scuba

170 readers

1 users here now

Welcome to scuba where lemmings dive deep! Ask questions and trade tips with a diverse community of divers, from open water newbies to dive instructors, commercial divers and scientists from around the world.

Share your stories, pictures and video to have discussions with a community full of people who love the underwater world and dream fishy dreams. Please read the sidebar and widgets! What are you waiting for? Come on in, the water is nice!

Please message the mods with ideas, links, and info that can help our community grow. We want this community to be about sharing news, stories and experiences, questions and help, and diving photos and video - basically anything diving and dive lifestyle related, but memes are fine, since we need content.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

porkins

Deep breathing vs. buoyancy question (self.scuba)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by nottelling to c/scuba

11 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Pretty new diver here, about 40 dives, and looking for advice.

Just finished up a week of dives in Grenada, and made a point of paying attention to air consumption. Based on Internet advice, I focused on breathing deeply and exhaling completely, counting 4 seconds in, 6 seconds out. Doing this, my computer reported average SAC has dropped from about 0.8 to 0.5, and I'm not the one calling dives for gas anymore. This seems like a great improvement.

However, my buoyancy goes to shit when I'm doing this. Breathing more "normally", I can maintain a neutral depth with good trim. But with this more efficient breath control, I go up and down several feet with every breath. This actually makes it pretty easy to control when I ascend and descend, but obviously isn't great for most of the dive.

If I try to breathe normally-but-slow, I feel like I'm hyperventilating.

So what's the trick here? How do you both breathe efficiently and control your buoyancy?

I think I'm pretty well weighted, since I have no problem maintaining my safety stop with the shallower breaths.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] PretZ 3 points 1 year ago

Hey! I've been diving commercially for a couple of years. My philosophy (this might not be ideal for everyone, but it works for me), is to be very slightly negatively trimmed with my BCD/dry suit when maintaining depth, and then use my lungs to "make up" the difference. So when I breathe in a normal amount of air I am neutrally buoyant. I have a quite slow respiration rate when diving, so I "hold" my breath for a few seconds before exhaling normally and inhaling normally. I believe the "trick" to buoyancy control is to be relaxed and comfortable, and keeping your heart rate and respiration low. Do everything in "slow-motion",and try not to exert yourself too much. The more energy you use, the more oxygen you consume.