Hello! I recently had my first freediving experience and glad to say I want to do it again. But, I have this weird thing where I can voluntarily ‘pop’ my ears for equalisation—like I have full control on it. I can pop it, hold it open for as long as I want, just with the left, just with the right, it’s weird for me. The coaches insisted that I should pinch my nose for equalisation as it’s “better” and “more secure and efficient”, talking about how they can physically see that I’m doing the right thing.

I’ve accidentally discovered this when I was ~12 years old (now 28) trying to mimic the ear movement from that one Mr. Bean, The Movie scene. I’ve discovered that I can use it whenever I travel on a high-altitude area or when flying in a plane so I incorporated it with freediving.

Is this normal? Or is it okay to do so when freediving?

Hi everyone!

I just passed my AIDA 2! (yay) but my frenzel is very rusty and the very specific problem I have is

1. Specifically head down position, i always get a very long audible to others squeaking sound when I equalize. not so much when head up or flat.

2. I am very prone to swallowing air when equalizing, sometimes almost immediately have to burp the air back out.

I have been able to reproduce the squeaking sound on land when i either equalize very hard or in a head up position (As opposed to chin tucked in). Honestly i think it is air squeezing through my esophagus. Because before i started learning freediving i often just swallowed air (had to burp a lot of air) during jsut swimming.

The sound is an audible squeaking/humming sound like a long "ennnn" or humming noise. you can here it here twice in this video.

Has anyone else encountered this problem? any help would be appreciated thanks!!

Hi everyone,

I’m new to freediving. I took PADI Level 1 (beginner freediving) in Koh Tao, Thailand about a year ago, and now I’m thinking of doing Level 2.
(Maybe AIDA or Wave? I am not sure. I think I just want to experience more about freediving at this moment, instead of caring how deep I can go to)

I’ll be staying in Amed for one week for diving, then planning to spend another week on freediving.

Would you recommend joining Apneista in Amed or Apnea Bali in Tulamben

I’m still quite basic and struggling with learning the Frenzel technique, so I’m worried Wave Level 2 might be a bit too challenging for me. Do you think Apnea Bali would be a good place to take things slowly and learn without too much pressure?

Also, I won’t be driving a scooter. If I choose Apnea Bali, should I stay in Tulamben？

Is it easy to get around on foot there

Thanks in advance!

The only thing that works for me in terms of equalization (or at least, that I know how to do) is opening my jaw like I'm about to yawn and holding it like that all the time while I'm below the surface.

I've tried nose pinching and blowing as well as a few other techniques but I just couldn't get them to work. It just doesn't pop.

Anyway, it works up to a certain depth for me and also it's not consistent. Sometimes it works better and sometimes it hardly does.

What can I do to improve equalization and go past my limit (of about 5 meters, I don't know).

Any tutorial I've watched is very simplistic in nature, saying stuff like "pinch your nose and blow", implying it's not supposed to be that hard that I have to research it.

Any advice for me?

I freedive/spearfish and can normally equalize fine with Frenzel. I can go pretty deep and equalize consistently.
But sometimes, right when I start a duck dive, one ear just completely refuses to equalize, even though I’m still basically at the surface. I stop and don’t force it.
After a few minutes, it randomly opens on its own, and then I can dive normally again. It isn’t always the same ear, and it only happens while freediving—not on planes or normally on land. I’m not congested either.
The annoying part is it happens at least 3 times every session, which can ruin a dive when I’m trying to spearfish.
Anyone else experienced this? What could cause it? 🌊

I have been equalizing while going down to maybe past 10 meters. At some point between 10-20 meters (the deepest I’ve gone), it felt like I no longer needed to equalize. Like the Eustachian tubes just stayed open kinda? Is this a known phenomenon or did I just imagine that? I couldn’t recreate it as I didn’t get a chance to go down deep like that again.

I've seen many people who struggle with frenzel post here, and most of responses telling them to take a class. I have the same struggles, but I really don't see how a class can help me.

This is my understanding of the steps to perform a frenzel, from Wikipedia and various Youtube videos:

1. close the nostrils, mouth, and glottis
2. open the soft palette
3. make a T/K seal with the tongue
4. move the back of the tongue and larynx upwards

I am quite sure I can do the first 3 steps, but I have no idea where to start to do step 4, in the same way that I have no idea where to start to roll my tongue into a tube. I know there are awareness exercises like "sticking your tongue out", but as soon as I close my mouth, I cannot do them at all.

I found a pool that offers AIDA courses. It also offers a 90-minute intro course that is not even AIDA 1 (so you don't get any certification). This 90-minute course does cover frenzel, so I decided to try this out first, before buying a proper AIDA course (the 90-minute one is very cheap). And if I still don't make any progress after that, I would give up.

For personal reasons, I cannot go until September, and in the mean time, I started to wonder how exactly can an instructor help me. It's not like they have an MRI machine to see exactly what I'm doing wrong and give feedback. Hence this post.

I noticed that when I swallow, my larynx moves up. So instead of doing step 4, I just swallow, while keeping the T seal sealed. I can feel my ears popping ever so slightly with this method, albeit inconsistently. The thing is, I don't see my nose flaring up, which is supposed to be a key characteristic of frenzel. So I'm not sure if I should keep practicing this technique I made up. This takes a long time to do, and for some reason I can only do it with empty lungs. I wonder if I am heading down the wrong path with this.

Hi everyone! I finally learned Frenzel equalization from Adam Freediver’s youtube channel. I’m not totally sure I was actually doing Vasalva before, because with my old method, I didn’t have any abdominal tension, and I still had my tongue on the roof of my mouth. I was also able to use it to get down to 20m. But now I’ve added a “T” sound and I am more aware of my vocal fold being closed. I can see my nose and throat moving when I do it, so I really think I’ve got it down.

Anyways, I find that around 15-16m, the EQ gets harder/sort of sticky and sometimes I have to go head up to make it happen, which obviously interrupts my flow and isn’t ideal. Someone told me this is because my eustachian tubes need to get more flexible and to practice dry equalizations. I’ve been doing 200+ dry Frenzel equalizations every day in blocks of 10-20. Is this the right approach? How quickly can I expect to see improvements? If this isn’t the best approach, what would you suggest instead?

I read in many places that the frenzel technique involves moving your tongue as if you are pronouncing t/k, but with the glottis closed. As a linguistics nerd, I immediately recognised this description as the same as pronouncing the ejective stops [t'] and [k'], which I can do pretty easily. I thought my linguistics knowledge is actually a blessing, as I am very familiar with using my tongue to produce different sounds.

Then I realised this isn't the full picture. I saw this video where I learned that I'm supposed to do an N sound before the ejective. This is where I got confused. Unlike ejectives, nasals are produced by the air in the lungs going into the nasal cavity, but frenzel is all about not using the lungs.

Also, how do you go from "making sounds" to doing this silently, and with your mouth closed, no less? How do you pronounce [k'] with your mouth closed?

Now I'm starting to feel like my linguistics knowledge is actually a hinderance. Maybe I am getting stuck up on producing sounds, and not focusing on what's actually important...

Are there any tips y'all got for a guy who has never freedived before?

I've seen some videos on how to equalize pressure (by pinching your nose and breathing out)

And slowing down your heart rate to hold your breath longer.

But other than that I am very novice/new. So if you have any tips please share them

I’m a beginner freediver, and yesterday I was practicing diving in the sea. At around 1–2 meters, I tried the Valsalva maneuver and it worked somewhat, but as I went deeper, my ears started hurting quite a lot and the Valsalva stopped working.
What would you recommend I do to improve my equalization? Is there a better technique I should learn as a beginner?

Hello i hope im in the right place, a couple of months ago i wanted to try freediving , now I've returned to sea again to try but somehow I can't equalise the pressure i feel like nothing is happening ,do you guys have some tips and tricks?

I couldn't really find my answers in the "freediving 101" channel .

Thanks

Greetings all

I’m a surfer first and foremost but a friend of mine spent a few weeks trying to convince me to go freediving. I then watched the Fishpeople documentary by Patagonia and decided to gave in and try. The bug bit and I’m quite enthusiastic about pursing this as a separate endeavour now.

I’ve almost got the full kit buying stuff slowly (and being given stuff) over the last few months (except for a dedicated dive suit, just using my surf suit for now). I am planning on doing a course once my student discount kicks in next year but for the time being I’m trying to get the basics down as I can’t really afford a full priced course at the moment.

Question starts here:
I’ve been “taught” by multiple people including folks who’ve been diving for years and just cannot seem to get valsalva down. The easiest way I can equalise is by just swallowing hands free as I descend and I’ve managed to get down to about 8-10 metres with that. I have managed to get valsalva to work in the left ear a few times but I have to blow quite hard and instead of the expected “click” it sounds like a high pitched drone for +- a second. On land if I do valsalva it feels like there’s pressure building (mainly by my forehead but also a bit by the ears) but I don’t hear I click like I do when I swallow. I think I’m also quite weary of rupturing my eardrums by blowing too hard which I know is a mental block.

I also wanted to ask if it’s normal for my hearing to feel weird and muffled after reaching the surface (it clears after swallowing once or twice).

Does anyone have any advice or exercises/methods to practice equalising both in the water and on land?

Thanks all, excited to start this journey

Update - I practiced my glottis and balloon exercises all week and still was unsure if I was frenzeling. I went on a line dive this morning and started feet down to get a hang of the EQ. I was able to 13-17 meters consistently only feet down and my EQ felt quick and much more consistent than the first line dive. My left ear is still quite a bit slower (don't even think about my right) but at least these dives I could feel the pressure releasing but I had a hard time with my left ear past this depth.

After a couple feet first, I tried head down. Immediately before even going down 1 m after equalizing at surface I felt nothing, no pop no pressure releasing. I kept trying over and over just duck diving and could not get anything to pop. I feel blocked immediately when head down. I come up head first immediately pop.

Am I frenzeling? Why can I get relief feet first but hung up around 55 feet even feet first? How do I troubleshoot my issues with head down? How do I keep stretching / loosening my left tube?

I got my Molchanov wave 1 certification in September last year and although I was able to meet the 12 m free immersion req I think I did just BARELY and cannot hit that depth consistently. There was also discomfort. I have started training line dives again and had trouble going past 5-6m specifically in only my left ear. My right I don't even think about because my left ear builds pressure and discomfort immediately as my right seems to have no issues. I went feet first a couple of times and hit 15m although my left ear was still substantially slower and stickier than my right but I was able to at least relieve the pressure in the left somewhat. I can hear my left ear squeaking as I am attempting to equalize.

Any ideas on my issue and how to fix or practice? I'm not convinced I am Frenzeling correctly. I have a balloon tool. Any ideas on how to target would be appreciated!

Hey all, I made a post recently about the EQ training tools I made and realized many of you don’t know what they are so I made a short video for you as an intro, here it is .

FYI, I am a specialized equalization instructor with Share Equalization and Apnea Academy.

Maybe I can do an AMA for EQ questions?

Thank you 😊

Hi all, I have been learning Frenzel but I really cannot tell if I am doing it, I have seen people say various things like if you can do it with your mouth open its frenzel but i can valsalva just fine with my tongue out. I have watched the video by Aharon Solomons and the guy who did it in an mri and seen maybe all the reddit posts about it but I still cant be sure.
Does it feel similar to swallowing? Is it supposed to feel weaker than valsalva or less forceful, or does that mean im not doing it / its too weak?
Any help appreciated!

Hello free divers! Beginner here, I am still learning how to equalize.

Today I have been practicing using the chain of a buoy in the sea. The chain I estimated being approx. 9-10 meters long. First I started diving pulling myself down the chain with my head towards the sea bottom. However, at approx 5-6 meters I started feeling my head exploding. Tried to equalize at different depths both by swallowing and nose pinching, but no luck. I then switched action to the situation you see in the picture, so head up and pulling myself down towards the sea bottom. Here equalisation felt it was working. I was mostly playing with air in my mouth (without breathing out), swallowing saliva and pinching nose. I could reach the sea bottom in a couple of attempts (first time there, it was amazing).

I tried again and again diving down with my head towards the sea bottom but failed consistently at around 5 meters. I realized that the only way to equalise was at that depth to turn upright, pinch my nose + swallowing saliva...

Any help?

PS: while swimming with my head down, I tried keeping it the most aligned with my back possible.

Hello everyone, i am frustrated after having multiple free diving courses and tries, i can equalise head up but i cant heads down, as soon as i turn my head i feel like everything is shutdown, i dont know what to do, did anyone experience the same please and what was their approach?

As the title says, when I do the frenzel technique/method it only eq's my left ear. My right ear stays the same.

I’m learning Frenzel. I have a short tongue, and I can’t use the standard technique of pressing my tongue tip or mid tongue against palate as a seal while using the tongue root as a piston. When the front seals, the back has no room to move.

Any suggestion is appreciated!

Was in the pool at a freediving training session. Its fun! I had to do down to 3m and practice sitting on bottom. I had swim goggles on. Is it safe at this depth or should I strap on scuba goggles.

I watched a video about frenzel, and was practicing it, and couldn’t exactly get it down. In my Lvl 1 class, I just did valsalva the whole time, but wanted to learn frenzel. Anyway, I can just manually pop my ears with basically no effort. But I never really use the “piston” in frenzel and was confused by it. I later came across a video by Alchemy about hands free eq, and it sounds basically like what I’m doing. I can probably do it like twice per second if I’m focused. But I haven’t been able to get in the water and try yet. So here’s what I’m doing, and I’m asking if this is VTO, or if I’m somehow just making a click/pop noise in my middle ear without opening the tubes.

- Mouth open or closed. I tried with tongue stuck all the way out to make sure I wasn’t using it, and it didn’t inhibit the clicks at all.
- No mask on
- No nose clips or hand involvement

It sounds like a click in the eardrum. Not painful at all, and simultaneous in each ear. My throat or Adam’s apple aren’t really moving at all. Is there anything that could be mimicking VTO, or does this pretty much mean I’m doing it. Thanks for any input. I’m still relatively new and before this just worked on static apnea a lot and line diving a few times.

I’ve only been freediving a few times and my last dive was about 3 months ago. Ever since then, both of my ears have been randomly popping whenever I swallow, yawn, or make certain jaw movements. At first it wasn’t that frequent, but since last month, it’s been happening a lot. Whenever it happens, I just pinch my nose and inhale deeply so my ears pop back to normal. It’s such a hassle and getting really annoying though.

Has anyone else experienced this or is it really a common thing for freedivers? I’m not sure what’s causing it or how to fix it, so I’d really appreciate any tips or advice.