Top 10 Tips to Decrease Your Air Consumption

A bad air consumption can make a dive shorter than expected. If you want your air to last longer underwater, don't miss the tips listed here.

Buoyancy

Remember your buoyancy is determine by your body density, the air on your BCD, the weights you are caring, the water density and the amount of air in your lungs. Chances are that if you are having problems with your buoyancy your breathing will accelerate increasing your air consumption. To improve your buoyancy, make a proper weight test and practice some buoyancy basic techniques.

Position

The position of your body underwater must be mainly horizontal. This makes your movements underwater fluid, decreasing the water resistance and in consequence improve your air consumption. A good exercise to improve your position is to lay head down on the bottom of a pool with your knees bend and start introducing air in your BCD until you are neutrally buoyant. The task here is to stay in a horizontal position without touching the floor at all. This exercise is call "hover".

Propulsion technique

A good propulsion technique will decrease your air consumption a lot. Mainly remember that your kicks don't have to be fast, but they must be strong. For example, in the crawl kick when you separate your legs try to do it as wide as possible in a slow but strong manner.

Temperature

If your body must fight the ambient temperature, it will get stress and you air consumption will increase. Always wear the proper external protection.

Fill your BCD orally

Some old school divers are use to fill their BCD orally, so they don't waste any tank gas directly. While this may be a good idea sometime, I don't recommend taking of the regulator to safe such a little amount of air. I mainly use this technique when preparing to get into the water.

Don't move extra parts of your body

Every movement you do require some air consumption. Try not to make any extra movements like flapping your hands or turning around with your whole body.

Exercise regularly

A good way to decrease your air consumption is to exercise regularly. This will enable you to make deep long breaths instead of fast and short ones.

Watch what you eat before diving

If you eat something difficult to digest before a dive, your air consumption may increase. This is because your body is working to break down all the food in your belly. If you are hungry before a dive, eat a banana or a granola bar.

Take care of your equipment

If your equipment is malfunctioning or have any leaks, you may be losing a good amount of air. Always remember to double check your equipment and your partners’ before a dive.

Dive often

The best way to decrease your air consumption is to dive as often as you can. This will naturally calm you down and polish your diving skills.

March 23, 2020 Tags : All , Ranking , Tips

Monday, March 23, 2020

Top 10 Tips to Decrease Your Air Consumption