Thursday 19 April 2007

Part 10: A discussion on diving and air consumption: Pace / kick style / movement


Divers often show their personalities in the way they dive – there are those who are very busy buzzing about the reef and those who are laid back and going with the flow.

Guess who normally lucks out on air consumption? During training, I often get my students to see if they can increase their dive speed by just 50%. Sounds easy however the effort required leaves them and me gasping for breath after about 30 seconds. That particular dive doesn’t tend to last very long!

Obviously all movement cannot be cut out on a dive else you would never go anywhere. It is very important therefore that movements should be as energy efficient as possible. Because of the density of water, slow steady movements are most efficient – there is no use fighting water, it will win every time and rob you of your air to boot.

Pace your dive and try to develop an efficient fin kick which allows you to kick and glide, kick and gliiide, kick and gliiiiiiiide – you get the idea.

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