How far down can YOU go before you need to equalize?

[Progen]

...

On the surface:

Put an index finger firmly into each ear. Move your jaw (lower mandible) to the right and left. Note how this feels.

Next swallow while listening for the "crinkling" sound in your ears.

Remove your fingers and pinch your nose closed while attempting to very lightly pressurize your ears.

Repeat the light pressurization while swallowing.

...

Ah!!! That's almost exactly what I did at the same pool earlier but with scuba equipment this time. I was practicing going down without a mask on and donning it halfway down. Usually water just stays at the entrance to my nostrils so it doesn't bother me but this time, I could feel water going in so what I did was to pressurize the nostrils by pinching and blowing, then breathing out with a bit of force through the 2nd stage whilst the nose was pressurized. I could feel a far greater rate of equalization than usual as in I only needed to do one successful one for it to clear totally. Usually when swallowing, I have to swallow twice sometimes and if doing the Valsalva alone I have to blow really hard to get the ears to equalize so I usually don't do that.

---------- Post added February 11th, 2013 at 10:08 AM ----------

With regards to my above post, I think what I'd been doing was to equalize unconsciously during the skin diving sessions so that's a relief then to know that there's nothing wrong with my ears or me.

ps. And since I don't seem to see this method described on the Internet, I shall call it Progen's Method.