100 from aluminum 80 as my dive buddy always had 4 or 500 psi more than me. But after a few dives im much more relaxed and now he has to run steel 100's to keep similar consumption to me...

[@jeremiahperez8071]

Remember that diving is not a race to the next thing to see... enjoy the dive... nice and slow helps with air too.

[@ScubaDiverMagazine]

Exactly! Relax, take your time, enjoy yourself - why rush?

[@wildsurfer12]

Nothing will beat the Amy’s Baking Company episode.

[@TechforToastmasters]

It is as if you were talking to me. lol. Thanks for the great tips.

[@jimryan4056]

Glad your channel came up in my suggestions. Just subbed.

[@ScubaDiverMagazine]

Great to hear! Enjoy our videos, plenty more coming, but lots to go back through.

[@c.patricksadowski9959]

I think we can’t ignore the use of a DPV to enjoy your dive, deeper and longer. With the price of a professional DPV now around $1500, it’s absolutely worth it.

[@ScubaDiverMagazine]

And they are super fun, as we found in the Maldives recently.

[@mgallager1449]

Relax.

[@crazybox7326]

15L dive tank

[@billtriffitt5173]

Sidemount! With two tanks consumption is not an issue.

[@marineboyocean]

A 5ft 40 kg Lady will always use less air than a 80kg 6ft male athlete all other things being equal.

[@abyssalreclass]

When I was doing my open water, I had to do 3 dives in one day, all on HP100s. My instructor had one HP100 that he used for all three dives, and he still had plenty left at the end. I've been diving since, and I have been doing better, just by being more comfortable in the water and relaxing.

[@nmhdez]

I’m an instructor and I don’t really know how to explain this to my students. Yesterday I did an open water dive with my student. We did a 30-min dive and I finished with about 2000 psi with an HP80 tank and my student finished with about 700 psi with an HP100 tank.

[@ScubaDiverMagazine]

I’d expect you to have a far better air consumption, as you are a dive pro, and will be properly weighted, relaxed and in trim. A student is always going to be more anxious for their first few dives and use their air far quicker. I’ve seen some people who I couldn’t tell when they were breathing in or out as there was a constant stream of bubbles coming out of their exhaust - it was almost like a free flow, they were breathing that fast and hard.

[@willhaney96]

I'm confused how you use more air at depth, I understand it takes more air to fill your lungs because the air is significantly more dense the deeper you go. But would that not in turn increase the amount of oxygen sitting in your lungs. Could you not hold on to a lung full for longer and utilize all of the oxygen?

[@mpcgamingclips]

The amount of oxygen in ‘air’ is around 21%. When we breathe out, a typical person exhales air with around 17% oxygen still contained within that air. Our bodies can only metabolise around 4% of the oxygen in the air we breathe, holding your breath will not cause your body to metabolise more oxygen, it’s already used all it can. Holding on to a breath, even for a short moment, is something divers are always taught not to do. You should almost always be either inhaling or exhaling. Holding air in your lungs even at reasonably shallow depths can cause lung expansion injuries if you were to begin an ascent, as the air being supplied by your 2nd stage regulator is compensating for your depth by providing gas at a sufficient pressure to ensure your lungs are at close to their max capacity. Therefore, if you held that lung full of air and ascended a few meters, it will begin to expand as the ambient pressure decreases and could expand beyond the maximum volume your lungs can hold, possibly leading to an over-expansion injury. The breathing response is caused by the build up of carbon dioxide, not a need to replenish oxygen. A normal recreational diver, diving to a max depth of say 40m, will have the choice of using a different mix of gas in their tank (if appropriately trained) typically referred to as Nitrox. This gas has a higher oxygen percentage by volume, this is done to lower the amount of nitrogen in the mix to help alleviate narcosis brought on by nitrogen at depth. Nitrox can be used to extend dive times but primarily, for recreational divers, is used to lower the risk of developing decompression illness at normal recreational depths and dive times. Whilst the oxygen percentage in these mixes is above 21%, our bodies still only metabolise around 4%, the rest is exhaled.

[@willhaney96]

@@mpcgamingclips That still does not make much sense. From what I have gathered from your explination, we are only able to take in 4% of the oyxgen that is in our lungs. If that holds true for any pressure, I could double the density of the gas in my lungs, effectivly taking in double the oyxgen. The ratio of the gasses has stayed the same and the % of that volume I consume stays the same then I will take in 2X the oyxgen because there is effectivly twice as much oygen avalible as well as twice as much nitrogen.

[@russellhogg3547]

I'll try to explain this... when your 12l tank is filled to 200 bar with any gas air or EAN x%, the useable volume of gas in the tank is 200bar minus the reserve pressure being 50bar (150bar) multiplied by the volume of the cylinder (12l) giving 1800 litres of gas. Assuming a surface air consumption (SAC) rate of 20l/min then at the surface that 1800litres will last you: 1800/20 = 90minutes. So when you dive deeper then ambient pressure increases e.g. at 10 meters the ambient pressure is 2bar so that means when I breathe the pressure in my lungs is 2bar (volume of gas in the lungs is now twice that on the surface) so the air consumption at 10 meters is 20 liters/min x 2: 40liters/min so now the amount of time that gas will last changes to 1800/40 = 45mins. Even though your body uses a small amount of the actual oxgen, you breathe the rest out especially the deeper you go.

[@staceywilkinson8603]

I would say use ur legs and not ur arms. Keep them close to ur waist. Using ur arms unless necessary uses up air

[@stinksterrekerinski4450]

Buy a rebreather

[@DubaiDiver]

Fishes or Fish?

[@ScubaDiverMagazine]

I was going to put on my best gangster drawl for ‘spending more time with the fishes’, but it doesn’t work in ‘Yorkshire’... 🤣🤣🤣

[@geemac44]

I like the counting rhythm to get into your Zen zone. One of the toughest breathing issues I found difficult initially, revolved around the speed my dive buddy wanted to jet propel to a particular dive site, wreck or to the bottom. After a few dives of cruising and breathing at my pace, my dive buddy slowed down to my speed. Less air used, a longer dive and more fun had together👌🤿😎🇦🇺