What proportion of scuba divers can equalize ears "no hands"?

[JBreezy]

Yes. I don't do any movement either, but doing things like yawning, jaw movement may be a way to teach someone how to do it completely movement free. My guess is most people can do this but are unaware that they can. I would guess also that a very few really do have to use the other methods and move something to make it happen. Maybe the same % of the population who actually have such a medical problem that they really can't get vaccinated-- now, back to The Pub.

Yours is, I think, a great explanation and starting point for someone who doesn't understand how to equalize hands free. I'm going to try and teach my sister using your cues as a start and see if that makes it easier to pick up on.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I just tell people to open their ear tubes like you do when climbing a long grade in your car and you need to pop your ears. It’s the exact same jaw and internal muscle movement, only underwater and while descending.

 

[GreggS]

I just tell people to open their ear tubes like you do when climbing a long grade in your car and you need to pop your ears. It’s the exact same jaw and internal muscle movement, only underwater and while descending.

It is, but it's not. It is the same basic movement, but it just took a while to figure out just how to do it with the 2nd stage in my mouth. I'd try it occasionally but until just a few weeks ago, I just couldn't get it to work. Then suddenly, I got it right. Now I wonder why it took so long.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

It is, but it's not. It is the same basic movement, but it just took a while to figure out just how to do it with the 2nd stage in my mouth. I'd try it occasionally but until just a few weeks ago, I just couldn't get it to work. Then suddenly, I got it right. Now I wonder why it took so long.

You have to hold onto the reg with your lips because more than likely your jaw will open a bit.
I was just practicing now opening my ear tubes and I do notice I have to drop and move my jaw forward a bit. The rest is done with muscles in and around my jaw and inside my head somewhere.
It’s super easy to do freediving but with scuba keeping the reg in kinda becomes a trick.

 

[Subcooled]

A query about a point that has caused comment about my CGI scuba diving images:

What proportion of scuba divers can equalize their ears without pinching their noses (either by hand or by a noseclip)?

I can do it easily routinely, by pinching my nose by the action of 2 small muscles called "compressor naris" or similar, which run from the front of the cartilaginous nasal septum back to the bone of the face. Their effect is to wrinkle the nose. I was surprised when I found that many divers can't do that.

A completely new technique to me. I do use some muscles around my eustachian tubes instead.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

People might be interested in this thread: Ear problem, Tinnitus & Buzzing - Never Diving Again

I'd recommend paying extra attention to comment posted by @Angelo Farina and @Duke Dive Medicine

 

[Angelo Farina]

Sure, both ears. I can open the canals in question by some muscle movement, used to do while humming to myself since I was a kid.

Exactly the same for me. I learned when I was 8 years old and I was given my first oval Pirelli mask..

 

[Jay Adams]

I can, but only after moving out of New England. I think I was allergic to the whole state.

New england is not a state. it is made up of 6 of them.

 

[MattAO]

Yea very easily. I occasionally frustrate my dive buddies because I can drop like a rock to depth and they are fiddling with equalizing.

 

[AhoyFed]

Cousteau’s divers just swallowed and moved their lower jaw around to equalize. Way easier to do that and less likely to burst an ear drum from blowing your nose too hard. There was no mention of this in my OW course, learned everything useful outside of that course.