Abalone Diving |
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At the time I write this, my WEB site has been around at least 7 years. I've used the site as a repository for the things I learn that others might find useful. It's startling, then, for me to realize that one of the most important pieces of information about abalone diving hasn't made it onto the site before. It only just now occurs to me that one of the most common questions I hear when discussing any kind of diving with non-divers isn't answered here. I suspect this miss is an issue of those who know about ear clearing don't think about it anymore; they (I) forget that it was one of the major concerns when we started. So, after an embarassing delay, ... The subject is ear clearing or equalization. Or, in the form of a typical non-diver query: "What do you do about the ear pain? Even if I'm in a 5' pool, I can barely stand the pain in my ear at the bottom. Do you just learn to ignore it?" The short answer is that, no, you don't ignore the pain. If you're feeling any pain, you screwed up and you definitely don't want to continue that particular screw up. The longer answer goes something like this... The ear pain is caused by increasing water pressure pushing against the ear drum through your ear canal. On the other side of the ear drum is an air space (known as the middle ear). The air in the middle ear at the surface is at about 17 pounds per square inch. The pressure of water on the outside of the ear drum increases quickly with depth; at 33', the pressure is 34 pounds per square inch. If the air pressure hasn't changed as you've left the surface, the increasing pressure differences on each side of the ear drum causes increasing pain. So the goal is to increase the air pressure in the middle ear so that it matches the pressure of the water on the outside. If done correctly, there's absolutely NO EAR PAIN as you go deeper and deeper. |
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How do you equalize the middle ear pressure? The air space in the middle ear is connected to the "outside world" through a small tube (Eustachian tube) ending in your throat. In equalizing, you're going to gently force some air up the Eustachian tube. The easiest and most common technique is to pinch your nose and gently blow like you're blowing in to a Kleenex. Gently. Very gently. This is known as Valsalva Maneuver. There are also the Toynbee and Frenzel methods that are much safer and much more difficult. Ear clearing and the various methods employed to do it are the stuff of infinite discussion in SCUBA diving forums. For more detailed online information about ear clearing, I'll suggest checking out the Divers Alert Network's website and to Google for some of the terms described above. I will also offer a few of my own observations. Ear clearing is easily practiced on dry land, something I do constantly because 1) I've long had problems clearing my ears, 2) practice keeps the system working well and 3) there's no point in suiting up to get in the water if my ear clearing isn't successful on dry land. I use the Frenzel method on the way to the dive site to loosen things up and verify everything is working as needed. Whichever method is used during practice, a successful equalization is indicated by a crackling sound in both ears at, hopefully, the same time. It's very common to have only one ear clear or to have one ear clear with little effort with much more effort required for the second ear. For me, this is an indication that I need to practice more to get both ears loosened up and working well. In the water, ear clearing becomes more difficult. It starts with adding a hood. It gets tougher when your head is in the water. And it gets harder still when you're heading down. So my dive sequence includes clearing my ears at the surface before starting my pike dive, reclearing at 1' depth and then continuously clearing all the way to the bottom. If at any time I feel pain in my ears from increasing pressure, that dive is over and I head back up. This is because I know that I get about 5 mistakes; more than 5 mistakes and my ears are done for the day. So I try really hard to not make any mistakes. There are a lot of potential ways to screw-up when it comes to ear clearing. If you simply fail to clear your ears, your body will eventually react by flooding the middle ear with body fluids. This "equalizes" the pressure at cost starting with dulled hearing and, potentially, threatening permanent hearing loss. Alternately, you can get too forceful trying to clear your ears (i.e., blowing too hard) and rupturing the round window of your inner ear. A round window rupture is, at best, very very bad thing. At worst, it's a lot badder than very very bad. The point is, again, to be gentle in clearing your ears. |
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