scubagatorgal
Contributor
Jigster, what an incredible coincidence! I was on the Rainbow River with my kids who are getting certified Sunday! Did you see the group of divers that were in kayaks? That was us. The rest of the dive groups were on pontoon boats.
Wonder what the odds of this are...it has got to be in the millions.
On to your question about equalizing. First make sure that you don't have any wax buildup creating an area for squeeze. Get the the kit from the drug store that includes the drops and bulb. Once you have eliminated that as a possiblility and have squeeky clean inner ears then try equalizing again.
One common mistake people make is to forget to equalize early and often. You cannot equalize too shallow and as soon as you feel any pain do stop and go back up a few feet and then try again. Do not keep diving if you are feeling ear pain. We had two people missing from the dive on the Rainbow because both had hemorraged thier eardrums and diving is off limits until they heal. They did not tell the instructor they were experiencing problems because they wanted to complete their classes and get certified. Big mistake and now they will miss the fun trip this weekend to WPB.
If you are still experiencing problems and think you are doing everything right then a visit to the doc is in order.
Some people have more problems than others equalizing and take a LONG acting decongestant before diving to make it easier. Do not do this until you have been checked out by a doc and make sure that you don't have any problems first. And if you do use this tip make sure it is LONG acting decongestant. You don't want your decongestant to wear off when you are ascending from 90 ft.
Let me know how it goes and welcome to diving...
Wonder what the odds of this are...it has got to be in the millions.
On to your question about equalizing. First make sure that you don't have any wax buildup creating an area for squeeze. Get the the kit from the drug store that includes the drops and bulb. Once you have eliminated that as a possiblility and have squeeky clean inner ears then try equalizing again.
One common mistake people make is to forget to equalize early and often. You cannot equalize too shallow and as soon as you feel any pain do stop and go back up a few feet and then try again. Do not keep diving if you are feeling ear pain. We had two people missing from the dive on the Rainbow because both had hemorraged thier eardrums and diving is off limits until they heal. They did not tell the instructor they were experiencing problems because they wanted to complete their classes and get certified. Big mistake and now they will miss the fun trip this weekend to WPB.
If you are still experiencing problems and think you are doing everything right then a visit to the doc is in order.
Some people have more problems than others equalizing and take a LONG acting decongestant before diving to make it easier. Do not do this until you have been checked out by a doc and make sure that you don't have any problems first. And if you do use this tip make sure it is LONG acting decongestant. You don't want your decongestant to wear off when you are ascending from 90 ft.
Let me know how it goes and welcome to diving...
ut: I envy your position of being certified, congrats assuming you made it through OK! That will be me in a month if all goes well. A few of us plan to go to Blue Grotto and/or Devil's Den after getting certified, maybe we can all meet up there sometime.
