Ear pluggs and freediving ??

[speedcraft18]

My ear drums are very sensitive to water especially when it is cold like these days in winter.
Is it safe to use ear pluggs while freediving ?
If yes, which type of pluggs are best.?
I read about 1 vented plug (left ear ) and the other plug non vented (right ear ) that allow equilasation very well. Something called Scott's valve.
Does any one ever heared / tried any brand please ?
Thanks and regards

 

[Jon]

Re: Ear plugs and freediving ??

Standard earplugs are very dangerous for depths beyond 6'.

You want these: Doc's Proplugs: The Doctor's Choice for Ear Protection

If you need your ears to be completely dry then you need to use scuba and go with a dry-hood- like on a Viking drysuit. Or, you could look into finding a Scuba Queen wet hood with dry cups built into it. The cups are attached to the first stage of you regulator by their own LP hose. Useless for freediving, but a possibility for scuba. I think that you can buy them through Global.

SCUBA Queen Air Hood, Medium

Jon

 

[Azrael3000]

Couldn't you do something similar to fluidgoggles? I.e. fill your ears with distilled water (or what ever is acceptable to you) and then use a plug to keep the distilled water in place.

 

[Grytsig]

Re: Ear plugs and freediving ??

Hello, Jon!
Any idea about how to choose size when ordering on-line? I enounter same problem sometime.
Thanks in advance,
Igor

 

[Apneaddict]

There are also some masks that have ear-cups integrated with tubes into the eye spaces so that you would keep them dry, but would need to equalize them as well. I don't think they are low-volume, but could work for 15-20m perhaps...

I think scubastore has one for sale most times.. Something like pro-ear 2000...

 

[Grytsig]

Thank You, Apneaddict

 

[yunuschiro]

I use the docs earplugs sometimes and they help a lot.

 

[sross]

Couldn't you do something similar to fluidgoggles? I.e. fill your ears with distilled water (or what ever is acceptable to you) and then use a plug to keep the distilled water in place.

Hi Azrael,

Jon is right, you can't ever occlude your ear with a solid earplug.

The ambient water pressure outside your ear has to have access to your ear canal, either directly, or through an air interface equalized to outside pressure like the Scuba Queen hood or the ProEar mask does.

It doesn't matter if there is air or water in your ear canal. If you block access for outside pressure with a solid earplug, your body will develop a higher pressure inside, and you get what some dive trainers call Reverse Squeeze, where the higher pressure inside can blow out your eardrum from the inside out.

Note that the latex drysuit hood is only a useful option if there is a bit of leakage. If a hood is so tightly sealed on your head that no water can get in to transmit external pressure to your ear canal, you can also get reverse squeeze.

I've seen an old black & white training film from pre-wetsuit days when military divers wore dry suits made of rubber sheeting. A guy surfaced grimacing in pain wearing a hood that had sealed to his head. He ripped off his mask and regulator, and his buddy helped him pull the hood down. There was a small trickle of bloody water coming out his left ear canal. Our instructor called it hood squeeze, he had started his diving career back in those days, and said he had seen it happen himself.

 

[fatdh]

I just use fluff. When putting on my dry suit I also wet the fluff with warm water and put it as plugs, not too much though. It doesn't stops water circulation, but make the water inside ears much warmer.

 

[fatdh]

my dry suit

Sorry, I meant a wet suit

 

[Pinniped72]

Second for Docs Proplugs, vented of course! If your regularly getting cold water in your ear there is a chance that you can get unwanted bone growth in the ear, i believe its called surfers ear and you don't want that! I wear my plugs with diving suit hoods and swim caps and find that if water does get past the plug it just gets warmed quickly, i don't even notice the cold against my ear enough for it to register as a problem, a bit like the fluff situation detailed above. I swim in the sea often and grabbing the plugs on the way out is part of my routine now, never leave home without them

 

[jago25_98]

This is a big problem for surfers. Glad to hear some mitigations for this