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!!!!
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.
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...
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
@WonderingSoul 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.
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.
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👌🤿😎🇦🇺
