[Guss]

Eric,

I suffered an outer ear blood vessel ruptura because 'suit squeeze' in my left ear last summer while spearfishing at 12 m, and I’m not 100% sure but I think the rupture was moments after I started my ascent, at around 10 m. So everybody must take care of it also at swallow waters not only during deep dives as it happened with you Eric.

My ear was bleeding for 3 days. Happy enough there was no eardrum rupture only a very big dilatation of the drum. It took me 2 months to get my left ear completely recovered.

After this experience I did a small hole in my hood near the ears to allow the pressure to equalize but with the cold of the winter I suffered one otitis externa. So it was necessary to seal these holes. What I’m doing now and for the moment it’s working (at least waters from 0 to 30 m) is, after wearing my hood I introduce my hand on it to turn down the auricle of my ear (the pinna) covering the entrance of the ear canal. That protects my ear from this kind of problem not letting the neoprene of my hood squeezing the outer ear. As I told before this is working at swallow and medium waters, but in spring I want to go to 40 – 45 m. so If some of you have tried this method at deep waters and have had problems I would be very pleased to hear your advices.

Thanks in advance

Agustín Espinosa