Nosebleeds while diving

Hi all,
I recently got certified and have been on several dives since then. During my last two outings I had a slight nose bleed during the dive. Both times, it occured on the second dive of the day. The first time, I was with my wife and she pointed it out pon resurfacing. The second time, I didn't notice it until after I got home and was looking at pictures from the dive. Being relatively new to the sport, I am still having bouyancy issues and have a tendency to descend a little quicker than I should. That being said, sometimes I don't get my ears cleared sometimes and pressure builds quciker than it should. Could this be a possible cause and is this something I should be concerned about?

When I first started diving I had a pretty good sinus drainage coming up from the first dive of the trip. After a couple trips the problem went away. Salt water is great for sinuses I guess.

I have heard that some people get small nose bleeds from diving at first due to very sensitive blood vessels that burst from the pressure. These vessels take care of themselves and soon the diver doesn't experience any problems. In your case however, it is most likely due to you decending too fast and not having your sinuses clear. Remember to clear early and often while you decend and see how things go from there.

I have gotten small nose bleeds when doing drills and up and down in the water column. I found it was due to inexperience and forcing to clear my ears too hard.

After getting back into diving after 20 years, I had very, very small nose bleeds a couple of times. Like you said, I didn't notice until after the dive. I think I was pinching too hard and blowing too hard to equalize. I think I read about that here after our second trip. I equalized much more softly on my last trip and didn't have any blood in the mask afterward.

I'm very sensitive to nose bleeds because my nose gets dried out easily and the membranes crack, blood vessels rupture, ad nauseaum. So I love it when I go diving because my nose is nice & wet from the water and moisture in the ocean air.

However, my very first two dives ever, I had a bit of a nose bleed. Just barely a hint of red. But that was it. Never again...knock on wood.

To Parrot a few others, make sure your descents are controlled and slow, equalizing gently and often, and see if that takes care of it

I am a relatively new diver but never had issues with a nosebleed at all and I drop like a stone. Thought nosebleeds had more to do with surfacing.

Divers Alert Network (DAN) has a nice webpage on the subject of nosebleeds in new divers.

The key here is making a controlled descent. You should never descend faster than you can equalize. There are several benefits to being properly weighted and maintaining control of your descent is one of them. You really shouldn't be dropping like a rock (unless the conditions call for it). Assuming that you are properly weighted, it should be easy to descend under control. At the surface, dump just enough air from your BCD to initiate the descent. Then, as you start to descend, add small frequent puffs of air to your BCD to slow the descent rate. These puffs of air will counteract the compression of your wetsuit and the compression of the bubble in your BCD that occurs at greater depths. You should be descending slow enough to:

• equalize,
• avoid crashing into anything at the bottom,
• keep a watchful eye on your buddy as he/she is descending (in case there are any problems), and
• be able to establish neutral buoyancy when desired (hover at a given depth).

It helps to descend in a horizontal position. This slows the speed of descent by creating more drag. It also puts you in a good position to see stuff below (so that you don't crash into that sea urchin or stingray).

With new divers, I think it's always good to get educated about ear anatomy and equalization techniques. A wonderful source for this info is Dr. Edmund Kay's webpage on preventing middle ear barotrauma. He also has posted a video of an "Ear Fear" lecture on his website -- click the link in my signature at the bottom of this post.

Something else to keep in mind is that beginner divers, who use the pinch-the-nose "Valsalva" technique for ear equalization, have been known to pinch the nose waaaaaaaay too aggressively. Applying gentle pressure to both sides of the fleshy part of the nose is usually sufficient.

Have fun and dive safely...

Thanks everyone for the advice. I guess I'll just have to plunk down some cash on my own gear, it's tough to get things figured out when I getting different gear every time I rent from the dive shop. Of course, I'm going to have to dive more frequently also to get used to everything!