Dive Training Blogs
Keeping your ears safe while diving: ear equalization basics
By: Dillon Waters
So you are thinking of signing up for your first scuba diving course, or even better, you’ve already made the commitment to start your new adventure, but you aren’t sure about your ears. Swimming down to the deep end of the pool is something you’ve done before and you aren’t sure if your ears will be able to handle going any deeper than that on scuba. Do not worry though, your scuba instructor’s job will be to teach you the skills necessary to dive and that includes the proper ways to equalize the pressure in your ears underwater. If you want to familiarize yourself beforehand, you have come to the right place.
Why You Must Equalize
Your middle ears are dead air spaces, connected to the outer world only by the Eustachian tubes running to the back of your throat. In normal everyday conditions, or when the outside pressure is within a normal level, the Eustachian tubes are closed. During a dive the pressure from the surrounding water is higher than the pressure exerted on us by the atmosphere of air we are used to on land. So we must equalize the pressure of our middle ear with that of the pressure around us, also known as the ambient pressure, by opening the normally closed Eustachian tubes. Opening the tubes usually requires a conscious act by the diver.
How to Equalize
There are many ways to equalize the pressure in your middle ear; some of which are listed and explained below. During your course you will be able to determine the one that works best for you.
- Swallowing – one of the most effective and preferred methods of equalization, using the throat muscles to open the Eustachian tubes.
- Valsalva Maneuver – the “go to” equalization technique of divers for years. Pinch your nostrils and gently blow through your nose. This results in a slight over pressurization in your throat, which normally forces air up your Eustachian tubes.
- Frenzel Maneuver – Close off the vocal cords, as though you are about to lift a heavy weight. The nostrils are pinched closed and an effort is made to make a “K” sound. This should force the back of your tongue upward, forcing air against your Eustachian tubes.
- Toynbee Maneuver – with your nostrils pinched, swallow.
- Lowry Technique – with your nostrils pinched, swallow and gently blow.
- Edmonds Technique – Pressurization by either the Valsalva or Frenzel maneuver, combined with a jaw thrust or head tilt to more effectively.
- Beance Tubaire Volontaire – Muscles of the soft palate are contracted while upper throat muscles are employed to pull the Eustachian tube open. Tense the muscles of the soft palate and the throat while pushing the jaw forward and down as if starting to yawn.
When to Equalize
Early and often is the golden rule here. Many divers like to start very early in the day before even arriving at the dive site by swallowing to ensure their Eustachian tubes are opening. Also, pre-pressurizing your ears before descent may help with equalization after you’ve submerged. From here on throughout the dive, your ear equalization will vary based on your body and the dive profile you are following. You should equalize when you feel any slight pressure in your ears throughout the dive, as well as when you reach a depth that you will remain at for any extended period of time. If your ears begin to hurt you should ascend a few feet in the water column and try to equalize again.
Practice Makes Perfect
For those that are still concerned whether or not they will be able to equalize their ears, or for divers who are having trouble doing so, you may find it helpful to practice several equalization techniques. Many of them can be difficult unless practiced repeatedly, but it is one of the few scuba skills that can be practiced out of the water and almost anywhere. Begin practicing it in the mirror to observe your throat muscles, and then practice anytime you have a free second. Before you know it you will be a pro, and the almost endless scuba diving opportunities around the world will be at your fingertips.
To find out more about International Training, visit www.tdisdi.com.
Blogs
Intro to Tech: What is it about?
Article by José Pablo Mir
Pictures by Cezary Abramowski
The world of technical diving is exciting. It opens the door to new sites, depths, and bottom times. More importantly, it opens our minds to a new way of planning, facing, and experiencing dives, even those not purely technical.
Becoming a technical diver is a process, and like in other aspects of life, we should find the proper entry point that suits us best based on our knowledge and experience. The Introduction to Technical Diving course from TDI -the world’s largest and most recognized technical diving teaching organization- is the best option for divers who have yet to gain experience in the fundamental aspects of this new practice. The course’s content and its embrace of new techniques and technologies make it possible to acquire a solid foundation to learn and gain experience in this practice properly.
Becoming a technical diver is not something that happens overnight, whether deciding to become one or receiving a certification card stating we are now technical divers. It is a slow process extending farther away than any introductory course. It requires effort and dedication. But it will bring us satisfaction from day one -or two.
It is a matter of mentality
First, we must understand and accept that technical diving, involving greater depths, longer bottom times, exotic gases, virtual or real ceilings, and more, comes with higher levels of risk than the sport diving we have been practicing until now.
Although this discussion usually starts with a warning about risks, as I’ve done in the previous sentence, our practice is not a game of chance.
Technical diving is a rational activity that requires maturity and good judgment, and we will put everything into ensuring that each dive is a successful one -meaning we return from it safe and sound. With this understanding, we will strive to establish a mental attitude more aligned with our practice and its realities.
This new “technical diver” mindset we will develop will lead us to be more cautious in our executions, more analytical in our plans, more rational in our strategies, and more detailed in our procedures.
Experience will keep teaching us to know ourselves better, to keep our anxiety and other emotions under control, and to manage our impulses. Over time, our senses will sharpen, and we will be more attentive to the particulars of the situation we find ourselves in.
Strategies and procedures
Our strategies, those broad guiding lines tracing the path to follow, from how to approach planning to where, with what, and how we are willing to get there, will be more specific and more practical. Not because they magically become so, but because we will consciously and deliberately frame them that way.
We will establish clear, concise, and realistic procedures. Not only for the undesirable situations that may present themselves but also for those that are part of our dive objectives.
Even though, as technical divers, we often use equipment different from what we were previously accustomed to, it is essential to note that the gear does not make the diver. In a way, we could consider such equipment as the necessary tools to implement what our goal seeks to achieve, according to our strategies and procedures.
Technique plays an important role
We must put our greatest effort into learning and perfecting the different techniques we will be acquiring. Buoyancy, trim, propulsion, cylinder handling, deploying DSMBs and lift bags, valve drills, and more are essential skills we must begin to master to progress in our art. What we cannot do, when we need to do it, can harm us.
Our techniques must be effective and achieve the purpose for which they were devised. But they must also be efficient and require the least resources possible, including the time they take and the effort they demand. Effectiveness and efficiency will prevail over beauty and other considerations that may come to mind, although none of them should be mutually exclusive. A technique executed efficiently and effectively tends to have an inherent beauty.
Refining techniques is a lifelong mission. Some of them will be easy to master from the go; others, on the other hand, will be our life mission and will require many repetitions just to resemble the idea we have in mind of how they should be executed.
We must consider the environment
Our learning, the needs and musts of the practice we engage in, the experience we gradually gain, our strategies and procedures, and even our equipment and tools change with the environment.
Diving in the ocean, everything about us must be suitable for ocean dives. Conditions there rarely emulate those found in a pool, lake, or river. Variable winds and currents, greater depths, visibility conditions, other divers with uncertain skills around us, marine life, maritime traffic, distance from the coast, and many other factors add complexity and uncertainty.
It is never necessary to master the pool on the first day, but planning and aspiring to gradually cope with the ocean’s conditions is essential.
The cost of good training
We are aware that our resources are often scarce in relation to the possibilities of use we could give them if they were not. To a greater or lesser extent, we are part of the economic reality in which we are embedded.
Fortunately, the cost of good technical diver training is not an entry barrier. Comparing training and equipment costs, we see that the former are generally lower. Yes, lower cost for personalized service, essential to our future
performance and safety, than for a series of mass-produced products that are mere, albeit necessary, tools for an end.
The value of good training
The value of the training we received encompasses a range of characteristics, from emotional and methodological to technical and technological. TDI and its Introduction to Technical Diving course offer a deep and modern approach, with a teaching strategy that aims to create thinking divers, not merely obedient ones.
As technical divers, our knowledge is our primary tool. In this type of activity, what we don’t know can harm us.
Is this course optional?
Unfortunately, the fact that this Introduction to Technical Diving course is not a prerequisite for any subsequent training is an invitation to consider it optional. And we all know what usually happens to “optional” under budget constraints.
However, this course should be seen as optional only by those divers who are somehow familiar with the use of technical equipment, who have a mindset more in line with the requirements of this type of diving, who plan and execute the dives the proper “technical” way, who know their gas consumption rate, who are not intimidated by non-decompression tables, who feel comfortable using their dive computers, and know the techniques and have at least an acceptable level of buoyancy, positioning, and propulsion. Those can go straight to a more advanced training course, such as TDI’s Advanced Nitrox.
We must ask ourselves whether or not we are in that group.
Remember our goal: to have fun
Recreational diving is our passion. Jumping into the water carrying heavy equipment and having properly dotted our I’s and crossed our T’s have only one ultimate goal: fun. This is the activity we have chosen as a hobby. We must enjoy it; it must give us pleasure and make us vibrate.
Having a good time is not optional!
Blogs
Four opportunities to go pro in 2024 with Dive Friends Bonaire
Dive Friends teaches the Instructor Development Course (IDC) several times a year to students who are eager to share their passion for diving with the world.
Dive Friends is known for the personal approach throughout the course. Their in-house course director will lead the students through every essential step, mentoring them to achieve their fullest potential as a dive instructor.
Applications for the following IDC start dates are now open:
- 12 April
- 5 July,
- 20 September
- 29 November
Partnership with Casita Palma
If the student opts for the IDC-Deluxe or IDC-Supreme package, their accommodation will be arranged for them at Casita Palma. This small and quiet resort is within walking distance from Dive Friends Bonaire’s main dive shop location and has everything you need to relax after an intense day of IDC training. Breakfast is included, so the student will always be fuelled and ready for their day.
Contact Dive Friends Bonaire’s Course Director Eddy for more information: coursedirector@divefriendsbonaire.com.
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