Posted by Wayne on January 06, 2001 at 11:29:40:
In Reply to: Re: shallow dives should not be tiring posted by John Walker on January 06, 2001 at 08:02:18:
Funny you mention skip breathing. I did not want to bring it up because I might muddy the waters even more, and all divers like good vis.
Many moons ago I was taught to skip breath. We were to control our breathing rate this way. The rational went something like:
"At depth at depth of 33 fsw, you are at 2 atm and have twice the amount of oxygen molecules in each lungful of air, compared with surface breathing. Therefore breathing half as often delivers the same oxygen." (ATTENTION DIVERS, DO NOT DO THIS! IT IS A BAD PRACTICE. WT)
Now we know better, but it is a habit that is easy to slip back into. I can tell when I do becuase of the headaches during surface intervals from carbon dioxide buildup. But here is the thing that I find fascinating. I NEVER get the CO2 headaches when I dive NITROX! I have wondered if there is a change in the CO2 exchange with changes in PPN2 and this causes more CO2 buildup on air than EAN32. WOuldn't it be funny of all the fatigue was CO2 buildup! Oh well, another wild theory with no proof, but the pizza-math and cocktail napkin engineering says it might be!
Oh yea, in case I was not clear before, DO NOT SKIP BREATH!
Wayne