Ears!

[Pyrowolf]

Hi, I'm kinda new to freediving and I was wondering if someone could answer my question? I have been doing dynamic apnea for a bit and my p.b. is 70 metres but soon i want to start diving down. At the moment thats not possible because of where I live but I'm going a a gap year soon so I'm gonna try and visit some good places to dive.
The problem is my ears, or my right ear to be exact. When I was younger I had an ear infection and now my ear drum is sunken. I can still equalise it through it doesn't get affected by pressure as much as my left ear. The problem is that although i've only been down to 4/5 metres when i come up my right ear gets very painful. I was just wondering is the anyway to un-equalise on the way back up?

 

[samdive]

Hi

If you are needing to "unequalise" then your ear isn't working right. I suggest you get them looked at by a diving doctor before you try any more depth stuff. They will at least tell if you should or should not dive - and if they say you can, then you can learn some more equalisation technique. I'd recommend the guys at DDRC www.ddrc.org if you can get down to Plymouth

Best of luck

Sam

 

[donmoore]

There is a way to unequalize on the ascent, but it’s not something you should have to do often. In the few times I have had to do it, I was fine the rest of the day, although for some people it’s the sign of an infection and they need to quit diving until they are well.

First you need to understand the mechanics. The whole shrunken eardrum thing sounds a little fishy to me. If a doctor told you that, it maybe it’s true, or it maybe he didn’t really know, or it maybe he didn’t think you would understand so he gave you some half-ass layman reason.

You equalize the ear by pushing air up the Eustachian tube from the thorax into the middle ear. The ear drum is a membrane between the outer ear and the inter ear. As you dive down, the water pressure increases on the outside of ear drum flexing it in. When you equalize you are pushing air into the middle ear to push the eardrum back out even.

The lower part of the Eustachian where it enters the thorax is basically a one-way valve. It takes some effort to open and push air in on the descent, but on the ascent the air should bleed back into to thorax on it’s on. The one-way valve action is because the lower 1/3 of the tube usually is closed, except when air is either being pushed through it to equalize on the descent or is escaping on the ascent. If you are having pain in the eardrum on the ascent than the air is not escaping (opening the Eustachian one-way valve) on it’s on. To encourage it to open and bleed the air out, simple hold your nose and suck by pulling your jaw and tongue down. Just the opposite of equalizing.

Usually this is enough to get the one-way valve feature working, but if you have to do it ever time, you may have a problem. There are other air cavities that can trap expanding air on the ascent. This is usually referred to as a squeeze and there is no simple solution for them. Sometimes it means there is a physical problem that can be and should be corrected with surgery.
don

 

[DeepThought]

A few other options: if you are not equalizing well on the way down, your e-tubes might get swollen and make equalization/de-equalization harder later on.
Having a proper head position helps making the e-tubes open more easily, don't look up (your direction of movement) but look straight a head (horozintal if you're going up/down), you are supposed to equalize easier if your head is in nuetral position.
Tilting one's head to the opposite side of where the block is also helps to open the tubes.
Still, if you need to do preventative measures every time you ascend to save your eardrum, then I'de be looking for a better solution as one day you are likely to damage it. I advise you to do a lengthy search on these forums about equalizing/equalization, it's not a simple subject and there are a lot of problems/solutions/tips available on db. Even if you don't find a straight ahead solution to your problem it should be worth it for the knowledge of the mechanics involved, it migt help you finding a solution to your problem.

 

[Pyrowolf]

Thanks for all of your advice. I did have my ear looked at by several doctors but this was before I became interested so i didn't ask them about diving. Thanks.

 

[bolts]

Having a proper head position helps making the e-tubes open more easily, don't look up (your direction of movement) but look straight a head (horozintal if you're going up/down), you are supposed to equalize easier if your head is in nuetral position.

Just to expand on this, since I know first hand how frustrating equalizing problems can be... :rcard

If you are decending head first, it might help if you even look up towards the surface...that is, having your chin almost tucked into your chest, or your chest/torso hunched over slightly towards the surface. I find merely looking straight ahead isn't enough for me most of the time, and I can only equalize while inverted if I hunch over...makes for some interesting decents, and admitedly isn't hydrodynamic at all, but it gets the job done.

 

[donmoore]

Bolts,
That is interesting method! I wonder if it helps when a person reaches their max equalization depth. In my first year of freediving, I couldn’t equalize head down either. I was mostly spearfishing so I swam in S’s all the way down. After a lot of study, and even more work, I master it. The trick for me was to learn the muscles involved in opening the tubes and fire them right before I put air pressure on them. If I air pressured first, they would not open regardless how much pressure I applied.

Your chin down technique reminded me of a technique I tried in a pool once and have thought of a few times since for these super deep cw guys. I bent at the waist and pulled my head to by legs like touching the toes. I did this so both my fins and my head was up. Then I finned down, butt first. It was pretty awkward, couldn’t see at all where I was going and, couldn’t go straight, but just like the head up position they now employ on the sled in no-limits, it was much easier to equalize.

So here is my thought for super deep cw divers who’s limit is equalization. What if they bent like this toward the bottom of their dive when they are very negative and falling fast? If they were limber enough they could get in a fairly efficient shape and they are so negative at this point there would be no need to kick. How much deeper would that add to their equalization ability? I bet several meters just like in no-limits!
don

 

[Pyrowolf]

I was wondering could tell me if I'm equalising properly. At the moment I pinch my nose and then try and breath out through my nose. I can feel my inner left ear expanding almost straight away but my right ear takes alot longer to get the same feeling of pressure. Then when I stop my left ear goes back to normal straight away but the air in my right ear feels trapped. I hope this clarifies what the problem was.
Thank you to everyone's whose posted for there advice.

 

[hardhat]

Sounds like you're equilizing properly. There are other techniques you can learn to equilize with. Tucking your chin into your chest most certainly will help as well as tilting your head to the side. Mandy-Rae dives with her chin tucked into her chest and look at what she can do. When I did my freediving class with Mandy-Rae and Kirk (Performance Freediving) I was constantly getting told to pull my chin in and that equilizing would be a lot simpler (easier). Also it would do a lot of good to learn what all is going on in the incompressable air spaces in your head (synuses and e-tubes) when you are desending and ascending from a dive. Speed of descent and ascent can also effect how you equilize. Squeezes and especially reverse squeezes can really hurt. The reverse squeezes hurt the most though because they stick around for a while, cause you are back on the surface where you need to be, so you can breath. Lastly I would seriously concider seeing an ear, nose and throat specialist about the problem you are having or at the very minimum a diving doctor. A general practicaner(?) doesn't usually know to much about diving ( if anything at all) and I've also found that they don't know to much about much at all. They can tell you if you have an infection or a virus and that you broke a bone or cut yourself, but that seems to be the extent of a G.P.'s knowldge it seems. Oh and the best use for one, that they can refere you to a specialist.

 

[bolts]

Bolts,
That is interesting method!

Yup, that's the general feeling whenever someone sees me decend for the first time! :hmm rofl But, like I said, it's not pretty, but it works for me. Diving without a line is really tricky for me because I usually end up way off where I intended to dive, since I'm basically decending diagonally...

That said, I managed to slam into the bottom of the quarry and a sunken boat while decending since I had no clue how deep I really was... My buddy said I should wear a hockey helmet while freediving... You'd be surprised how well a wetsuit absorbs an impact though! :duh

Hopefully next year I can get out a lot more than I did this year and improve my techniques. I mean, at this time last year, decending to 5m was near impossible....so although my technique isn't very pretty, I can get down a lot deeper than I did before. Which is good...