charlie4118:
Hello,
I am new to Scuba Diving and am having some problems.
I am half way through my Padi Open Water course. I suffered badly this weekend, I could not equalize my ears at about 7 mtrs depth. I live and am doing my course in sunny England (not!), I was wondering if the very cold water temperature had anything to do with it.
My main question is, has anyone out there tried either Doc's Proplugs or the ProEar Mask. They are not readily available in the UK and I don't want to order blindly.
Any advise will be greatly appreciated.
Ta very much
Charlotte
I'm assuming you mean you had trouble clearing on the way down and not on the way up....
Trouble equalizing during descent is probably the most common problem encountered by new divers. it could be caused by a wide variety of things (some of them physiological) but the cold water can certainly contribute, along with a number of other things such as (to name a few)
- multiple ascents/descents or frequent fluctuations in depth during the dive (causing irritation in Eustachian tubes).
- nervousness causing muscle tension
- waiting too long to start clearing (very common)
- descending too fast (faster than you can keep up to it by clearing)
- a cold or anything even remotely related.
- Cap possibly trapping air and making things feel unbalanced.
- trouble pinching the nose with thick gloves on (air escapes from nose/mask)
If you can clear in the pool then you're *probably* experiencing the normal range of things that go wrong and I would be inclined to just try it again....
If you're taking a PADI course then you'll be descending with a reference line during the first 3 OW dives. Make sure your descent is slow and that you clear a lot starting right on the surface on the way down. If you feel pressure building don't go any deeper and don't try clearing harder, stop the descent (grab the line), go up a metre or so and try again. You should be clearing constantly on the way down so once you feel the pressure building that's your first sign to slow or stop your descent. Don't forget to tell your buddy/instructor that you can't clear (sign "something amis" and point at ear) so they understand what's going on.
I haven't tried the pro-ear and I wouldn't recommend it unless you are really out of other options. The cap will be hugely in the way with a pro ear and you'll either need to modify your cap (cut holes for the ears) or wear the mask under the cap which will probably be uncomfortable and it will greatly complicate the mask removal excercise
As for ear plugs. That's a non-starter. If you put ear plugs in they'll just get pushed way inside your ear and cause all kinds of nasty problems.
Good luck.
R..
