As the person who started this thread, let me update you what I ended up doing and what my experiences were on my last trip. As part of that, I'll try to answer some of the questions that have been put out there by some of you.
I decided to use the ProEar mask along with the Doc's vented Pro Plug together. I just finished with two weeks on the Big Island of Hawaii where I completed 30 dives, including dives to 135 feet, night dives, bounce dives. (
Note: I am not a sport diver. I dive professionally deploying and retrieving gear.) In addition I did a fair amount of free diving, which I find more stressful on the ears since you tend to swim to depth fast, and rise from dives very quickly when out of air. The mask and the ear plugs worked great. I found it easier to clear, they kept my ears dry, and I don't end up blowing an eardrum.
First about the mask. None of the dive shops in my area carried the ProEar. I was nervous about buying a mask online since you can't asses fit. I ended up buying all four styles of the ProEar mask from
Ear Inc. They sell the masks for $80 each. There are plenty of sites on the web that list them for less money but they either only had one style, or didn't look trustworthy. I called Ear Inc. up in advance and they were very helpful and at least one of them seemed to be knowledgeable about the masks. From their descriptions I couldn't tell which of the four styles I would want. With their 30 day return policy, I could try all of them and send the ones I didn't want back. I tried them all at a local pool.
A word on fit first. I have a mustache as well, and I find that smearing it with Vaseline works best to get a good seal. That worked well with these masks and was defiantly required. I don't have huge ears but I need to tuck my ears into each cup and make sure the double seals lie flat. I have a shaved head so I didn't have to worry about getting hair in the way. I imagine if you did, it would be more difficult. You have to get the mask tight but not too tight to get everything to seal. It is more tuning than I'm used to, but wasn't bad. Also, the strap does fit very low on the back of your head, which takes some getting used to, but it doesn't slip around.
I tested the masks first by putting some weight on and going slowly down and up the deep-end ladder to 12 feet clearing carefully each way. No problems. Then I put on a a bunch of weight and went to the bottom with a tank and regulator. At this point, I really felt no appreciable difference using this mask, except that my ears were dry. I took the whole mask and ear cups off and put them back on. With a bit of fiddling, I was able to clear all three chambers. To do this, you have to make sure the bottom side of the chamber you want to clear is the loosest spot in the system. That required holding the mask and alternate ear chamber on tightly while almost lifting the bottom of the one you want to clear. But after a few tries I found it pretty easy. I tried these test with each mask. I didn't see a difference in performance between the masks. I ended up liking the Mondeo model the best. It has a single front panel, which I like, felt better on my head, and gave me a better seal. I don't have corrective lenses. If you do you'll want the Corona. The 2000 looks cool, being all black and retro, but the Corona is nearly identical, is more modern, and likely to have a longer life when exposed to lots of sun. Though the shop suggested the Panorama was their best seller, I didn't like it at all. Too many windows.
Also, in the pool, I tested Doc's ProPlugs. They work as advertised. When properly fitted, using just the plugs, my ears stayed dry to the bottom of the 12 foot pool. Doc's says they keep ears dry to 20 feet but the pool didn't go that deep. Then I tried the mask and plugs together. It really made no difference in the performance of the mask nor the ease of use. I ripped the mask off my head underwater, and the plugs stayed in and kept my ears dry. Then I put the mask back on, and cleared all the chambers. When I came up, a colleague confirmed that my ear cups were dry and so were my ears, outside and inside the plugs. So the plugs proved a solid backup for the mask, at least in shallow water.
After all this testing, I felt confident that I could use these in the field. My colleague, who is my buddy in the field, felt confident as well. In addition to these two tools, I brought some moldable earplugs in case I blew my eardrum. My plan was that if a hole opened, between dives I could seal the ear at the canal, then use the ProEar mask as insurance. I never implemented this plan and was not able to test it since my eardrum didn't rupture. I can't report (yet) on if this would work.
My experience in the field was even better than my experience in the pool. I was able, with just the plugs, to jump the line to submerged mooring buoys. Free diving to 30 feet then darting for surface, I definitely felt the stress on my ears but they didn't blow. Scuba diving proved much easier. Clearing did seem easier than it has been recently. (I should add though that I also sprayed up with Affrin and took decongestants before each dive. I hadn't been doing that on my last trips.) On accent, I found that if I chewed lightly on my mouthpiece or swallowed a little I could clear easily all the way to the surface. I didn't have any problems when hanging upside-down, nor on head-first decents, or at 135 feet. It quickly becomes natural to blow a little more air out through your mask than you normally might to keep everything at the right pressure. My buddy noticed that I had a pretty steady little stream of bubbles coming out of one of the ear caps. It wasn't a problem and was just the loosest spot for any excess air to flow out.
My experience was very good, but not perfect. Here are a few complaints, which I think I will just have to get used to. 1) The mask looks funny. Especially with the hood that's made for it. Don't try to ware this mask and maintain any sense of dignity. It won't work. 2) Between putting in the earplugs, greasing my mustache, maneuvering the ear cups into place, tucking my ears in, checking the seal, identifying leaks and reseating the mask, it adds about 2 minutes to my preparation time and put me behind the rest of my group consistantly. And you can't rush it. When I did, I found myself having to do the adjustments underwater and clear the mask. That just takes more time and effort and is less safe. 3) With both the plugs and the mask, you are virtually def. I ended up wearing only one ProPlug in my left ear. My right eardrum has never blown so I took that one out so that I could hear. Even so, I had to get my shipmates to yell to communicate and the sound of distant singing humpbacks was greatly reduced.
I don't think this solution is right for everyone. You still need to be prepared for a complete system failure. If you blow your eardrum, loose your ear plug and mask all at the same time, or on the same dive, you are going to be in trouble. You need to have a plan. I agreed that I would to no decompression diving so I could always be brought safely to surface. In addition, I put a bongger on my tank and worked out a clear acoustic signal with my buddy incase everything went wrong. I don't think you should even try this unless you feel very confident you won't panic if something bad happens. I definitely don't think this is a solution for everyone. But for me, I'm convinced it will allow me many more years of happy, if quite funny looking, scuba diving.
Thanks to all of you who wrote in. I hope this thread has been and will continue to be helpful to some of you.
