descending to fast

[Pirate_bob]

well today I started my first two open water dives from my local ssi dealer.

on my first dive I ascended to fast and tore my ear drum. has this ever happened to anyone? is there still hope for me and scuba diving? is there any options for people who have a hard time pressurizing there ears? i never had any problems before in the pool or my first time going down to fifteen feet in the quarry but we did 35 feet and POP.. didn't start hurting till I got out of the water

 

[Dr Deco]

Dear bob:

Lucky Or What?

Well. Is that an introduction to scuba or what? Yes, people have torn their eardrum from a too rapid descent when diving. They have also torn from too rapid a descent in a commercial airliner. It hurts and takes a while to heal.

There is life after a rupture. Take heart and don’t do that again – as if I needed to mention. Equalization is something that improves with experience. Thank heaven.:mean:

Dr Deco :doctor:

Please note the next class in Decompression Physiology :grad:
http://wrigley.usc.edu/hyperbaric/advdeco.htm

 

[Pirate_bob]

thanks doc,

yes, there will be a next time hoping for beggining of august

I was reading on the board and i think my problem was a didn't start pressurizing untill I started to feel the pressure and that was like 10 feet.

what do they say ---> you only learn from experience!!! well at least I walked away from this one

 

[MikeFerrara]

Well, what was your descent like? I see many classes dumping all their air and dropping like rocks. Get neutral at the surface and exhale. In other words become slightly neative and keep the descent under control so you can slow or stop at any point.

 

[Pirate_bob]

honestly I'm not sure whats considered fast for a descent. I know an ascent is 30fpm if im not mistaken.. but the descent I'm not to sure about. I think we did it in less than or equal to a minute

 

[mello-yellow]

My own damn fault - I was having trouble equalizing, and instead of ascending a little and trying again, I kept forcing air out. Eventually my "forced equalization" succeded - by punching a hole through the eardrum from the inside. The hole was very small, and I was back in the water two weeks later.

 

[bluebanded goby]

Yes, people have torn their eardrum from a too rapid descent when diving. They have also torn from too rapid a descent in a commercial airliner. It hurts and takes a while to heal.

Some years back, I flew from Los Angeles to Houston on a flight that made not one but two stops en route as it hopped across Arizona and New Mexico. Not being a diver at the time I wasn't in tune with things like the state of my eustachian tubes, and little did I know that the cold congestion I was experiencing sealed one up tight. But did I know it a short while later! It was agony as the plane went up and down and up and down. Sure enough, a doctor visit when I arrived in Texas confirmed that I had a ruptured eardrum.

This happens all the time, especially to kids, so unless there were complications they heal and life goes on. In fact I know some competitive freedivers who get burst eardrums on a fairly regular basis. They have an in-water check for it wherein they tilt their head sideways and pour clean bottled water in the suspected ear. They then pinch their nose and do a Valsalva maneuver; if bubbles come out of the ear, they know it's burst.

Finally, I might add that I have one friend who performed too aggressive of an ear-clearing on scuba, and managed to blow out the "round window" in his middle ear, leaving him permanently deaf in that ear. The moral of that story is to always clear gently (early, frequently, but always gently).

 

[coliseum]

He says he blew it on ASCEND and not DESCEND...

"on my first dive I ascended to fast and tore my ear drum"

...

I guess you experenced a Reverse Block...

As you have learned in diving, ascending too fast has much more consequences than blowing an ear drum and you are lucky you did not get them...

 

[Pirate_bob]

sorry colis. and everyone... i re read my post and noticed I confused the two... i did it on my DESCEND not my ASCEND. sorry everyone on the confusion, i pry was still delearia from the meds the doc gave me

 

[coliseum]

It is always advised to do everything slowly... Descent, Ascent, Swimming etc...

Having said that, I have gone down with another experienced diver to around 40 M in maybe less than a minute... this all depends on your ability to equalize properly and fast...

However, be very careful how fast you go up as this is what really counts...

This is based on personal experience and is in no way a recommended advise on descent...