No hands equalisation.

[naiad]

Does anyone else find it impossible to equalise with Valsalva, and if so, how have you managed to solve the problem?

 

[skarz]

Hey i just had a nagging question. When you're using a full face mask, you don't have access the pinching nose, so do you HAVE to use hands free equalizing? I mean how else would you clear it out?

 

[The111]

Originally posted by skarz
Hey i just had a nagging question. When you're using a full face mask, you don't have access the pinching nose, so do you HAVE to use hands free equalizing? I mean how else would you clear it out?

Unless your "full face mask" is ancient, it should have a contoured fit around the nose that allows you to pinch your nose THROUGH the mask. You've never seen anything like that?

 

[rslomkow]

My are my tubes tight! and ticklish

reading this thread many years later!

I wish could equalize hands free. I could probably due it if I would only descend 1m per minute

I can do hands free on mountain passes.

I clear my ears 2-3 times in 5m (16feet)! and I give off an audible squeak heard across the pool!

The deeper I go the less frequently per meter I have to clear my ears. Freediving I have done 26m and my ears were not the problem, SCUBA diving -45m no problem (I have to use my hands, but no serious problem)

I have been trying to do nose excersises on dry land, just attach the nose clip and breath and practice clearing my ears. Every once and a while I can hear the squeak.

But after doing it a bit my ears become very ticklish. I am carefully not to blow too hard hurt my ear drums, but it just feels like there is something very very tickly in my ears and I am not sure on which side of the ear drum.

Anybody else here every worked on loosening their Eustachian tubes?

Does it tickle?
Does practice help?
Has anyone hear gone from not being able to clear easily to being able to clear hands free?

After sucking my ears in I cannot clear them without hands unless I suck them very mildly.

 

[Morg]

Does anyone else find it impossible to equalise with Valsalva, and if so, how have you managed to solve the problem?

Yes I've ALWAYS had problems with equilizations even with Valsalva... I am constantly getting slight pain in my left ear and discomfort in my right. I always stop when I feel more then discomfort. Even when I was 12 years old getting my PADI Open Water I couldn't equilize.

I do sometimes manage to equilize or get past it somehow but that comes after a few attempts.

I am working on the hands free and I have that 'crackling' noise down and I am practising it as much as I can. I am working on doing it upside down out of the water. I figure doing this in the water will prove difficult for me thou .

 

[Yeti]

Believe it or not, I've done this at loud concerts where I didn't have earplugs, and left it like that for an hour. ..............

wow old thread!!

dug myself up for this one!!

I do something similar on the motorbike if I am too lazy to put my earplugs in!! It does work too as they don't ring when I get off the bike! I have used it all over the place for different things; sleeping on noisey trains and busses, and generally anywhere that the volume becomes offensive!

..........or I can simply move the "equalizing muscle" in my ear (for lack of a better word) and leave it "flexed", so that I am CONSTANTLY equalized throughout the whole dive (pressure never builds up). I like that way better now. Anyone else do this?

Constant is good but I find the periodic clearing a good guage of depth monitoring! especially if cruising the bottom looking for supper. Nothing worse than getting caught deeper than you expect with a long swim back!

long time gone!! sabatical over this year I hope!! bring on the bass

 

[joe123321]

I have a question about nose clips. I just bought one at the store and I like it, I used it at the pool and it helps alot not having to pinch my nose (which is really hard with my mask, is this normal or does my mask suck? :head). But with the nose clip there isnt a way to equalize your mask so my question is, How deep do you normaly have to go before you equalize your mask? I dont want to get used to the nose clip If when In the summer I start going deep I have to get used to pinching my nose again:head

 

[azapa]

i mentioned this in another thread, but have you tried pushing up lightly, blocking your mask to your nostrils? use the same two fingers that your would do to squeeze, but just push up from bellow. I find this very confortable, if little air escapes it serves to equalize your mask too.

 

[naiad]

Something I have noticed about hands-free equalisation is that I can only do it if I have been practising a lot of it. That is one of the reasons why I have not found it reliable - I became confident about doing it dry, but by the time that I tried it out in the pool, it had become difficult again. Maybe if I keep on doing it, it will become reliable.

 

[missy]

im sat here trying these techniques and it just sounds like I am snoring ??? I can hear the air going through my nasal passage in my head but no click in my ears ?? I am new to all this and have only ever eq'd by pinching my nose....i never realised it could be done hands free...doh ! though I havent figured it out yet. Should my ears pop even out the water doing/trying this ?

 

[BatRay]

Do your ears pop when you yawn? It sounds and feels like that. You won't necessarily hear the sound when you're in the water because it's quiet and the ambient noise may be louder.

I learned by yawning, noticing which mechanisms opened the e-tubes, and isolating them so I could equalize with my mouth closed. This takes some practice, but it's useful in diving as well as traveling to places with significant elevation changes.

 

[missy]

Do your ears pop when you yawn? It sounds and feels like that. You won't necessarily hear the sound when you're in the water because it's quiet and the ambient noise may be louder.

I learned by yawning, noticing which mechanisms opened the e-tubes, and isolating them so I could equalize with my mouth closed. This takes some practice, but it's useful in diving as well as traveling to places with significant elevation changes.

I can make them creak or faintly pop easily by wiggling my ears and pushing out my jaw but nothing like as obvious as when i use the frenzel. I have yet to see if this would be effective at depth but I doubt it.

 

[BatRay]

It takes some getting used to, and it isn't suitable for everybody. It works for me, but I don't go very deep.

 

[missy]

ahh maybe at greater depth it is harder to do ?

 

[BatRay]

Possibly. You could find out by using it in shallower water to see if it works for you at all. Be very careful, and if it doesn't work, use a method that does.

 

[missy]

yes I will be carefull, thankyou x