Do You Need Water in your Hood?

[hudasmt]

Hi again everybody!!! Mabuhay from Philippines

I'm not sure if this is the right place for me to ask the question,i'm a beginner also. So here it goes:

Do you need to let water in your hood while diving?

Is this for protecting your ears from getting busted? To equalize your ears?

Do i need to put holes in the the ear part of the hood?

Please explain. Because if i let water in my hood,i end up having water in my jacket especially when getting off the water, i need to loosen my weight belt to let the water out rofl Thank you. This is my first wetsuit with the hood so i'm not very familiar with it. Im usually using a shorty or a rash guard. My wetsuit is a Beuchat Brown Camo 3.5 mm.


Once again thank you for your support and patience with the newbie.

 

[Jon]

I always let water in my hood before I dive- either freediving or scuba.

You don't need to put holes in your hood- just pull each side of the face seal away for a second to let the water in. Once the hood has water in it your fine.

Jon

 

[Bill McIntyre]

I never let water into my hood, at least not intentionally.

 

[Jon]

My hoods all seal so well that I get external ear squeezes if I don't flood them first.

The only exception is if I scuba diving in a drysuit that has an attached dry hood- like a Viking. Since the idea is to stay dry, in dirty water, I have to use air to equalize it instead. This is easier to do with a full face mask on, but can be done with a standard mask by pushing it against my face and blowing air out my nose- which then gets pushed up into the hood. I may have to do this many times on a dive to 200'. On the way up I just look to the sky every once in a while and the air burps out of the side.

I know that some freedivers will pass a string around the back of their head under the hood. They will have part of it sticking out of each side so they can pull on it to flood the hood when the pressure builds up. I've never gone that far as simply flooding it ahead of time will get me ready for the day- unless I get out of the water and take my hood off which means I need to repeat the flooding.

Jon

 

[Erik]

My hoods stick like glue too, as they're custom fit and open neoprene inside. I think to calarify, I'd say let just a bit of water in each side to fill the ear space, not wide open hood to let litres of water rush into the suit. I hold my thumb on the suit just behind the ear and open the face seal a tinly bit until the water's in, then close it and squish it around a bit to get the air bubbles out.
As a cold water diver, a good idea is to use Proplugs or a small pice of cotton in the ear so that the water stays in place and doesn't keep flushing through with cold water (if your face seal is a bit loose.

 

[apneaboy]

Its a problem with a well fitting suit especially open cell inner suits.

If you breath up face down with a snorkle just put water in your hood until you feel it in your ear canals.

If you breath up head up put some little holes in the side by drawing two points where you ear holes are with a ball pointpen while the suit is on then put a couple of pin prick holes in the suit.

Should help

 

[Donna]

I always put a little water in my hood now, both freediving and scuba. I've had a couple of nasty ear squeezes when I didn't and it hurts!!!

 

[hudasmt]

Thank you very much guys for the replies,this really helps a lot. Maybe deeper blue should consider having to publish a book for newbies and advanced based on the brainstorm of all the divers experienced on all aspects of the sports. Can I be in the cover hehehehe

 

[billieball]

So many different responses, eh? For my freediving wetsuits, with open cell insides, I place a hole over each ear (hot needle, small hole...not while wearing the suit!). Then, I don't need to flood it when diving.
Scuba wetsuits, no holes...unless the vent on top isn't open enough...then I cut a small hole (this allows the bubbles from my reg to flow out a bit better, thus avoiding a conehead effect). Otherwise, with scuba suits, I flood those puppies as soon as I enter the water.
Drysuit hood...no holes, no flooding...just pray the dump valves release enough air to be comfy.

 

[drunkinbda]

Thank you very much guys for the replies,this really helps a lot. Maybe deeper blue should consider having to publish a book for newbies and advanced based on the brainstorm of all the divers experienced on all aspects of the sports. Can I be in the cover hehehehe

heheh that would be an interesting book. Top 100 beginner forum threads


but ya.. i think as we've seen from posts, its pretty much a comfort thing. I like water in my hood cause with air i feel like i have to use too much muscle to move my head down (not a lot, but enough that i dont like it). Plus being able to quickly lets some water in every now and then for me is a good way to regulate temperature in teh suit. If i get hot, just let some in the hood and i feel better.