None of the 4 options mentioned above apply to me, this is how my freehand-equalization works:
This may really be helpful, I have been practicing this for decades!
It takes a few careful tries until You get the feeling.
Starting from the surface going down, I allow a little pressure to build up in my mask very carefully. While I compensate my mask, moving my jaw a little bit, I take advantage of the pressurized air that is now escaping into my tubes (moving of the jaws facilitates the opening of the tubes). If You can equalize very easy by pinching Your nose You should not have any problems with the "mask-technique". As I continue to equalize, the mask is kept away from squeezing my face and at the same time the tube is acting like a valve, opening up at every blow into the mask.
I am not sure if the connection between mouth and lungs (epiglotis) has to be shut while You do it (I will check it out next time when I go diving). This technique as helped me to go -30m/plus in unassisted constant ballast (constant weight without fins) and added a lot of joy in freediving. However I am limited to a maximum of -40mt that way (with the last equalization around -36mt).
For maximum dives I have to resort to the newly acquired frenzel/fattah method. How I was able to apply this technique successfully, even though I failed in some of the exercises prescribed in effatah's famous document
http://www.ericfattah.com/frenzel.doc, You can read on my homepage that is attached to my profile
