Frog kicking is an easy technique to master with a little practice and like anything else, the more you do it, the better you get. With the frog kick you can get closer to the bottom without kicking up sand or smashing coral behind you. This enables you to get closer to all those critters on the seabed, it is also important when swimming into a current.

It is much easier to swim into a current when you are low to the bottom. Struggling into a current is a sure way to suck down your air. So if turning around and drifting with the current is not an option, get as low as you can go. Watch where your DM is, they know the best place to be. I have often seen air hog divers swimming a couple of metres above their more air efficient buddy, in the belief that because they are a little shallower they will use less air. It is true that diving shallow uses less air than diving deep, that’s just basic physics, but it’s not always possible. Diving in mid water can be far more taxing than staying close to the bottom where the current is weaker.

The final point on finning technique is that you should not use your arms. They will not speed you up, they will just waste energy. Keep your arms tucked in to your sides or chest so that you are streamlined through the water.

Breathing Technique:

When we learn to dive we are told to breathe slowly and deeply and to never hold our breath. This is, of course, perfectly correct advice. Slow breathing gets the maximum amount of oxygen to the lungs. Some divers advocate a slight pause between the inhalation and the exhalation to conserve air. I do not advocate that. I have just one simple rule that many new divers don’t seem to realize. It is that your exhalation should last about as long as your inhalation. I often see (and hear) new divers take in a long slow deep breath just as they were taught, only to blast all the good air out in a torrent of bubbles. If the breath in is slow, the breath out should be slow. You will take less in breaths this way and you will also expel more carbon dioxide (dead air) so that more oxygen can reach your lungs on the next breath. I have seen this simple technique alone double some air hogs’ dive time.

In general, long slow breaths are the best approach to maximize oxygen intake. However, as I said earlier, not all breaths have to be long breaths. Sometimes small breaths are ok if you are trying to hover motionless, while taking a photo for example.

Never ever hold your breath while scuba diving.

Continued >>

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