Hi Muzzman -
I relate to most of the stuff you raised. About 10 years ago I started a dive course and dropped out because I simply could not equalise my left ear. (It was also really freaky, that one ear equalised fine, but the other seemed blocked solid). I gave it another bash in 2007 and really struggled. After my first sea dives, I thought that diving was not for me. But, now I am diving reasonably regularly and have no problems equalising. I can only say what helped me and add that one should be wary of advice from strangers on the Internet.
This is what I did:
- Identified the things I was doing that caused mucus build up - and eliminated them as far as possible from my diet and activities.
- Used a hood, even in relatively warm water - when I started it seemed as though any water below below body temp in the ears was not my friend. The hood helped, but I know of other people who find it more difficult to equalise with a hood on.
- Put Swim Seal drops (essentially tea tree oil) in my ears before the dive and Swimmers Ear (surgical alcohol)afterwards
- Decided on using the block-the-nose-and-blow method to equalise. But I did that after trying all the listed suggestions.
- Tipped my head over to the opposite side of the ear that I was struggling with and when necessary wiggled my head a bit as well.
- Equalised on the surface and then again just below.
- Blow hard. This is NOT what the agencies recommend - in fact, the manuals and instructors emphasised that you must never blow hard, but I think I had gone too far in the opposite direction. So I increased the strength of the blow. I did this by starting gently and slowly & steadily increasing the strength; when the right ear equalised I would tip my head towards the right and continue to increase the pressure. As soon as the problem ear equalised I would ...
- Descend still blowing so I would get as much equalisation as possible in one go. This meant once I started equalising, I would drop quite quickly. If the ear blocked I would stop, ascend to a level where the ears were comfortable and repeat.
- Practice equalising on the surface (a lot). By this I mean while at home, in the office etcetra.
- I also think that putting psychological pressure on myself (OMG, I've spent $$$ and need to do this dive to qualify) was not helpful. Messing about in the local quarry to finish qualification and taking things slowly made it a lot easier.
Equalising was difficult in the earlier part of my diving, but these things really made a significant difference. I have no difficulty equalising now, I don't need a hood nor do I need to tip my head anymore to equalise. But for a long time I though my narrow little Eustacan tube in my left ear would stop me from ever going deeper than 2m.
The vertigo is not something I have had to deal with, so I can't describe my experiences there.
CHeers