How To Save Air Scuba Diving

3 Tips To Help You Increase Your Bottom Time

Beginner scuba divers are usually the first ones back on the boat - and understandably so. No shame in it. We all started there. But these 3 easy tips will show you how to save air scuba diving on your very next dive.

It may take some practice to perfect these skills but if you try and follow these tips on your next dive, your air consumption should go down. Remember, all progress is good. We all want to relax and enjoy the dive - and not be the first one on the boat :). So go ahead and try them and savor that extra bottom time!

I hope you enjoy this video on how to save air scuba diving. Please let me know what other type of content I can make for you to help you with your diving. I would love to hear from you!

How to save air scuba diving video

Transcript: How To Save Air Scuba Diving

This isn't right you think, as you look at your pressure gauge, how did I go through my air so quickly? Hi, welcome back. And if you're new to this channel, my name's Diane. I run scuba diving, smiles.com. And this channel is all about sharing tips, tricks, and techniques with beginning divers so they can improve their dive skills and have less stress and more fun on their very next dive.

Now, this first tip, I wanna share with you on how to save air while scuba diving begins before you even get to the dive boat or to the dive shop. And that is to get there early. Yes. Get there early. Cause the last thing you wanna do is be rushed. Rush down the boat, rush into the shop and you're gonna be all anxious and all outta sorts.

Before you even get underwater, you wanna have time to get there, get checked in, get on the boat. And so you're not rushed. Sit down while you're going to the dive site, assuming this is a, a boat dive, get yourself together, collect your thoughts. And then when you get to that dive site, when you're ready to get out, get under the water.

You will be nice and relaxed. And I can't stress that enough because I've been there done that. I'm usually very early, but a couple times when I'm late, you're just running around, running around and you are distressed and anxious and it's no way to start the dive because you're gonna be using more air.

So tip number one, get there early. So tell me, have you experienced that like me? Have you ever been rushed when you got to the dive boat and you didn't really quite feel ready to descend when the divemaster said to go under, tell me the comments below. Now this next tip on how to save air scuba diving has to do with your position in the water column.

Now, when you're diving, you wanna be horizontal in that water column because the more vertical you are, the more resistance you're gonna have against that water. And the more resistance, the more air you're going to have to use. And another offshoot of this is when you're kicking. So if you're nice and horizontal in the water, where are you going to be going?

When you kick, you're gonna be going forward to see what you want on the dive. But if you're like this in the water column and you're kicking, you're gonna be propelling yourself up. And like I said before, if your position is like this in the water column, that's more resistance to the water and that's more air you're going to be used.

You want to get horizontal and stay horizontal as much as you can. And if you do find yourself going more vertical in the water column, no matter what you do. You might have to adjust some of your equipment. So you're just gonna have to experiment and see what works for you. Perhaps you can move your weight around on your weight belt or put in a different pocket.

If you have an air integrated BC, you can adjust the straps on your BC, cuz that's going to influence where the weight is distributed on your body. You can adjust the position of the tank on your body too. That might help level you out a little bit. So if you do find yourself going vertical in the water column, try and make these little adjustments here and there and see if that helps you stay horizontal the way you want to be. And now the next tip on how to save air while scuba diving is to be aware of your breathing patterns. So you want to be conscious of how you're breathing and make sure you're not taking those short, shallow breaths because that's going to use and consume much more air.

Now, if you are a bit anxious, it's normal to alter your breathing patterns. You're gonna have to make a conscious effort to think of your breathing patterns and concentrate on how you are breathing down there. and what is the right breathing pattern? You should be breathing in slowly and deeply, and then exhaling slowly.

Now it's different with different instructors, but I was taught to breathe in for three, breathe out for three, breathe in for three, breathe out for three and not a 1, 2, 3. It's like 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. And count yourself while you're down there, you can do it to four or five. Whatever works for you. So breathing in deeply and slowly and exhaling , slowly. Basically that's what we're taught in certification class. If you remember, at least I hope you were taught that in certification class. So remember breathing for three or four, whatever you wanna use and breathe out for four. And I, it doesn't come naturally right away because it is a different form of breathing obviously than we breathe up here.

But it will make a big difference on your air consumption. For more beginner scuba diving tips, click on this next video. And I hope to see you there in the meantime, happy and safe diving.


I hope you enjoyed the video on how to save air scuba diving. But more importantly, I hope you implement these tips and see your bottom time improve! Let me know how it goes.

You might like these tips to help improve your diving:

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