Improve Your Equalization
DIVER Canada|Spring 2023
All methods for equalizing your ears are simply ways to open the lower ends of your Eustachian tubes so air can enter. Most divers learn the Valsalva maneuver, but there are other equalization techniques divers may wish to try.
Improve Your Equalization

Valsalva Maneuver 

Pinch Your Nose and Exhale 

Pinch your nostrils (or close them against your mask skirt) and gently blow through your nose. The resulting overpressure in your throat usually forces air up your Eustachian tubes.

But the Valsalva maneuver has three problems:

It does not activate muscles which open the Eustachian tubes, so it may not work if the tubes are already locked by a pressure differential.

It’s too easy to blow hard enough to damage something.

Blowing against a blocked nose raises your internal fluid pressure, including the fluid pressure in your inner ear and possibly leading to an inner ear injury such as a round window rupture. So don’t blow too hard, and don’t maintain pressure for more than five seconds.

Swallowing—and various methods of equalizing—are all ways of opening the normally closed Eustachian tubes, reducing the pressure differential between the outer ear and inner ear. The safest clearing methods utilize the muscles of the throat to open the tubes. Unfortunately, the Valsalva maneuver that most divers are taught does not activate these muscles, but forces air from the throat into the Eustachian tubes.

この蚘事は DIVER Canada の Spring 2023 版に掲茉されおいたす。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トラむアルを開始しお、䜕千もの厳遞されたプレミアム ストヌリヌ、9,000 以䞊の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしおください。

この蚘事は DIVER Canada の Spring 2023 版に掲茉されおいたす。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トラむアルを開始しお、䜕千もの厳遞されたプレミアム ストヌリヌ、9,000 以䞊の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしおください。

DIVER CANADAのその他の蚘事すべお衚瀺
Fun With a Smart Phone
DIVER Canada

Fun With a Smart Phone

Compact digital cameras are fast disappearing in favour of smartphones. How about underwater photography?

time-read
2 分  |
Summer 2023
An Old Encounter
DIVER Canada

An Old Encounter

The mighty St. Lawrence River, in its Quebec section, has swallowed hundreds of wrecks through the centuries, many of them still unvisited.

time-read
2 分  |
Summer 2023
Al is Coming to Diving
DIVER Canada

Al is Coming to Diving

You are about to enter another dimension—a scuba dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land of imagination. Next stop
no, not the Twilight Zone
but the AI Zone! Yes, Artificial Intelligence is coming to scuba diving.

time-read
2 分  |
Summer 2023
Preventing heat exhaustion
DIVER Canada

Preventing heat exhaustion

Beautiful sunny days have a way of coaxing us outside for adventuring, exploring, and diving. But it’s important to be mindful during your outdoor activities of the risks of heat-related illnesses— especially in the summer.

time-read
2 分  |
Summer 2023
You Won't Impress Your Cave Instructor
DIVER Canada

You Won't Impress Your Cave Instructor

I am so sorry for disappointing you!” My student apologized as he tossed his cave diving light into the gear crate and dropped his fins beside my truck.

time-read
5 分  |
Summer 2023
THE PERFECT STORM
DIVER Canada

THE PERFECT STORM

WORDS AND PHOTOS BY NICOLE WEBSTER

time-read
9 分  |
Summer 2023
PROTECTING NAYAANO NIBIIMAANG GICHIGAMIIN
DIVER Canada

PROTECTING NAYAANO NIBIIMAANG GICHIGAMIIN

The Great Lakes Watershed

time-read
10+ 分  |
Summer 2023
Phil Nuytten: DIVER
DIVER Canada

Phil Nuytten: DIVER

Industry luninaries remember diving legend Phil Nuytten, OC, OBC, DSc (hon), LLD (hon): magazine publisher, engineer, innovator, artist, businessman, eccentric, raconteur, magician, writer, husband, father... and-first and foremost-diver. (1941-2023)

time-read
10+ 分  |
Summer 2023
Phil Nuytten - SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION ADDRESS
DIVER Canada

Phil Nuytten - SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY CONVOCATION ADDRESS

A final Soundings column from DIVER Publisher and Senior Editor Phil Nuytten, taken from his 1995 address to students in British Columbia

time-read
4 分  |
Summer 2023
NEW DEEP CAVE DIVING RECORD SET IN CHINA
DIVER Canada

NEW DEEP CAVE DIVING RECORD SET IN CHINA

Renowned Chinese cave diver Han Ting surfaced after a 12-and-a-half-hour dive to 910.1 feet (77.4m) in Jiudun Cave, a new Asia deep cave diving record. The dive was a part of the Duan’s Juidun Cave Features (DJCF) project.

time-read
2 分  |
Summer 2023