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Tips on finetuning handsfree equalisation

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Nico Loubser

Member
Sep 28, 2017
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Hi all. I managed handsfree equalisation for the first time today. I have always been able to open my eustachian tubes on demand but this was the first time equalising without pinching my nose. Also the first time I tried underwater.

I follow the technique taken from Adam Stern's video clip on youtube, but I suspect I am not doing it 100% correct, I was wondering if anyone can answer this...

I seem to be dependent on a little bit of backpressure from the mask to fully equalise. On land I can very faintly equalise using no hands, but underwater I can fully equalise. Is this how it works with a little bit if pressure from the mask? On my video clip I took of myself I start losing little bubbles of air from my mask as I descent. At the end of my dive session I have more control and the bubbles does not escape anymore. I am a little unsure exactly what I did differently, apart from equalising more gently and concentrating more on my actions. I obviously do not want to loose more oxygen then with Frenzel as I sometimes go quite deep.

Would complete no hands equalisation mean no air escaping from your nose or does it rely on something to build up a little pressure in your nose?

Thank you,
 
I think this was talked about in another thread but 'perfect' handsfree eq does not require any back pressure although an insufficiently eq'd mask will create problems, same as for Frenzel. Seems to me that those who have to learn to do it require back pressure while those who have always 'just done it without effort' never need back pressure.

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Adams video isn't demonstrating "pure" hands free. I can click my ears naturally and with the thing Adam describes I can kinda do hands free if I descent super (<0.2m/seconds) slow and have a tight mask for backpressure.. so not very useful to me. I assume it would get better if I practiced but I don't really see the point in learning it for myself.

My first instructor did "pure" hands free, BTV, and the way he did it did not involve any movement of any of the muscles in or around his mouth. He just opens his ears, by controlling the eustation tube muscle, not by pulling them open with secondary surrounding muscles. This way doesn't need to be learned and just happens by itself and also doesn't need backpressure.
 
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