[Mullins]

Thanks for the answers guys, there are a few things there I can try over the weekend. I did notice that after a hood-squeeze on my last dive my ears were completely screwed for an hour or so afterwards, just whistling and squeaking all the time. Never had that happen before, will definitely put some holes in my hood. Flushing my hood out before each dive only works 90% of the time.

I'll hopefully have a warmup session the day before in warmer Auckland water to get my saltwater buoyancy sorted and play around with equalising. Might even try the noseclip & no goggles thing, but not for the comp. Tried it in the lake last winter but my eyes couldn't take the cold (10 degrees surface temp, substantially lower at depth). I'm hanging out to try a CW dive with proper streamlining, just couldn't be sure of counting line markings (only relevant for mouthfill depth) and grabbing a tag on the bottom.