Can you handle the pressure?!

[Blondie]

No really! How do you handle the pressure of the water when you go under?

I used to be pretty good at going down deep, but as of lately over eight feet begins to irritate my body. Which sucks because I used to go much farther then that... I try popping my ears and letting some air out as I go down, but I still feel a lot of pressure on me. Especially in my head.

So how far can you swim down before the pressure begins to get to you? And what are some other tips to beat the pressure?

[AniaR]

I dont, and it sucks My ears have ALWAYS given me issues. When I was a kid I had tubes so many times I lost count. I was never allowed to get them wet and that was part of the reason why I didn't learn to swim until later on in life. I use silicone puddy right now to keep the water out. If I get the tiniest amount in my ear and dont treat it right away with an antibiotic I get MASSIVE ear infections. My ears kill if I go too deep in water, and they kill on air planes too. They've gotten better in the past few years and when I flew to Florida they seemed to clear as long as I kept drinking water, but I've never found the holding the nose to pop them helpful at all, only really painful.

It really bothers me a lot, not only does it hold me back with my swimming, I really want to learn to scuba dive and no one will teach me til I figure out my ears. So far with swimming I usually have no reason to go down past 8 or 9 feet. But I want to improve and it's hard to do that with stupid ears

[Mermaid Sirena]

You might have a cold or some kind of illness that is you don't notice during regular day time. I've found several times that I had similar issues going deep down when I was perfectly healthy but then later was hit with a head cold or sinus infection or something else. Everything is so delicately in balance within our selves that if even a single thing is off everything is out of whack and full body pressure such as underwater is rarely a pleasant feeling when your not in perfect health. Often it's hard to even know when something is wrong if it does not create symptoms loud enough for us to notice in everyday life.

[Ayla of Duluth]

I can't do it. I can go down to 6 feet comfortably, but anything past 7 feet is suddenly excruciating. I tried holding my nose to pop my ears once, not only did that not help, it just made the pain worse. I haven't tried it since. I'm currently looking for clear ear plugs that I can use to keep the water out of my ears. I'm hoping that solves my depth issue. I live on top of a large hill that my city is built on, and when I go from top to bottom, the atmospheric pressure change doesn't bug me at all.
Im also worried about my ears keeping me from being a mermaid at my local aquarium. The tanks there are really deep and I'm wondering how far down I'm going to be able to get to entertain the kids. But I've really only ever noticed the ear pain in chlorinated pools. Not in lakes or anything. I wonder if the kind of water has anything to do with how deep I can go.

[LindseyLu]

I have this problem as well... For me the pain can vary on the day, some days are better and some worse. When I started swimming on a regular basis it was much worse. I have found practice has been the most help to me. I use to only be able to dive down about 8-10 feet, now on a good day I can go up to 25-30 feet.

Side note @Raina - I still have excrutiating pain when I fly, so I use "earplanes" http://www.gadgetreviews.co/other-ga...ing-ear-plugs/. I have been traveling with them (won't fly w/o em) for 15 yrs and I swear by them. You may want to check em out? I'm not sure if they will work for swimming issues, but they are fabulous for planes!!

[Kanti]

Hmm I've never thought of that. I don't really like the pressure feeling in my ears and head but I've never
gotten so annoyed that I wasn't able to go as far as I've wanted.
I have no idea o_o

[Ilonka]

Iv never had problems of any kind in the water, its my element I guess. Furthest iv freedived is 50 feet, and its the most amazing view in the world when u reach the bottom and look upwards. I'm exited to take deep water photos in my tail

[Nixen Nicole]

I find that if I swallow as I dive or wiggle my jaw my ears equalize as I go down. It is actually harder on SCUBA as breathing the compressed, dehydrated air dries my mouth and throat out to the point that swallowing is almost impossible. I also find that not going head first makes it far simpler to equalize.

[Merman_Shawn]

When I was training to be a junior life-guard, they would throw a rubber coated brick into the 13ft side of the pool and make us retrieve it. It was a great exercise in learning to deal with pressure, but it was really uncomfortable for me too. I felt like my head was going to implode! lol
It's been years, so I wonder what I can tolerate anymore... Hmmm.

[Gem Stone]

Im a diver so I learned how to clear my ears (please don't try it on your own, you can mess yourself up bad) and I've also notice that if I have bad allergies, that will effect how much my ears hurt me. Besides that, I can go down 35 ft ( that's the deepest I've ever tried so far) without a lot of problems

[lynsea]

My ears are pretty sensitive and I need to clear them every few feet. My advice would be that if you are finding the pressure is too much to clear your ears at 7 ft, start clearing them as soon as you go under.

[Mermaid Annariea]

what do you guys mean by "clear your ears"?
my head & ears start to hurt at about 9 - 10 feet. it sucks, and sometimes it stays after i surface, which is excruciating :/

[halesloveswhales]

I learned from SCUBA that you have to start equalizing your ears well before it starts to hurt. Wiggle your jaw or swallow or pretend you're yawning as you descend. If your ears start to hurt, then ascend to where they don't hurt, equalize, and then continue descent. Hope this helps

[Mermaid Annariea]

ohh okay, thanks hales (:

[lynsea]

You know how when you are in a plane and the pressure starts to build in your ears, you squeeze your nose shut and try to blow through it and this clears your ears? That's what we mean. This effect is exaggerated in water because it is so much more dense. You just do the exact same thing you would do in a plane only more frequently.

[Derek Broussard]

Clearing your ears can be tricky. There are muscles used to push air through your eustachian tubes. It takes practice and muscle control to clear effectively. The holy grail of freediving is to be able to equalize hands free! Along with muscle control. Diet can play a factor too, dairy products are known to make a person more "mucasy" in the sinus and ears making it harder to equalize
There are two common methods of equalizing:
Valsalva
Pinch your nose and try to blow some air out through your nose, this air wil go into your sinusses and ears.

Frenzel
http://folk.uio.no/gardot/frenzel.pdf

If you are diving beyond 12 feet you may also be feeling effects of pressure on your anatomy. Doing diaphragm stretches will help with the feeling of pressure, and with keeping contractions at bay.

Here is a tutorial I made on how to do diaphragm stretches

[Mermaid Margarete]

I haven't swam in a pool in a long time, but I remember the severe pain in my ear I associated with diving too deep or touching the bottom of the 12' zone.

There is some great advice here, tho, that I'll be using when I hit the pool next week. =D

[Koral]

In a pool, I can go 9 feet quite comfortably concerning my ears, haven't found a deeper pool yet to try and test my limits, and I am far from the beautiful ocean.
My problem I had was when this little girl kept tossing her snake out wanting to dive with me for it nonstop (yep, I have to learn to boundary them I know), the pressure changing so fast back and forth eventually bothered my nose deep in my sinuses. I got over it quickly when I finally stopped for a few minutes.

As for stopping it, I don't know if there's many good tips. For me, it's likely because I have been a waterbaby my... entire life since I can remember? At younger than 10, I was diving under and swimming across the entire pool. Just keep trying but don't overdo it! Have faith.

[MerEmma]

I want to go really, really deep. I don't think I can, though. I don't get bothered until 9-10, and most of the time it isn't too horrible. That's in a pool, though. The deepest I've been in the ocean was 14 feet and there is no way I could swim down to the bottom. I was way too scared. xD

[Coradion]

Like 80' is as far as I'm comfortable with right now. Don't have many free diving friends to go with. Just adjust every ten feet or so and it'll get better.