I can't hear well

Hi, I can't hear well at all once I descend. I've had buddies wondering about beeping computers, and I've surfaced within 100ft of moving boats and can't hear a thing, so I'm wondering do those vented ear plugs help a person hear underwater? One boat went overhead the other day, when I turned my head to look up, water entered my ear and I could the muffling then pretty much nothing.

No answers, but I'm the same way. I have videos shot with a gopro inside its dive housing, and I can hear computers beeping, boats on the surface, the DM's little rattle, etc. But when I was on the dive, I couldn't hear any of it. And that was without a hood. With a hood, it's even worse.

Do you think it's actually your hearing, or just being distracted? The mind can only process so much. Only being able to dive 2-3 times a year, I notice that I "hear" a lot more on dive 10 of a trip than I did on dive 1.

It's not being distracted , cause when I turned my head up to look to see if there was a spinning prop, all sound disappeared, as the water rushed into my ear. I tried to put air into my hood to displace the water in my ear but it didn't work very well. you can really hear the sound die out as the water enters the ear. I have seen a spinning prop when I took my rescue course, One of my buddies got pissed off and popped up to scream at the driver. I think I found his sun glasses cause the're basicalliy new and I'm still wearing them!!!

I dive with a hood. I know when I first hit the water I cannot hear much. But if I let water into my hood my hearing improves. Maybe you have an air bubble in your middle ear and it is blocking the sound.

I can't hear computers beeping or a rattle underwater, boats above me I can hear but not very well. Of course I can't hear a beeping computer above water either. So I just turn the thing off.

I like the fact you turn off the beeping in your computer dmoore19. Most the time I'm diving in the Caribbean I'll hear a LOT of beeping. I suspect it is when the tank reads 1500 PSI (half tank, assuming AL80). I look around and don't see anyone checking their computer. I'm guessing they don't hear it or if they do hear it they don't realize it is there computer. Please, just turn it off. Although, I imagine the guide appreciates knowing someone is at half tank even if they don't.

Those of us who dive in the PNW wear thick neoprene, which very successfully muffles sound.

Water actually transmits sound better than air does; if your external auditory canal is filled with water, sound will very effectively get to the eardrum to get transduced into signals to the brain. However, an air/water interface decreases sound transmission, so if your canal is filled with air and water is outside of the air, less sound energy will get to the drum. Vented plugs will decrease sound transmission, as any solid object that completely obdurate the canal will do.


I think, if you are perceiving less sound than your buddies are able to do, one of several things may be true. You may not be fully equalizing -- any transmural pressure across the drum will reduced its ability to vibrate and transmit sound. You may be making a lot of noise of your own . . . some of our students seem to exhale almost continuously, so they are constantly surrounded by their noisy bubbles. Or you may be so focused on other things that you are, in fact, "hearing" the sounds, but not perceiving them consciously.