Way back when, we gave a handful of tips for improving your air consumption. Today we have a few more.

• Be prepared. Have your equipment checked out and ready before you enter the water. Any problems will cost you in air. Also, know your dive site and bring appropriate equipment. If you know you won’t need the camera, for instance, leave it behind. It’ll improve your air consumption.
• Beware of free-flowing regulators. Some regulators tend to free-flow often. Be aware if you have one of these so you can catch it as soon as you enter the water. Free-flows drain air fast.
• Learn to kick properly. This is a topic for another article, but learning the proper kick technique will minimize wasted energy underwater.

Along with the previous list, choose one or two of these items to focus on each time you dive. You will be pleasantly surprised at how much air you’ll end dives with.

Photo by aa7ae

We have a quick tip today about cleaning O-rings.

It can be very easy for dirt and lint to hide on O-rings. The grease practically acts as a magnet, letting dirt easily stick. If you’re not careful, a few well-placed pieces could even compromise the seal on your equipment—a costly oversight.

To minimize these chances, try cleaning your O-rings on a white (or light-colored) surface. The white will contrast with (most) dirt, making it easier to identify and remove.

Click to enlarge
This picture shows the same O-ring, with lint, on a white surface and a wooden tabletop. While difficult to see on either, the dirty is slightly more visible with the white background. This tabletop is fairly light, so the problem gets even worse with darker surfaces.

The other day we talked about cycling wetsuits to give new life to old wetsuits. I briefly mentioned throwing out those super-old wetsuits when they get replaced by old wetsuits.

I was thinking about it, and maybe you don’t have to throw them out after all. Here are three ideas to consider before throwing it away:

• “Recycle it.” Before throwing it away, consider donating it for recycling. This can be something like Rip Curl’s Project Resurrection, where old neoprene is recycled, or something like A Warm Current (website currently down), who take old gear for kids.
• Use it for patches. While a few key areas may be worn out or torn, much of the old wetsuit probably has usable neoprene. Keep the suit around and cut it up for use as a patch when necessary. We’ll cover patching wetsuits in a future article.
• Make something out of it. A lot of things are made out of neoprene. For the artistically inclined, cut up the old wetsuit and make yourself something like a cellphone, iPod, or even a laptop case. Get creative!

I think at least one of these ideas should appeal to everyone. There’s no point dumping neoprene in a landfill, especially when it could have new life in several different ways.

Few things ruin a dive as quickly as a poorly-sealed mask. I had this problem the other day, and it disrupted my dive by being distracting and making me run through my air supply by constantly clearing it.

I started playing around with something that I think helps a little. Next time your mask is leaking water, instead of clearing it as usual, exhale a little stream of bubbles out your nose. Sometimes this will keep a small leak cleared by forcing the water out of the mask.

This approach managed to keep my mask clear without costing my air supply. I have to exhale anyway, so I just exhaled at the same usual rate but out of my nose instead of my mouth.

This may not work with all bad seals, but I imagine if the problem is at the bottom of your mask you may find it helps. It’s certainly better than repeatedly stopping to clear your mask.

In previous tips for underwater photography, we covered the importance of using flash to supply the color absorbed at depth. Sometimes you can’t use it, though. For example, in scenery type photos where there is nothing to get close to and use a flash. These pictures are going to be very blue, and its up to your camera mode to adjust the color balance, or you have to do it manually afterwards.

Manually color-balancing photos is a lengthy topic, and one we’ll get to someday. But today, I have a super-quick way for you to restore color that may work for a large number of pictures. Unfortunately, I only know how to do it in Adobe Photoshop, but other programs probably have comparable features.

Here’s the example photo we’ll be adjusting. The strong blues are easy to notice.

Open the photo in Photoshop (make a copy first). Then select Image -> Adjustments -> Auto Color.

Voila! Using some simple algorithmic trickery, Photoshop can see that the image is predominantly blue and correct for this.

Could the photo use some manual adjustments? Probably, but for the quick jobs not appearing in Scuba Diving Magazine, this will often do the trick.

If you know how to get the same effect in other programs, please post in the comments and I’ll update the article.

PADI training dictates it is acceptable to share your primary second stage or your octopus with a buddy in need of air.

It is a good idea to work this out with your buddy ahead of time. Should the need arise, it could lead to an awkward underwater shuffle if a buddy needs air and doesn’t know which to take. This frustration may lead to panic–a bad situation for everyone.

So take a quick second and decide which second stage is for sharing.

I went to a local dive store this morning and picked up one of these neoprene mask strap covers. As soon as I got home I put it on my mask. Sitting in my kitchen with bone dry hair the mask slipped on and off painlessly.

This should prove incredibly useful, especially as I begin my divemaster training, where I will constantly be removing and replacing my mask. I wish I had bought one when I originally purchased my mask. I couldn’t find a plain one with no words or pictures, so instead put it on my mask backwards where all you see is plain black.

Anyways, I highly recommend picking one up. It’s an incredibly inexpensive way to increase your comfort level.

We all know the importance of a buoyancy check. Even if you manage to descend, poor buoyancy affects your body’s profile in the water, decreasing the overall quality of your dive. Effective air consumption, good ascent / descent control, and an effortless dive all depend on a streamlined position–which can only be achieved with proper weighting.

Despite these facts, rarely do we check our buoyancy. Divers are not entirely to blame, most dive outfits never give us the opportunity in the water, instead rushing the group to depth as quickly as possible.

Next time you are in strange waters, or have unfamiliar equipment and need to perform a weight check, try to be first in the water, either by sitting near the back of the boat or assembling your gear quickly. Then, while waiting for others to splash, quickly check that you are properly weighted. It only takes a moment, and you will still have a chance to adjust weights if necessary.