Essential Ear Equalisation Tips while scuba diving

There are some crucial scuba diving skills that you have to understand and practice properly before you go for actual diving. Ear equalisation is one of the vital underwater skills irrespective of whether you are a beginner, first-timer, or experienced scuba diver. Ear equalization is a skill that you have to conduct repetitively to release dense underwater atmospheric pressure. Whether you are scuba diving in Andaman or any other part of the Globe, you will have to keep these skills in handy for underwater exploration. Check the following couple of ways to smoothly equalize your underwater ear pressure.

Pinching your nose

Equalizing your ears as you descend underwater is vital to make sure you avoid pain or potential injuries to your ears. As you descend the surrounding area increases in pressure as you’re going underwater. That means you’re getting pressure on the inside of your ears. To avoid any pain from that you will have to equalize the inner air spaces to match the pressure of the outside.

As you descend, the pressure on the outside is increasing so you need to add more pressure from the inside to equalize your eardrum. The simplest way to do this is to pinch your nose and gently exhale pushing that eardrum out. Usually, you’ll feel a little pop or a kind of strange feeling in your ears and that shows you that you’re equalized.

A good thing to do is to do that before you go diving just to make sure all your inner passageways are clear. If you want to think about it whenever you go up on a plane, you are going to feel some changes in pressure in your ears. However, the changes of pressure from the land where it’s one atmosphere of pressure all the way to space where it’s zero atmosphere pressure is the same change as here on land from one atmosphere of pressure to two atmospheres of pressure at 10 meters of depth.

So every 10 meters you go underwater it is the same change as going from land all the way to space. So as you go down you’re going to need to do a lot more equalizing than on a plane. If this doesn’t work, here are a couple of other tips you can try.

Wiggle your jaws

The next thing you can try is wiggling your jaw. When you wiggle your jaw this can help create movement within your head and kind of help equalise.

Yawn

The next tip you can do is yawn now if you’re using a regulator or a snorkel you want to make sure you’re still biting down with your teeth but kind of do a fake yawn type of situation. This can clear your station tubes

Stretch your neck side to side

The next thing you can try is gently stretching your neck from side to side. If you’re wearing a hood letting some water enter your hood can help as well.

Now none of these things work you can try a combination so blow, wiggle, yawn, stretch, and do so. Make sure you’re equalizing properly. You need to equalize before you feel any discomfort or pain so you need to start off at the surface and then just keep equalizing your whole way down.

The biggest pressure change is going to occur in the first 10 meters so you will have to do a lot more equalizing than you might have to at deeper depths. In the first 10 meters make sure to stay upright and hold on to a line with one of your hands and with your other hand you’re deflating your BCD and equalizing every meter or so that you descend.

If you are free diving, you’re going to be diving down again keep one of your hands directly on your nose and just dive down equalizing every couple of seconds. You can’t hurt yourself by over-equalizing however you can definitely hurt your ears by not equalizing.

As you descend and you feel discomfort in your ears simply stop let your body know that something’s wrong go up a little bit and try again.

Reasons to stop you from equalizing your ears?

The most common one is having a cold now if you’ve had a cold you might have phlegm all up in your business. So you will not be able to equalize for this reason most instructors will tell you not to dive with a cult. Some people will say I will just take decongestants It is extremely dangerous as you may decongest enough to equalize on your way down. However, it may get blocked up once you’re at depth, and then coming back up the same issue can happen.

Suggested Read: SSI Open Water Diver course

As you go up the surrounding atmospheric pressure will decrease and the pressure in your head is going to be bigger. Again you will need to equalize your air spaces and this may not be possible if you get congested underwater. For this reason, do not take decongestant medication before you go diving.

I hope these tips helped you how to try equalizing your ears. Remember to be patient with them and go up and down nice and slowly.