No More Ear Pain! Easy Ear Equalization While Diving

Great video! Needed this.

Am I the only one that can voluntarily "click" my ears without moving my jaw or throat in any way? It's like people that can wiggle their ear lobes. I have direct control over the tiny muscles in/near my Eustachian tubes. When I'm diving, it does it automatically and I don't have to click but I still do it just to be safe every 20 feet or so.

I once had a sinus infection and flew on a flight. Going up, no problem. Coming back down they re-pressurize the cabin from 8000 ft to sea level and wow that was very unpleasant, to the point where I would really postpone any flying diving plans until I can clear my ears properly. Diving is even worse because the pressure differential is huge. Just down to 10m is double the pressure. Thanks for the advice! I'm hoping to practice some of the alternate methods so I can equalize without grabbing my nose. (I'm interested in both scuba and freediving and when freediving you sometimes want to keep your hands in a streamlined position to swim efficiently as possible.)

Thanks for the video, i'm willing to try anything. As a kid i used to be able to clear my ears and spend most of the summer at the bottom of a swimmingpool. But when i was 12 i got a bad ear infection. And havent been able to dive pain free, almost as if i couldnt equalize. Next to these techniques do you know anything else that might be able to help me? I really miss diving below 2 meters and i hope to one day do a diving course.

Thanks mate for a very informative video but I don't know why but change in pressure affects my ear more than others. In usual cases it takes a lot of time equalizing pressure, now that I am visiting a place and will be trying Scuba diving for the very first time, I am really afraid of the outcomes of it because one thing that I hate happening is the ear pain which is the worst thing you can experience. So should give it a try or restrain doing it?
Thanks!

Thanks for this! I’m getting ready for my first negative entry and want to be sure I can equalize other ways just in case. This was super helpful!

Thank you so much!

It scary to equalize underwater because I am paranoid of my ears hurting even if I try to equalize

Thank you very much! I had so many problems equalizing and during one dive recently I even started bleeding a bit.
The tip of swallowing WHILE blowing out through my nose and having my nose pinched felt really good when I just tried it.
I have another dive in 2 days and I‘m excited to try it in the water 😊

Thanks, I’ll try these out. Diving is one of my very top bucket list things to do, but since I couldn’t make it down to the bottom of the dive pool, I never thought I had a chance. I’m 65 so I better get at it!

Wow, when I clinched my throat and moved my jaw forward and then lower, I was able to open up my eustachian tubes so easily. This is genius.

Now, I'll have to keep practicing. Diving ear pain-free is wonderful. I owe you big time.

I liked this video and subscribe to your channel.

thank you! your VDO is help me!

When i try to do the valsalva my ears pop and it hurts Even more, it might be because i blow to hard

This was a wonderful. I’ve been struggling with this my entire life and this fixed all of my problems

In my center and my experience, the best is to actually go in a horizontal position. Like you said, your more prone to till you're head up in this position, and in case of pain, if you become vertical, you just gained between 50 to 100cm which will relieve the pain immediately. Plus, for certain dive spots, being vertically is the last thing you want to do because of currents

so.. apparently, I have something called TMJ disorder and for all my life I've never been able to equalize by pinching my nose, instead I've been unknowingly mastering some technique that other people are trying to achieve and is difficult for them :D I can literally control my tubes with my jaw as easy as moving my eyes :D I guess I've been training for scuba diving without knowing

Thank you so much!
I have a diving license but it's been almost 10 years since I dove.

My ears were always quite sensitive to pressure (I learned they are small), and the method we learned (Valsava) didn't really lelieve the pain completely.

I will definitely try the second method you presented! I have the feeling it might help me.

I even had little pain at 2m deep recently when i did not equalize, so I will practize the voluntary method. It works for me on the surface already. 😊

Thanks to this video i can now easily swim to the bottom of a 4 meter deep pool!

I do the second technique unconsciously everytime I trip by airplane or driving on uphill road....and I didn't kwnow this was a diving technique...😅

Hi, I equalise in a very simple painless way. I just swallow and they pop. as I go down I keep repeating the technique as necessary. No nose pinching at all. I don't know if everybody else can do this but it is rather easy.

Amazing video I have dived many, many times and I have not heard some of these methods. May I ask? Have you ever accidentally blew your ear drum?

This video is a godsend for me. My sinuses are so bad that I basically have no sense of smell, but I love diving and try to get out at least once a year or two. Naturally I've dealt with a ton of bad ear pain over the last few years from my own stubborness, even bled once, but the dives were always worth it to me... After watching this though, I have hope that I might be able to find a way to train my facial muscles and avoid that ear pain that has always nagged even my greatest diving experiences.

thank you, I will try these in my next dive! very useful video for a newbie like me

That is all amazing for scuba; while spearfishing you have gear in your hand that you cannot release doing the dive and the speed of the dive to 10 / 20 meters goes faster than say in squaba. At some point, you are late in equalizing and easy-blowing is no longer an option. Also it up and down for 2-4 hours at that stage bleeding through the nouse becomes a normal thing.

Druckausgleich . Ohrausgleich gibt es nicht

When you equalize what are you actually doing in your ears? Are you getting trapped air out?

don't use a nose spray for diving, but if you travel with planes, I do recommend using the nose spray when the plane starts its descent. everyone is in pain while you are watching the show :)

I don't have a problem with clearing my ears, but at a depth of like 4-5 meters i feel pressure/pain between my eyes on my forehead. I have not managed to get rid of it no matter what I'm doing, as i only can clear my ears, not my nose or front-sinus.
Any help?

I now have this problem when I equalizing underwater, I pinch my noise to release the pressure but bubbles comes out in my right eye. 🤦‍♂️

if you can somehow figure out a way for someone with a cold to do that, especially when decending in a plane that would be awesome. infants have a real problem when changing altitude in planes!

Please make a fun and informative video clip about the most unique ways "unique people" equalise!😅
I had a instructor where he can equalise by lifting his tongue!! My personal way is swallowing hard continuously!!

That's a lot of techniques 😮
Techniques that I personally never heard of!!!

Do these techniques vary for freediving?

Pretty sure tilting your bad ear up gets any air that came out of your regulator and landed in your ear to float out so you can equalize properly

I had an Apnea training yesterday and got down to 3,80m. Equalization is always not easy for me and it was quite painful. Never expected that.

how do you know if it works? Will the pain just disappear and your good?

Can you put ear plugs to stop the pressure from accruing

Thanks!

Obrigado eu , pois entrei no mundo do spinning sensivelmente a ano e meio e ainda estou a aprender, obrigado pelas dicas , tem feito um excelente trabalho parabéns

I have developed my own technique that i didnt see on you video but is really easier than all of these. i close my nose from the inside and i push my tongue up an tadaa. if this doesnt go easy i might draw my jaw a bit but that only if i have a cold or smth.

I grew up being able to do the voluntary tubal opening, and as someone who free dive spearfishes a lot, I have a lot of experience doing so. The method you described is a decent way of learning, but you will eventually learn to isolate the muscle and not need to use your jaw. The closest comparison I can think of is how someone learns to wiggle their ears. They first learn by doing it as a reflex reaction when moving their eyebrows, and then learn to isolate the muscles for moving their ears.
A second point is that, at least for me, we don't hold the tubes open the entire time. It's only done at short intervals when needed because the muscles are just not very strong. I am only able to hold them open for a maximum of 15 seconds at a time.

Well done, publishing is very useful, can I have your Whatsapp number

Swallowing is awesome. Talking works if you aren’t underwater.

Hey, are earplugs any good for keeping the worst of gunk out your ear.
I got taught all these techniques. But man the pain.

You have really great videos. Maybe you could make a video what do you think about the Semitec system which is a long hose from the second stage wrapped around the neck as the main breathing apparatus and an octopus hanging on a bungee around the neck

Great explanation, thanks! Combining Valsava with blowing/yawing works like a charm (at last in my chair :D ). I always have problems with my right ear specifically. Gonna give it a try next time in the water :)

by whatever reason, I can do equalization voluntarily moving nothing in a throat or a jaw. I just can rule that "mussle", and I believe it is a mussle, which triggers the audial tubes to open/close. I can hum to myself, hear loud as I breath in and out, that helps to noise outside sounds if I dont want to hear something :), open tubes and ventilate them (just breathing when they are open) and so on.
Unfortunately, it is not something I learned, so I can't teach how to, I just can it all the time I remember myself.

is it fine if sometimes i feel the equalization only in one ear?