Bottom times how to improve ?

[madasfook]

went out last night and had quite a good early evening dive and got 4 nice size pollock and a bass ,but it was hard work as the viz was so poor and the tide was fast , but my problem is my bottom times they are very poor as i am only getting 45seconds to 1 min at 7 mt not very good acording to some i have seen on this site ,i saw one 2 mins at 20mt !!!! is this man a fish ? i have had my breath holding up to 3 mins in a pool but that was a wile ago .
what i am finding is i get to the bottom and lie still and all the fish come for a look but by the time the bigger fish come in for a look ie the bass ,my lungs are at bursting point. I have shot a couple of bass but it was pure fluke and the bass looking the other way :duh
Oh and i have camouflaged my gun and put yellow tape (one strip) on the end the pollock swim right up to it and the bass 'when i can get close to them are very interested in it ( a tip from Dave Ocallihan Exe club)

 

[JasonWelbourne]

Improve your dry static times, and find opportunities to monitor your progress at depth statics with some sort of safety assistance. For the longest time, if I dove to any depth weather raltively shallow or really pushing the depth, my total dive times would always come out to about the same 1:10. Didn't matter how it felt on the bottom, whether I felt like I was really pushing it or was coming up because I was having no problems and absolutley positive I had broken 2:00. It always turned out within a few seconds of the same 1:10. I think that most of us have this sort of subconcious timer built in, especially those who occasionally dive alone. In order to learn what you are capable of, tou should start practicing depth statics at any arbitrary yet comfortable depth with some safety support. I immidiately got my bottom times up to almost 3:00 at 10m. It just took feeling comfortable that someone would take care of me if I blacked out.

 

[cdavis]

If you are fighting current in bad vis, a minute isn't bad at all. Try to find a way to expend less energy fighting the current. Maybe a small anchor and a line. Jason is right though, static practice to improve co2 tolerance and comfort level at depth will help.

Connor