Slightly random question but has anyone tried to take up diving since taking up cycling and struggled with air consumption? We’ve just got back from holiday and for the third time I’ve tried a taster dive with the idea of doing my full PADI cert and run out of air very quickly (faster than dive instructor had seen before). They thought I was panic breathing I didn’t think I was I was pretty chilled and breathing like when snorkelling but at this stage I don’t think I’ll try again.
Is this something others have experienced? is it related to spending the other 50 week of year doing a sport that’s improved by bringing in as much air as possible.
Certified Master Scuba Diver here! Welcome to yet another expensive hobby, lol.
In actuality, your poor air consumption is far more likely to be related to your lack of diving experience and (likely) being overweighted due to that inexperience. New drivers tend to require more lead on their weight belt to keep their buoyancy under control and every ounce of lead means higher air consumption.
I ride 7-8 hours a week and take dive vacations all over the world. The more I dive the better my air consumption gets and my fitness on the bike doesn’t seem to affect that. My advice is to get certified and dive all that you can!
Divers Alert Network (DAN), the preeminent authority on diving medicine, has presented some evidence that increased aerobic capacity can increase the likelihood of decompression sickness. So when diving multiple times per day over the course of a week you want to closely monitor your nitrogen loading and allow plenty of time for off-gassing.
I’ve also read some research that suggests it’s not a good idea to do strenuous exercise immediately following a dive. The recommendation, if I recall correctly, was to allow at least 24 hours post dive. Usually not a problem for me when I’m on a dive trip, LOL!
Don’t give up. Resort courses are often not a great introduction. Find a respected local instructor that offers a lot of pool time to complete the pool portion of an open water class before heading to open water. If you don’t want to do your checkout dives locally get the instructor to sign off on a referral and do them in a tropical location.
“is it related to spending the other 50 week of year doing a sport that’s improved by bringing in as much air as possible.”
No, it is not. Better fitness should in most cases help your air consumption.
On your high air consumption, it’s true that we all have different physiologies that affect our air consumption rate and women are nearly always better when compared to men. I’m guessing a few things, anxiety, buoyancy, trim, working too hard all played a part in your experience.
My previous life was an instructor (PADI & IANTD) and co-owner of a dive shop. I no longer teach but still do dive trips. Here’s a video from our most recent trip to Bonaire which hopefully helps to keep you chasing that goal to be a diver: Bonaire 2018 (edit with missing clips) - YouTube
Hi, I’m afraid not. I dived the day before Ironman lanzarote this year, no problems at all. I’m PADI Advanced certified but I dive very rarely now.
As the others have said, it’s a confidence/relaxation thing that just takes time and practice and bit like equalising your ears and neutral bouyancy - you’ll get there in the end
So I am going to Cozumel for a Race GFNY, and was thinking on Diving a day before…. I am an advanced PADI driver… and Cozumel is a top spot… so dont want to miss the chance… but dont want to take risks
I saw that you dived before ironman… so no risk of Deco or Anything on racing the very next Day??
Very interesting topic. I have done my share of scupa but never combined it to cycling. I tent to agree that with others that most likely you just use more air than needed while you are new to the sport. I always ask biggest tank that i can get to get max time underwaters. After timeoff from the diving I tend to have shorter diving times vs few dives after in the same trip. The air consumption depends on the depth but i assume you havent gone below 12 meters. If you happen to be muscular using air (in non relaxed stage) can be very high vs average Joe.
To answer your question. You are based on studies using more oxygen after training session. E.g. Firstbeat (company acquired by garmin) did talk a lot of Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) for creating various training impact/ recovery metrics. EPOC and Training Effect - Firstbeat
Even if this EPOC would be reality i do not think it would be the main factor of air consumption in diving. But maybe check next time your heart rate/ ventilation rate before diving. Or even better if you did have some device on which did measure those during the dive, you might find interesting insights.
Your deco worries will only be for when you fly out. I had a very hard day at Ironman Lanzarote, but that was thanks to bike mechanicals and a very tough course and conditions. I don’t think diving affects performance - but the day before racing should be relaxed and stress free, so two days before would be better imo.
On the other hand it was my only chance to dive with my teenage son, and we haven’t had another chance in the years since so…was a good choice for us
