forward to to hear a “pop” of the Eustachian tubes opening, wiggling your ears in a
manner similar to how your ears move when you smile, or a movement in your throat
like yawning without opening your mouth. You can test all these methods in just a few
meters of water and if you are successful and do not feel any pressure or pain can
probably continue using this method to depth as long as you do it very often and never
allow pressure to build. Many people who master this technique are able to actually hold
the Eustachian tubes open and never have to “pop” their ears since the pressure is being
equalized nonstop. Consider yourself lucky if you are able to equalize using this hands
free method.
Valsalve Maneuver
The Valsalve Maneuver is the next most common
and automatic method to learn. With the nose
pinched closed pressure is applied in the chest in
an attempt to blow out the nose. This pressure is
a result of using muscles in your chest and the
diaphragm to create an positive pressure to
equalize the ears. The problem with this is that
the air in the lungs all the way to the ears has to
be pressurized equally which limits its
effectiveness due to shrinking lung volume
during a dive. A good test to see if you are using
the Valsalve method is to place your free hand on
your chest and feel for movement. Since this
technique requires the you to engage the muscles in your chest surrounding the lungs to
create the positive pressure you will be able to feel this movement in your chest. Unlike
other equalization techniques, the use of these large muscles in the chest each time you
equalize also burns precious oxygen. Not only is this detrimental for the use of oxygen,
but by tensing the muscles in the chest it also tightens the surrounding muscles all the
way up the neck and to the Eustachian tubes. Holding tension in this area makes
equalization difficult because the Eustachian tubes need to be relaxed and flexible in
order for them to open and allow air to pass through them. Although this method is the
easiest to perform, due to it's limited effectiveness and the large amount of energy
required it should not be a focused technique for aspiring freedivers.