Bad SACs?

[johnkendall]

I've been planning with 18l/min this season for both bottom and Deco, and it's worked out about right. This is for UK diving on a twinset and upto 2 stages.

It's a bit higher than I'd like, but I've not managed to get as many dives in this season as I'd have liked either.

I've had 6-7L/min SAC on warm water dives on a single.

John

[Paul Oliver]

Hi

Well i plan on 15L min for the dive and 10L min on Deco, and i always have loads left over.

I don't intend to asses things any finer than this as i know that too many factors are involved. For instance on the Kronprinze Wilheml recently we were swimimg against a mild current for the first 15 min at 35m so my rate went up. Once we turned around and drifted along with it i regained the lost air, if you get my drift.

We swam under the same wreck and my torch failed and my rate went up a bit, once we started drifting up her i regained that .

As long as you have a rough idea and monitor it you should be fine. By the time you get into long deco you should have a good idea.

I take long deep breaths and use the max MoD i can get out of my Nitrox (always Nitrox) which is also a big factor i feel.

During Deco i try to do long, deep, rythmic breathing with some exercise (i generally swim around my reel as opposed to hanging off it) to exchange gas, but the needle don't seem to move much.

Dive Safe

Paul

[Scuby]

Mine's usually 14-18 - average over the last year is 17.0, although the more recent dives tend to be lower that those from a year ago. In the Red Sea it was down to 11.

And yes, teaching definitely causes my SAC to go horribly wrong - when I did my Dive Leader final assessment (chasing around after another instructor pretending to be a really crap student) it was 27.3!

I do have the SAC for every dive i've done since I got my computer - only the first 18 dives i've ever done are missing - I get them done by the computer when I transfer from my Vyper to the PC.

David

[beanie]

Am I allowed to say 0.8 litres a minute during all dive phases?

I used to go for about 14-15 on my jetstreams was down to 8-10 on my apeks

planning wise i go for 17 botttom and 15 deco

as I haven't dived OC for 1 year I don't know what my current rate is would be kind of interested to know I guess just to see if the box has made it worse

[MartinS]

Originally Posted by Janos

Woohoo.

I've got crap air consumption (used to be 25 to 27, now around 22) and the solution for me was getting a twinset.

Funny you should say that - I was averaging at the mid twenties (had one or two over 40 in the early dives), but since moving to a twinset (and drysuit), mine averages about 15. Scary thing is, the first time I dived the Scylla, I got buddied with a PADI AOW who was a little, shall we say, gung ho about it all, and I came out with an SAC of about 7!!!! I must have spent so much time watching (and wondering) what my buddy was up to, that I for got to breathe! I even checked my guage twice to make sure it wasn't jammed! That's got to be my best, but as I said 15 is average, but I would probably always plan for 18.

Regards, and dive safe
Martin

[String]

Ive had a computer for all but my first 30 dives so have a fair bit of SAC info.

At the start of the season i was hovering around the 20l/min mark but its dropped and dropped, notably since i shed some lead off my belt.

In britain now a "normal" dive i tend to be roughly 16 (as low as 14 on some particulary comatosed low effort drifts) reaching 18 in what id consider a hard work dive.

Ive just come back from 2 weeks abroad and as i found last year my foreign SAC is lower at roughly 11-12l/min spiking to 14 in a hard work dive. I put this down to lack of currents, warmer water, less weight, better vis etc.

[Mr T.]

*bump*