SAC and fitness?

[icestac]

I wish this were a 5 day per week option for me.

Retirement or opening a HIT company in the middle of cave country

[Sludge]

Found some good info

Wow, that post was almost six years ago. It was so old even my name was lost.

[Greenwood_60]

Wow, that post was almost six years ago. It was so old even my name was lost.

Yeah, I had to put your name in the quote blocks. I though it was funny how 6 years ago the article was 10 years old, and now it's only 12 years old... any idea how old the article really is?

[Sludge]

I was working at Planet Ocean Scuba Center at the time, and I started in 1995.

[icestac]

I was working at Planet Ocean Scuba Center at the time, and I started in 1995.

Was that the one in Marietta or was there another Planet Ocean Scuba?

[gasdiver]

Retirement or opening a HIT company in the middle of cave country

Retirement. It will never happen while owning an IT company regardless of where I am.

[Sludge]

Planet Ocean Scuba Center opened in Columbus, Georgia in 1972. The guy in Marietta used to tell Jerry how much he liked the name. Then one day he opened his shop and named it "Planet Ocean Divers."

(When he went out of business we were actually in talks with the Secretary of State's office to force him to change it. It was causing a lot of problems - us getting their shipments, them getting ours, etc.)

[Ben M]

However, when you swim you are working and your heart rate goes up and so does your SAC. The better shape you are in the less it goes up....

I disagree with this part. If you get winded walking across the room then you need to get in better shape, but I don't think that is what we are talking about here. As others have stated it doesn't have anything to do with fitness.

Tegg said you need to be zen-like. In more concrete terms, you need to be smooth and efficient in the water, which means your heart rate does not really go up noticeably as you aren't exerting yourself. I swim behind people often and see: kick, kick, kick, kick and in that same time I kick....glide...kick. Here's a few things that trip up some divers.

1)poor form. Leads to wasted energy. Thrust needs to be directed in the opposite direction of travel, anything else is wasted.

2)No glide phase. By going straight from one kick to the next you are applying the "brakes" with your fins. You need to keep your fins tips straight and behind you until you are finished gliding and then move them out for the next kick.

3)Compensating for poor trim and/or buoyancy. Good test for this. While swimming stop kicking and don't move at all. Do you stay at the same depth and trim? If your feet fall or you go head down, you are compensating with your kick, same goes if you can't hold depth.

[gasdiver]

Ben, I agree with 1 thru 3 and with Tegg's Zen comment. I have room for improvement in all of them I'm sure. However, swimming 1500' in full cave gear, against the flow, is work. I find it hard to accept that there is zero correlation between fitness and SAC rate. If you are saying that this correlation is pale in comparison to technique and mindset, I'll buy that.

[jkaterenchuk]

Opinions and personal bias abound on forums like this one. Anyone can be an expert behind the keyboard. You might want to consult and do a search of the Rubicon Foundation archives. They maintain a fact and experiment based achive of reports related to diving. Many published by experts in the field. I am sure a search regarding fitness and gas consumption will turn up some interesting reading.

Here is a link http://rubicon-foundation.org/

John