Scuba vs Freediving - Ear Clearing

[Blueringocto_73]

So for those in the know. Is there really any difference in the physiology of clearing ears, as it pertains to either skill ie: Scuba and Freediving?

It seems obvious that there wouldn't be. But maybe there is something I'm not aware of.
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And particularly what difference if any at depths greater than 100 feet.

 

[Esprise Me]

I'm not a doctor or a freediver, and I'm barely a scuba diver at this point, but I witnessed an interesting exchange on this subject during my OW class. While we were taking the written final exam, a man walked into the dive shop, and my instructor got up to help him. (There was another employee in the back filling tanks, but we didn't really need our instructor at the moment.) I was kind of half-listening as the man talked at my instructor for what seemed like a long time about equalizing techniques and how she should be teaching us the Frenzel instead of the Valsalva maneuver. I wondered if he might be an instructor from another certification agency, but then I heard him talking about how he'd taught his 9-year-old daughter to freedive. After he'd finished his lecture and we finished our exam, I asked my instructor about it. She told me he wasn't an instructor or a scuba diver at all, just a freediver who was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule to mansplain equalizing techniques to the local lady dive instructor. She also explained to us that freedivers usually descend more quickly and in a head-down position, which makes the Valsalva maneuver less effective, but without regulators in their mouths, some of the other equalizing techniques become a little easier. So perhaps that's the difference.

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

I can't add much to the information from @Esprise Me 's instructor, aside from mentioning that the deeper the depth, the less the relative pressure change becomes and so it becomes relatively easier to equalize. The Frenzel (at the risk of mainsplaining ) is a technique developed for Luftwaffe dive bomber pilots in WWII that involves pinching the nose and making what amounts to a gutteral German "G" or "K" without exhaling.

Best regards,
DDM

 

[johndiver999]

Yes the difference is significant for deep dives. In fact inability to equalize at depth is often a limiting factor for some freedivers. Scuba divers have all the air they want, while this is a rare commodity at depth where it needs to be grunted up from the lungs by deep freedivers.