Take a Deep Breath

Whenever it comes to control you need to focus on your breathing. Being able to control your breathing underwater is vital in scuba diving. In order for you to have an enjoyable experience you need enough air as well as being able to control your buoyancy.

The best way to control breathing is to PRACTICE and be COMFORTABLE with your surroundings. The old saying of how practice makes perfect holds true in scuba diving. Looking back I was in no way perfect at controlling my ascents and descents with my breathing. On several occasions I blew past safety stops (practice) because I was using my BCD to surface instead of breathing. It is essential to be able to ascend and descend properly in scuba diving because if you make a habit of missing safety stop chances are you’ll be taking routine trips to the decompression chamber.

By controlling your breathing you will be capable of staying down for longer amounts of time. What personally worked for me was taking routine trips to confined water sources whether they were in pools or quarries and just repeatedly practicing. As opposed to practicing in turbulent waters in the ocean quarries offer a calmer more relaxing place to hone in on skills. What I've discovered is that while diving in a lake is not as luxurious as a tropical reef the practice will benefit by allowing you more bottom time and a safer experience.