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

[Kars]

Having one 'weak ear' is normal. And I've one too.
Like Simos said, keep on going, add all the equalising improvement tricks there are, keep your head warm, and do a lot of equalising on the way down every count 1. Start with a nose pinch to make sure your tubes are open at the start. And even assist your handsfree a little with it. Head position also makes a big difference. Do plenty of in deep water training, preferably in warm. Decent slow, keep up with the equalisation. Know that in the beginning being able to skip a few hands-on equalisations is a victory, but tiredness sets in quickly because the range of movement and strength are not adequate yet. A heads up FIM is a very nice way to train, and it's easy to have success in this way, and thus a good training programming the muscle memory. Combine the BTV with Fattah-Frenzel. Heads-down the BTV is tougher because one easily can have a vacuum moment in your mask, sucking the tubes into collapse where the remaining slime keeps 'm glued together making reopening very tough or impossible. Crawling on a sloping floor is good training and the middle of head up and head down. Take note of the times and actions it did work. Maybe some nose pinching btv muscle warm ups before diving can help too.

Learning btv makes regular equalisation much easier and better too. Enjoy!

Kars

 

[arcudohori]

I will keep trying but I must tell you that I am doing this on dry land because I don`t have where to practice the equalization in the water. We don`t have a deep enough pool to go training. In the spring I will go in Greece for some spearfishing and till then I hope to do the BTV technique.
Thank`s for the tricks guy`s

 

[Simos]

If you are doing it dry, try the following:

1. Inhale and start exhaling gently through your nose

2. While exhaling, pinch your nose and keep blowing gently. Yours ears should 'pop'. Make sure your mouth, cheeks etc stay relaxed while you pinch. Do both ears pop?

3. Keep your lips shut while opening your mouth and do the humming noise. Are both e-tubes open?

 

[arcudohori]

If you are doing it dry, try the following:

1. Inhale and start exhaling gently through your nose

2. While exhaling, pinch your nose and keep blowing gently. Yours ears should 'pop'. Make sure your mouth, cheeks etc stay relaxed while you pinch. Do both ears pop?

3. Keep your lips shut while opening your mouth and do the humming noise. Are both e-tubes open?

Yes they both pop but first the left ear and after the right one.
While humming I only manage to open the the left ear, very rarely the other one.
I will keep trying.
I think the best way to learn this technique is by seeing some videos in which to see exactly how to do the movements and if is possible to have some pictures to see which muscles we must try to workout.
Thank you Simos and I hope that someone will upload some videos about this soon.

 

[Simos]

My ears are the same - the left pops first, then the right (the right is the one I always had trouble with). Just need to practice to strengthen the e-tubes and find which jaw movements help open your right. Just keep practicing several times every day and in a few weeks you should see results... Also try some jaw/neck stretching beforehand, it will help.

 

[Kars]

Well Arcudohori,

I don't feel to proficient enough to record a very clear BTV equalisation video. Like you, I too need practice and have been searching for long to learn to find and control the muscles involved, witness this thread:

http://forums.deeperblue.com/equalisation/85712-increasing-effectiveness-hands-free-equilisation.html

 

[arcudohori]

I think that this site is good
http://www.eustachian-tube.net/index.htmlhttp://www.eustachian-tube.net/EUSTACHIAN-TUBE.html
what do you think? they have some videos but unfortunately not about how to move the muscles. any way I am still trying.

 

[Simos]

I think that this site is good
http://www.eustachian-tube.net/index.htmlhttp://www.eustachian-tube.net/EUSTACHIAN-TUBE.html
what do you think? they have some videos but unfortunately not about how to move the muscles. any way I am still trying.

Not sure if it would be even possible to make a video Adrian, because nothing much moves on the outside so the video wouldn't show much.

What seems to help me is to move my jaw forward while moving the base of my tongue upwards, towards my back teeth. Different things will work for different people but give it a try and see if it helps.

 

[shrek]

hey guys i just spent yesterday doing some video work and had to do hands free eq and i found i was just flexing my throat mussles just like you do when making your ears click and it just worked seemlessly although it became dificult at around 20m where i had to add in a frenzel.
by the way got some really good HD video of mouthfull eq of my dive buddy doing frc diving

 

[arcudohori]

Just keep at it and you'll get it - practice daily and train your e-tube muscles. It takes a while for this muscles to strengthen but you'll get there, it's quite usual for one ear to clear but not the other.

Hi Simos now I am able to equalize some times no hands but only in the morning, I am doing a lot of equalization's each day in order to be easier for the no hands. today I will go to see if all the work that I done so far helped me to do no hands equalization.
keep in touch

 

[Simos]

Hi Simos now I am able to equalize some times no hands but only in the morning, I am doing a lot of equalization's each day in order to be easier for the no hands. today I will go to see if all the work that I done so far helped me to do no hands equalization.
keep in touch

Cool, sounds like you are getting there remember to stay relaxed and keep your head in neutral position - makes a difference in keeping those e-tubes open. Also I really recommend some proper jaw (back and forth, side to side and open/close) and neck stretches before you get in the water

 

[Deleted User]

(I'm a novice freediver and try to understand the equalization procedure.) I can open my e-tubes easy and also push up air using the adams-apple as pusher - at least on land - or lungforce as in valsalva, but what about handsfree? Do you close the nose out from the mouth cavity or do you just let the pressure from the mask equalize the pressure in the ears? But than you depend on higher pressure in the mask, right?..maybe that's not a problem...but is it really working efficiently?