What is packing, how do you do it, and how to equalize without hands?

[buddha]

What about the "eustachian gymnastics" exercises described on Pellizzari´s book? I think they might help a lot for the BTV.
What do you think guys?

 

[salah]

I have the Breathing Techniques For Freediving book by "Fedrerico Mana".. it helps me alot.
great tips for sinus irrigation, nasal cleaning using a sutra, and alternate nostril breathing.
in my opinion that is an important way to get your EQ. easy.

Salah

 

[fnacinovich]

I have the Breathing Techniques For Freediving book by "Fedrerico Mana".. it helps me alot.

Federico just released a new book "Equalization for Freediving" which is a must have in my opinion.

I learned hands-free equalization myself and I can use it on 60% of my dives now provided I keep training e-tubes opening on a daily basis. I have seen very smart hints on this thread, the most useful from my experience being:

1. Open your mouth as much as you can while keeping your lips closed. Do you hear any crackling sounds coming from your ears? If not, try moving your jaw left-right while your mouth is open and your lips closed. You should hear those sounds, indicating that the muscles at the opening of your e-tubes are opening. Practice that several times every day, until you can pretty much make that crackling sound at will and with ease.
2. To check if your e-tubes are open (which is what you want when diving) do the following: start humming (mmmmmmmm sound) and you should feel the vibrations on your lips. Now while still humming, do the same process you've been practicing to open your e-tubes and if the e-tubes open, all of a sudden you will feel the vibrations and sound loud on your ear drums.
3. The key is to pre-pressurise at the surface before the dive, duck dive less aggressively and start equalising really early.

The opening of the e-tubes is regulated by some tricky to control muscles. Nevertheless, we are all opening the tubes quite a lot of times every day - for example each time we yawn or swallow. The key to success is to isolate those muscles and get them follow our will.

I will add one more hint I found precious on my way to learning the equalization:

Place yourself in front of a mirror with your mouth wide open. Now concentrate on the soft part of your palate eventually ending with the palatine uvula and try to lift it as much as you can. Each time you lift the soft palate, you'll be also opening the e-tubes.

Cheers

Francesco

 

[dom12]

Fran, great tips, i tried exactly what you said and for the 1st time managed to equalise by moving my jaw, now i have yet to try it in the water durign a descent.

Thanks alot for the great tips!

Dom.

 

[salah]

Francesco... as you said it need more and more practicing everyday till you voluntarily control the e-tube.
about the Federico new book i am looking to buy it because i felt a big progress following his techniques.
Thanks for the valuable hints.

Salah

 

[fnacinovich]

Hi guys,

I am really glad if you found the hint useful. However, don't be too exited and prepare rather for a failure in the water at the beginning. Step 1 is to open the e-tubes at will, but unfortunately this will not guarantee that it will work while submerged.

Just don't give up, we want hands-free for everyone!

Back to my experience I got two lessons from the best teacher out there, the sea:

1. Valsalva and Frentzel use both an over pressure to force the tube opening, which basically means that you can recover from a failed attempt forcing a "little bit more" (but forcing is never a good option!). On the other hand, hands-free requires a rather constant equalization, as soon as you miss it, the tube will eventually collapse and your muscles will not be able to open it. You are left with to options: revert to Frentzel or Valsalva before trying again hands-free or turn earlier ending the dive.
2. The tube opening is governed by muscles, and as all other muscles in your body, they can get tired, especially if they are not trained to work. That means that you'll not be able to use hands free for long time periods at the beginning of the season.

Regarding point 2 I remember two years ago, it was the first hands-free season, and we had the no limits sled. I managed to relax and concentrate to equalization only and I did some dives to 40-45m using hands free. Half an hour later, i could not reach 5m on hands free, so i had to revert to Frentzel.

So, keep training, training and training!

Cheers

Francesco

 

[Simos]

The tube opening is governed by muscles, and as all other muscles in your body, they can get tired, especially if they are not trained to work.

Excellent point by Francesco which I missed out in my earlier post about BTV - the tube opening muscles will get tired like any other muscle so it's really important to keep training them year round even if you can't dive.

Dry training works as well for keeping these muscles trained and if you do find yourself (or I should say when you find yourself) not being able to equalise anymore after a number of dives, just remember that your muscles just need a rest and don't get disappointed or try to force the equalisation...

 

[Andrew the fish]

I now only equalize 2 or 3 times to get to 60 feet. I'm sure with practice I'll be able to increase that.

I think I equalize about 10 times more often, like every 3 feet or so, especially at the beginning. It is sort of one continuous "pop-pop-pop-pop". I learned hands-free equalization while in Navy in a pressure chamber. Instructor who was in there with us just told everybody in a chamber to find those specific muscles and learn to use them. And voila! everybody learnt the trick in one single dive. There is probably a lot to a special way of wording things.

 

[shrek]

to simos ive just been reading through this thread and found your comments interesting reading as ive never used hands free before.
its only taken a couple of minutes to master the humming thing,my question is when doing frenzel i take the mouthfull at 25m and go from there how does this relate to btv, is the mouthfull still used if so how ?
im going to have a play with it the next time im out on the line

 

[Simos]

Hi Shrek - can't help you much there as I don't dive deep and also I start having issues with BTV around 15-16m and have to combine it with some frenzel action... I don't use mouthfil so don't know if you can combine with BTV, I suspect yes but I think you'd probably not get much benefit and would find BTV hard if you did and/or lose your mouthfil air through your nose
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[shrek]

to simos there is a very good coversation going on in another thread
(very deep diving without mouthfull) this has made for interesting reading and im going to be trying a few things out in a couple of weeks when i can get back out on the line

 

[Simos]

Hi Shrek - let me know how it goes. Wish I could get in the water to try a few things myself. I'm following the other thread - not contributed as I don't have any practical experience with deep EQ and also I know people mentioned personally so I'll probably be perceived as biased. I might post something a bit later
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[cdavis]

shrek, classic BTV is to have conscious control over the muscles that surround the valve at the throat end of the Eustachian tubes. Divers who can do it open the valves as easily and consciously as most people move their fingers. Lots of divers achieve the same thing by all sorts of movements of the tongue, throat, ears, etc, without having conscious control of those muscles. Classic BTV will work great with mouthfil. In other cases, I don't know, probably very diver specific.

Connor

 

[shrek]

to simos: i just ignored all the who did what stuff first. but the posts about actual equalising made for interesting reading.
to cdavis: just playing around with it dry i have no problem holding the mussles concerned in the right position i can sit there for several minutes just breathing and listening to the air on my eardrums, its taking a bit of effort to control it at exhale and pulling a mouthful up. but this is all dry in a chair and im well aware in the water inverted is another thing.
but it is good to hear it can be used with mouthful

 

[shrek]

to simos cdavis: i had a go with btv yesterday while out spearfishing and found i could do it while making changes in depth once down but was having to frenzel while doing the main desent (i was being distracted by fish) so will have another go in a couple of weeks when i have a line diving session organised.
it feels way diferent to frenzel and will take some getting used too

 

[Elvis bali_gees]

Simos,

Thanks alot. Your humming advice is great. I have no problem opening my e-tubes, but can't keep them open to dive hands free. By humming, I can tell when they open and close and I am able to practice holding them open for longer periods of time. I'll practice and then try it out in water. I'll give everyone an update.

If anyone is having trouble opening thier e-tubes, send me a message and I'll reply with an easy to learn solution. I'm working on putting together some equalizing video tuturials. If the humming works for hands free, I'll include it.

Thanks again.

hi...how r you?
can you teach me basic equalize? because it wont work to me when l tried.....please...l need help. many thanks

 

[shrek]

To Simos I have finally had a chance to have a bit of spare time while out diving to have another go at BTV and have had sucess, now im trying to think of the best way to explain how i do it (you know how you just flex the mussles in your throat area to make your ears click, thats it done, just do that repeatedly as needed decending and when you need to equalise your mask just give a puff out your nose untill it equalises and then carry on flexing the throat mussles) I only had a chance to try this to 10m as this was the depth i was videoing at.
It was really easy and relaxing i don't think i'll ever put my hand on my mask again while spearfihing or videoing.
i noticed the extra speed through streamling i could achive this way so i will be trying it out next chance i get at a greater depth and see how it goes putting a mouthfull into the mix

 

[Simos]

Great you got it Shrek - well done! Your diving will never be the same again ;-) the more you do it the more automatic it becomes and you just do it without even realising... I find BTV ideal if you are doing relatively shallow dives like you described - I've had some trouble equalising using BTV a bit deeper but I've read about people that use it to go pretty deep so I am sure it's just a matter of practice.. If only I had the time (and the sea near me!!!)
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[shrek]

now i can start working on no fins at depth (i now have an advantage over mud wiggle my training buddy and fellow freediving instructor).
always trying to stay one step ahead (as she normally kicks my ass in the pool) but i have it over her at depth for now, we are very compeditive! and any advantage i can have i'll use!! for as long as i can

 

[Simos]

Lol at your competitiveness just a small thing regarding the mask equalisation: I find that I never really have to do a conscious 'puff' through the nose to equalise the mask. I guess I just a let a really small amount of air flow out through my nose with every ear 'click' so the mask equalisation happens automatically too - it's like magic lol

The one issue I have noticed with what I am doing is that when I've seen footage of me diving, I've noticed that I was sometimes losing air from the mask which must mean that I was over-compensating it. I could probably wear the mask a bit tighter or even better, just practice more to make sure I don't let too much air in the mask...

This was last year when I had some EQ issues and I think I was too worried about equalising, this year I only went diving once but EQ was really comfortable so not sure if I'm still losing air...

I never dive no fins in open water - I would love to try! I've done the odd very shallow dive while swimming on holiday (probably 10m or so, whenever I saw something interesting at the bottom) and BTV worked a treat so keen to do more if I get the chance
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