thefrtman,
In regards to the ears hurting...
Let me get my wussy-lawyer-style disclaimer/reminder out of the way here..
(If you have a history of inner ear problems...infections and what not...you might want to check with your physician, more specifically, ears/nose/throat specialist before attempting anything that might possibly make a small problem significantly worse.)
Ok. Now, to explain as breifly as I can, diving down deep and ascending is almost exactly like taking off, flying at extremely high altitudes, and landing again in commercial jet-liner.
When you dive (landing), your head is used to the thin atmospheric pressure of high altitude. As the plane descends back to the ground, the pressure grows, and tries to make its way into the tiny little spaces of your inner ears, sinuses and the like.
I'm just assuming that you're familiar with jet travel, and haven't let the air pressure get the best of you...When you descend you tend to try and blow your pinched nose to get your inner ears to equalize to the changing, increasing pressure around them. Well, the same goes for getting past that ten feet barrier of yours. Just don't try and blow too hard, it helps to push just a little bit of air from your throat, with the back of your tongue.
When you take off and ascend to high altitude (resurfacing after a dive) the pressure around your ears decreases, and the air inside the little spaces in your ears, sinuses and the like, expands, needing less force to keep these tiny spaces from collapsing. And, like taking off in a jet-liner, you tend to yawn, move your jaw and adam's apple, or chew gum to get the higher pressure inside your head equalized with the thinner pressure inside the cabin.
I learned a hint, from someone here at Deeper Blue, that if you blow a little pressure out of your ears BEFORE you dive, the first time you do it underwater won't be as exaggerated.
It seems like this is a fairly new thing for you to do, based upon your post, so my advice is to NOT wait till you reach that 10 ft. barrier to try and equalize, but get used to doing it maybe every 5-6 feet. Try training in a pool, within the safety and comfort of a variable depth floor, first. Larger municipal and country club pools are typically 12 ft deep at the deep end and about 3 ft. shallow at the other end. Take your time. Lots of the Gurus of freediving and related sport have taken a long time of training, adaptation, and typically some sort of mental, or spiritual, meditative practice.
And some are just genetically wonderful freaks, not of nature, but of the human race (which makes them a whole lot more natural than the average homo sapien
)
As for the breath holding training. Like I said. Practice Practice Practice! I can only hold my breath for about 2 1/2 minutes (that's really pushing it, though). Get to a pool and see how far you can swim underwater, get a feel of your personal limits. You can only go up from there.
There are lots of Freediving clinics around the world, lots of them affordable to the average guy or gal. Check out links here at Deeperblue, or just post more inquiries about training courses.
Jees LOUISE! This was a long reply, but I figured it was easier to fit it in to one, rather than draw it out and waste your time jumping around to different threads just to get the most basic idea of pressure equalization.
I sure hope it helped, and if anyone out there has any corrections, please do so, as I wouldn't want to steer anyone in the wrong direction.
I'm new to the regulated, science of freediving, but have been diving for a long time, 1960's skin-diver style. Aww yeeeeah.
I'm not a pro, just someone who might help a little.
sinkweight
