Whether you are new to diving or more experienced, there are lots of techniques you can learn and practice to dive for longer and consume less air.
When scuba divers are conscious of their breathing, they are able to easily extend their dive time and consume less air. Other alternatives divers can practice to consume less air and extend dive time are: practicing meditation, not going past a certain depth, regulate their body heat, and relax.
Although there are several techniques to consume less air while scuba diving, from personal experience I can definitely tell you that not all of them will work for all divers.
To discover which technique works best for you, I suggest trying them all in isolation (not all at the same time), and check out which one works best.
To understand which technique works best, it is essential that you monitor closely and register in your logbook both the air consumption and dive time.
In such way, after having tried all techniques, you will be able to easily compare the results.
Conscious Breathing
The method that is used by most divers to increase their dive time while consuming less air is conscious breathing.
Conscious breathing will allow you to optimize your gas consumption by making full and efficient use of the available breathing gas (weather air or other gas mixes).
Conscious breathing consists in reducing the number of breaths you are taking so that you only inhale when needed and make full use of the air intake before exhaling.
Practicing conscious breathing helps you to take better, deeper breaths, which allows you to use less oxygen while diving.
Conscious breathing comes super handy as you can practice it even at home and don’t need to be underwater.
A basic exercise consists in inhaling for a count of 2-4 seconds and exhaling for a count of 4-6 seconds. You can subsequently try to extend the exhaling time without breaching your comfort zone.
Once you have practiced conscious breathing on the surface, I suggest repeating the exercise underwater and see if you notice any improvement in your air consumption.
After you have mastered this technique, you will no longer be taking breaths before your body needs more oxygen, allowing you to be able to more efficiently use your oxygen.
Practicing Meditation
Before you go scuba diving next, it may be beneficial for you to practice meditation. Being more mindful allows you to be more conscious of your breaths.
This method allows you to be more aware of when your body needs more oxygen, which makes it easier for you to dive for a longer amount of time without using your oxygen too quickly.
In addition to allowing you to practice conscious breathing, meditating allows you to be more relaxed while diving.
By being more relaxed, your body will require less oxygen, therefore improving your air consumption rate underwater.
To start practicing meditation, I strongly recommend watching some YouTube videos to understand which kind of meditation works best for you.
Here you can find the link to my favorite meditation video. Try it out before your next dive.
Relaxing
When you are diving, relaxing can be an easy way to allow you to dive for an extended period of time without increasing your use of oxygen.
When your body is relaxed and calm, it doesn’t require as much oxygen as when you are stressed or overexerted.
By simply relaxing and calming your mind, you are able to reduce the amount of oxygen your body needs. This allows you to extend the amount of time you’re diving for.
Relaxing is often the first method people try when attempting to extend their dive time and reduce their air intake.
A useful exercise I practice and ask my students to practice is to relax for 5 minutes at the surface before starting a dive.
In fact, the highest consumption rate during a dive often takes place during the descent.
This is because we tend to jump in the water from a dive boat or after a walk on the shore which increases our heart rate and distorts our breathing.
By relaxing for 5 minutes at the surface, you will allow your heart rate and breathing to return to normal, leading to a lower consumption of gas during your descent.
Not Going Past a Certain Depth
The deeper you go when diving, the more oxygen you need to intake.
As a result of this, if you want to increase your dive time, simply avoiding going past a certain depth can allow your oxygen to last a longer amount of time.
If there is something deeper you’d like to look at, go ahead and explore it.
However, after you’ve finished examining what you were interested in, diving up to a shallower area can allow your oxygen to last longer and give you the opportunity to continue exploring the water for a longer amount of time.
Consider that as depth increases, breathing underwater becomes more difficult due to the increased depth. This will usually result in higher levels of tiredness and consequently air consumption.
To in order to check to what extend depth affects your air consumption rate, I suggest having a 30 minutes dive at a constant depth and a 30 minutes dive at a constant shallower depth and compare the air consumption after both dives.
Regulating Your Body Heat
| Water Temperature (F) | Water Temperature in (C) | Scuba Wetsuit Thickness |
| 85 Degrees and Up | 29 Degrees and Up | 3 mm or shorty |
| 80 to 85 Degrees | 27 to 29 Degrees | 3 mm to 5 mm fullsuit |
| 73 to 79 Degrees | 23 to 26 Degrees | 5 mm to 7 mm fullsuit |
| 66 to 72 Degrees | 19 to 22 Degrees | 7 mm fullsuit with hoodie and gloves |
| 50-65 Degrees | 10 to 18 Degrees | 7 mm fullsuit with polar jacket or Drysuit |
| 50 Degrees and Below | 10 Degrees and Below | Drysuit |
If the reason your dives don’t last as long as you’d like isn’t related to the amount of oxygen in your tank, it could simply be that your body heat is dropping too quickly.
After all, it is hard to swim while extremely cold, and deep water isn’t exactly warm. People who are of smaller size often lose their body heat more quickly than bigger individuals.
If you’re an individual who seems to struggle with regulating your body heat while diving, it might be beneficial for you to get a thicker wetsuit.
For some divers, simply wearing a thicker material can keep their body from losing body heat too quickly.
While a thicker wetsuit doesn’t always help everyone with regulating their body heat, it is enough to help most stay warm long enough to extend their dive time.
If you’re one of those individuals who cannot regulate their body heat with a thicker material, some divers suggest gaining some muscle so your body has more natural insulation, which will help you regulate your body heat.
If you are planning on trying out different exposure suits, check out my guides on how to choose the best scuba wetsuit and on how to choose the perfect scuba drysuit.
Dive More Consistently
Diving more consistently gives you the opportunity to improve and expand your skills and gain better control of your breathing.
Some divers have noticed that simply going diving more frequently has helped them not only improve their dive time but also has given them the chance to decrease the amount of air being used.
Like any sport, practicing diving more frequently allows you to develop the necessary skills and find which methods work best for you.
Things to Remember When Diving
While practicing ways to improve your air consumption and dive for longer, there are a few things that are extremely important for you to remember.
The first is for you to remember to never skip a breath in order to make your air supply last longer. Skipping breath can result in you passing out from a lack of oxygen, which can then cause you to drown.
The second thing you need to remember is how important it is to be aware of your surroundings. This allows you to not only keep yourself safe while diving but also helps you keep other divers safe. It will also prevent you from panicking, as a shark or other large sea animal won’t sneak up on you and scare you.
Lastly, it is extremely important that you do not get frustrated while trying to improve your air consumption. Always keep in mind that this is a process that takes time and experience.