What would you do?

[Merida Cave Diver]

Had an interesting situation today on a dive that I've never had before... So the dive is going well, following the cave and I'm heading to a bell. Go down to 40M and then head up (doing my deco) and surface inside the bell. Take a look around and head back down... but my left ear won't clear. I headed back up, and eventually got it cleared but it also hit me again at 25M and I still had to cross through the 40M area to get back to the entrance.

It gave me pause though... You have X amount of air, you can't clear your ears, and you have to go deeper to get out.... thoughts?

 

[Norwegian Cave Diver]

Is one side of your nose plugged? Take your mask off and blow your nose.

 

[Merida Cave Diver]

ah that's a good suggestion. I don't remember at the time but when I surfaced I did notice that.

 

[Jack Hammer]

I've had it happen a few times. Not forcing it is good. What worked for me was adjusting depth by a meter or 2 and just pausing a few seconds then slowly continuing on while continuously and gently equalizing. I have cleared my nose when needed on some longer dives and that seems to speed up the equalization in general. Not sure if that actually does anything or not but anecdotally it definately feels better.

 

[PfcAJ]

You’ve got at least a spare 1/3 of your gas supply as reserve. That’s a lot of time. Work the problem.

 

[Manatee Diver]

Happened to me in Peacock, on the way back through the chute you ascend from like 50-60ft to 15ft back down to 30 feet or so to exit. I just couldn't equalize on the way down to exit. I worked it well enough to get out with some slight pain. Now I use Afrin prophetically.

 

[rddvet]

I have chronic allergies and have had a couple of bad reverses. Silt outs and whatnot don’t worry me too much. But being in a roller coaster of a cave and getting a reverse bad enough I can’t clear it scares me much more.

 

[kensuf]

yeah, I had that once when I was 9k back in a cave, sitting in 80' of depth and staring down a hill that drops to 180' that I had to go through to get out. it wasn't fun, but you don't have much choice. Ear jams are sometimes caused by the "trap door effect" if you descend a little without clearing. If you can, try ascending a few feet/meters and then equalizing early on the way back down.