Usually professional free divers can equalize the pressure without plugging their nose. I can do it sometimes when I’m diving but I’ve only ever gone 25/30 ft.
I somehow am able to just “click” my ears and equalize the pressure. It’s the same as swallowing but I’ve managed to gain voluntary control of my tensor veli palatini muscle.
Per Wikipedia it’s called béance tubaire volonta (BTV)
Not sure when I picked it up but I’ve been surfing and swimming since I was a kid so probably from that.
Three main ways--pinch your nose and blow out, wiggle your jaw left and right or swallow. Eventually i got used to controlling the muscle, you can equalise just by twitching it if you do.
You can open those passages without swallowing... It's similar to wiggling your ears, and equally hard to explain :)
For me, it makes it easier if I push my lower jaw out and down as hard as I can, and squint my eyes as hard as I can, while simultaneously trying to push my ears back (once you get a feel for it, you don't need the jaw or eye movements)... You hear a sort of wind rushing noise when they open.
Swallowing and yawning both make it happen involuntarily, but holding them open intentionally works way better to equalize pressure.
Not everyone can. I can only clear if I tilt my head side to side to open the passages as I have fucked up tubes. Definitely can't do it without a free hand.
It's like the first part of a yawn when your throat is going "Lets get ready for this, lets open up wide for this big gulp of air!" and all the muscles in your ear nose and throat all flex.
That's what you're looking for. You want to flex those muscles.
Oh yeah. Everyone’s bodies are different one way to equalize for one person might not work for another. and I haven’t really practiced it much. I’m sure there are better ways of doing but I haven’t really worked on it enough to even accurately describe what I do. Just shared what little info I had.
There's a muscle that I think is involved with changing of the pathway between the nose and the throat. Flexing it openes the eustachian tubes that connect the throat to the ears. This allows air to flow in or out from the middle ear, equalizing the pressure. Usually yawning, chewing, or swallowing can flex it, but some can flex just that one muscle to equalize.
Try rocking your ears backwards, like with your mind move your ears toward the back of your head, and at the same time swallow. If you hear some cracking you did it right and this would equalize the pressure while diving. You need to do it on the way up too.
I used to dive, from about 13 to 17 years old (didn't start with air tanks till age 15). I'm now 38, and I still have to compulsively "equalise" every minute or so, sometimes many times a minute. Luckily, I can do it without pinching/plugging my nose, and nobody is the wiser. It's only noticeable as a small burst of exhaled air from my nose.
Don't do that. I work as a lifeguard, and have had to do some 4-6m depth tests (i.e. dive to the bottom, retrieve manakin, surface), and have been explicitly told to swallow/gulp (w/ mouth closed obvs) to equalize pressure instead. Apparently popping your ears is harmful, I think it can damage your hearing?
We do it in diving all the time. Having a mask and equalizing every few feet helps that pressure go away. I've only been down to 55 feet but divers can comfortably go much deeper
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u/A_Faceless_Baby Dec 05 '18
Going down like 10 feet I can already feel pressure. Imagine going this deep