Question about ear pressure

[bugalcaps]

I am considering learning to dive. I have snorkeled several times and I have painful pressure in my ears. The pain usually comes diving down > 12 ft. Is this something that will go away after diving more and more (like strengthing a muscle) or is this something that I can probably expect to be with me forever?

 

[liberato]

As long as the air pressure inside the middle ear is equal to the water pressure outside you won't feel the pressure. There are equalization techniques you will learn to allow you to do that and you should actually be doing that with your snorkel freediving.

http://www.uwtv.org/programs/displayevent.asp?rid=789
http://faculty.washington.edu/ekay/MEbaro.html
http://www.scuba-doc.com/entprobs.html

 

[MoonWrasse]

I am considering learning to dive. I have snorkeled several times and I have painful pressure in my ears. The pain usually comes diving down > 12 ft. Is this something that will go away after diving more and more (like strengthing a muscle) or is this something that I can probably expect to be with me forever?

Pain is not good, you can injure your ears if you don't learn to equalize properly.
Read up on some of the risks of free diving and ways of mitigating them.

 

[Stirling]

I am considering learning to dive. I have snorkeled several times and I have painful pressure in my ears. The pain usually comes diving down > 12 ft. Is this something that will go away after diving more and more (like strengthing a muscle) or is this something that I can probably expect to be with me forever?

It is something that you will be taught how to "fix" in a beginning SCUBA class. The problem is a very simple one; as you descend, the pressure of the water around you increases, until it gets to be much greater than the pressure of the air inside your head (not just in your inner ears, but in your sinuses and other body spaces) - and in your mask, too, for that matter. The water pressure is what causes that pain. You get rid of the problem by "equalizing" the pressure of the air inside your body with the surrounding water pressure. When the pressure on both sides of your eardrum is the same, there is no pain. Breathing air through a regulator generally solves the problem for your airways and sinuses automatically, but the ears require a special effort to equalize, because of the narrow passage between your airways and your inner ear.

Most people do it by pinching their nose shut and gently blowing air into their nose, which forces the air into the eustachian tubes to the inner ear. You can learn how to do that without even getting into the water, and if you try it now you should feel the air being forced into your inner ear. Do it gently. For most people, that's all there is to it.

The links that Liberato posted explain the problem and the process in more detail, but it is something that you do on every dive, and as often as you need to as you descend deeper into the water.

 

[bugalcaps]

Thanks for the information. I talked with my wife tonight about actually doing it, and we're really excited!