When I first started freediving, not being able to equalize my ears prevented me from going deeper than 4-5 meters. This was something that bothered me. My friends told me I couldn't sync because there was "something wrong" with my ears. Actually, there was nothing wrong with my ears, I didn't know how to sync correctly and I just didn't have friends with the knowledge to teach it.
It took me time to learn to equalize while diving upside down. Later, the freediving brothers I met at the pool in Ankara taught me a few techniques and I realized that the problem was not with me but with my equalization technique. Unless you really have an anatomical problem, there's no reason why you can't equalize for freediving.
What Should We Equalize While Freediving?
There are air spaces in our body, and when we start to go deeper, the pressure increases and the air spaces in our body get smaller. By blowing air into these spaces to balance - if we don't equalize the pressure in them and bring them to the same level as their volume on the surface - then unequalization problems begin.
The air spaces that need to be equalized while free diving are our ears, sinuses, and mask. When we talk about equalizing our ears, we are actually talking about our middle ear, which is located behind the eardrum and is connected to the back of your throat via the Eustachian tubes. Meanwhile, our sinuses are tiny air spaces in our anterior skull, behind our eyes, nose, and cheekbones.
To avoid potentially diving problems, we need to pump air into our sinuses, ears, and mask to equalize the pressure inside them as we descend. I will discuss ear, sinus and mask equalization issues separately in subsequent blog posts.
If for some reason you can't sync, don't force yourself to dive any deeper.
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