Update- Equalizing without hands and some notes

[NestorV]

Hello everyone.
Let me just give you a quick update on my situation. I have started getting a bit more serious with my free diving and I had trouble equalising as you can see in my first thread. I bought a new wetsuit and this morning I went free diving and spearfishing. I just realised that changing the wetsuit made a whole world of difference to me.
Anyways, I was able today to equalise without hands as I did up till some years ago, when I was diving without a wetsuit. Unfortunately, some personal issues held me back for the last 2-3 years. But that is not the point of my question. I am equalising like doing Frenzel without using my hands to block my nose.
Do I need to be careful with this? I do not know whether this is a common practice or not and I am worried that one time I will not be able to equalise properly and cause problems to myself. Is there a proper way to perform this or am I messing around? Just a note; I am able to equalise with Frenzel now thanks to the advice I received to my previous thread.
Although I am one of the many rookies on the freediving sport I realised a couple of things and I would like to point them out. Please feel free to correct or add as you see fit.
Make sure that the wetsuit you use is the correct size and as new as possible. My previous one was given to me from a friend and after wearing my new one I realised that the old one was off one size and more stiff, something that hindered my moves, and exerted unnecessary pressure on my head and neck, thus interfering with equalisation. I can tell you that the new one is like wearing a second skin. I can move as I am wearing training trousers
Do not overtighten the mask on your face, as this will deform the skirt (is this the right word?) of the mask and will lead water to leak inside your mask. And try a couple of masks to find the best fit to your face. The one I am using, a superocchio one, I am not able to pinch it out of my face. I need to use my hand and pull it off. Maybe, because this is blocking my nose, I am able to equalise without using my hands.

 

[NestorV]

P.S. the hands free equalisation I am refering to, is like hearing clicking sounds, more like repeated creakings. When I swallow I hear clicks, similar to the ones we get sometimes when we yawn. I can do the same thing on dry land, yet after the first couple of times it gets weaker and bearably audible.
P.S.1 Is there an edit option in the posts? I see a report and a reply one but no edit

 

[growingupninja]

It sounds like you're trying to figure out if you're EQing using back pressure from mask or a true hands free. If you used to EQ hands free without a wetsuit and then lost the ability once you took time out of the water and came back in wetsuit, it's probably the wetsuit hood that is interferring. There needs to be water in the hood for you to reliably EQ. If it fits perfect and you have very robust EQ skills, you may sometimes be able to EQ even very deep with the hood dry (I've done this when diving deep in frigid water), but it's safer to let it flood before you start diving. Other guys make holes in their hoods (this didn't work for me). Search 'hood squeeze'.

 

[NestorV]

Thank you for your reply. Yes, in my last dive I used my new wetsuit, which it is the correct size for me. I previously used a wetsuit one size smaller and the material was older and stiffer. I realised that now because I am able to move freely with my new wetsuit, move my head around without experiencing any hindering on my moves etc. Plus, I followed a tip given from a fellow member to wet my head and hair prior putting the hood on.

 

[alexapoel]

Had a problem with EQ when i was doing scuba diving as well. The problem was that i didn't get it. I didn't get the way that needs to be done. After i got my one star diver i started freediving. At 6m my ears started to feel the pain. The solution i tried is the rope. We opened a rope with 30 meters length downwards with 20 kilos on it. I started practicing free immersion on the rope meter by meter, hand by hand. I made 15 EQs until 10 meters but the pain disappeared. Now i am trying to take it deeper. All you need is patience.

 

[Divewiz.Hurghada]

Hello everyone.
Let me just give you a quick update on my situation. I have started getting a bit more serious with my free diving and I had trouble equalising as you can see in my first thread. I bought a new wetsuit and this morning I went free diving and spearfishing. I just realised that changing the wetsuit made a whole world of difference to me.
Anyways, I was able today to equalise without hands as I did up till some years ago, when I was diving without a wetsuit. Unfortunately, some personal issues held me back for the last 2-3 years. But that is not the point of my question. I am equalising like doing Frenzel without using my hands to block my nose.
Do I need to be careful with this? I do not know whether this is a common practice or not and I am worried that one time I will not be able to equalise properly and cause problems to myself. Is there a proper way to perform this or am I messing around? Just a note; I am able to equalise with Frenzel now thanks to the advice I received to my previous thread.
Although I am one of the many rookies on the freediving sport I realised a couple of things and I would like to point them out. Please feel free to correct or add as you see fit.
Make sure that the wetsuit you use is the correct size and as new as possible. My previous one was given to me from a friend and after wearing my new one I realised that the old one was off one size and more stiff, something that hindered my moves, and exerted unnecessary pressure on my head and neck, thus interfering with equalisation. I can tell you that the new one is like wearing a second skin. I can move as I am wearing training trousers
Do not overtighten the mask on your face, as this will deform the skirt (is this the right word?) of the mask and will lead water to leak inside your mask. And try a couple of masks to find the best fit to your face. The one I am using, a superocchio one, I am not able to pinch it out of my face. I need to use my hand and pull it off. Maybe, because this is blocking my nose, I am able to equalise without using my hands.

First of all, as long as you can equalize and not feeling any pain or pressure underwater, it means you are fine and not doing something wrong regarding equalization .

However, we as freedivers have to understand which equalizing technique we are using, because that determines how deep can we go safely using this technique.

For example using Valsalva technique is not safe to dive below 30 meters, so if I'm using Valsalva and very happy but I'm diving to max of 25 meters, it means I'm not doing something wrong regarding the equalization but still have to understand that I'm using Valsalva and if I wnat to go deeper I need to learn something else like Frenzel for example...

That was my point, if you don't feel pressure or pain that means you are equalizing but still have to know exactly what are you doing especially if you plan to go deeper

Kind regards and dive safe always buddy