How do you dive really deep without exploding/imploding your head?

[smp]

I'm just curious .. because this past weekend I went snorkelling for the first time and I couldn't go down all that deep .. my ears would hurt too much, what do scuba divers do to be able to go down so deep? I wanna be able to go down deep too.

 

[ISAslot]

Hold your nose and blow

 

[rgwalt]

The reason your ears hurt is that the pressure on the outside of your ear drums increases as you dive deeper. The pressure on the inside of your ear drum does not compensate, and the difference in pressure stretches your ear drum causing pain. To counter the effect, a scuba diver will pinch their nose, close their mouth, and blow or try to exhale. This forces more air through your eustation tubes (sp) to the cavity behind your ear drum. In doing so it is like you are blowing up a ballon, and you equalize the pressure on either side of your ear drum.

Ryan

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

Originally posted by: smp
I'm just curious .. because this past weekend I went snorkelling for the first time and I couldn't go down all that deep .. my ears would hurt too much, what do scuba divers do to be able to go down so deep? I wanna be able to go down deep too.

Practice and training. Its as simple as that.

1) Try diving down near your limits.
2) Hang out there until you need to come up for air.
3) Repeat until it doesn't hurt anymore.
4) Dive down a bit deeper.
5) Back to step #1.

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

Originally posted by: rgwalt
The reason your ears hurt is that the pressure on the outside of your ear drums increases as you dive deeper. The pressure on the inside of your ear drum does not compensate, and the difference in pressure stretches your ear drum causing pain. To counter the effect, a scuba diver will pinch their nose, close their mouth, and blow or try to exhale. This forces more air through your eustation tubes (sp) to the cavity behind your ear drum. In doing so it is like you are blowing up a ballon, and you equalize the pressure on either side of your ear drum.

Ryan

Not to be a dick, but have you ever actually tried this? If you blow too hard, you can easily hurt something - especially as you come back up to the surface. I recommend just practicing. You're less likely to hurt yourself this way.

 

[Darein]

The only way you are going to get past about 10 feet is clearing your ears. Isaslot and rgwalt have the right idea. Something that I do when I dive is move your jaw up and down, kinda like your chewing. This will also cause your ears to equalize. The thing with blowing your nose or the jaw is that if you have a cold or slight congestion it probably will not work, just don't force it. Blowing too hard and getting a bloody nose or hurting your ear really is a bummer.

 

[raidernation]

While going down, instead of pinching your nose and exhaling, you can just swallow. It equalizes the pressure between the water and your ears.

 

[bbkat]

Originally posted by: raidernation
While going down, instead of pinching your nose and exhaling, you can just swallow.

I tell my GF this all the time but she doesn't believe me.









Wait................. water?

 

[XMan]

I've read that it's possible to go so deep that your body can't assimilate standard atmosphere; instead, you have to breath a mixture of helium and oxygen.

 

[LostHiWay]

Is it possible to breath a liquid form of O2 like they did in "The Abyss" or was that just movie BS?

 

[XMan]

Originally posted by: LostHiWay
Is it possible to breath liquid like they did in "The Abyss" or was that just movie BS?

No, that was real.

Did you know that the air pressure in scuba tanks is so intense, that if one has a pinhole leak, the air rushes out fast enough to sever a limb if you pass your hand over it?

 

[dakata24]

Originally posted by: Xerox Man

Originally posted by: LostHiWay
Is it possible to breath liquid like they did in "The Abyss" or was that just movie BS?

No, that was real.

are you serious? woah.. didnt know that.. that would definately be a weird experience..

 

[smp]

Thanks guys

Heh .. speaking of the abyss .. I was snorkelling at this great place called Bruce Peninsula up here in Ontario .. it's a really nice place, but anyways... there is an escarpment that is made up of 30 meter cliffs.. but these cliffs keep going down for another 170 meters!!! .. so yeah, it's great to snorkel over the abyss and just look down, it gets really dark and cold. There are some really nice caves and grottos and stuff there too. This one cave you can get into through an underwater passage, but it's about 12 feet down and it hurts my ears too much to attempt it.

 

[rgwalt]

Originally posted by: KnightBreed

Originally posted by: rgwalt
The reason your ears hurt is that the pressure on the outside of your ear drums increases as you dive deeper. The pressure on the inside of your ear drum does not compensate, and the difference in pressure stretches your ear drum causing pain. To counter the effect, a scuba diver will pinch their nose, close their mouth, and blow or try to exhale. This forces more air through your eustation tubes (sp) to the cavity behind your ear drum. In doing so it is like you are blowing up a ballon, and you equalize the pressure on either side of your ear drum.

Ryan

Not to be a dick, but have you ever actually tried this? If you blow too hard, you can easily hurt something - especially as you come back up to the surface. I recommend just practicing. You're less likely to hurt yourself this way.

Well, my dad used to dive and this is what he taught me. smp asked about scuba diving, not free diving. Your method would definitely work better for free diving. In fact, blowing, swallowing, or chewing doesn't really work at all for free diving. The reason it works for scuba diving is that the regulator matches the pressure that your air tank delivers with that of the surrounding water. If it didn't, you couldn't breathe. This is why you can't breathe through a hose that runs to the surface unless something is supplying compressed air.

Ryan

 

[rgwalt]

Originally posted by: Xerox Man
I've read that it's possible to go so deep that your body can't assimilate standard atmosphere; instead, you have to breath a mixture of helium and oxygen.

As pressures increase when you dive, the pressure that must be delivered by your scuba tank via the regulator must also increase. The air available via the regulator must match the pressure of the surrounding water within a few psi or you can't breathe. However, the phase behavior of oxygen in blood changes with pressure, so at higher pressures, not as much oxygen can dissolve. This is why the mixture must change to helium and O2. Exactly what happens and why, I'm not clear on though.

Ryan

 

[LethalWolfe]

Originally posted by: dakata24

Originally posted by: Xerox Man

Originally posted by: LostHiWay
Is it possible to breath liquid like they did in "The Abyss" or was that just movie BS?

No, that was real.

are you serious? woah.. didnt know that.. that would definately be a weird experience..

I saw a special on "liquid air" on the Discovery channel a few years ago. They liquid they had was clear like water but heavier. A practical application is to use it on hospitalized people who require a respirator to breathe. I guess being on a respirator<sp?> too long can start to damage yer lungs, but using the liquid air would not be harmful at all and would actually help to keep the lungs clean and clear (when the liquid would get changed any crap in yer lungs would be pumped out w/it).

On the discovery channel they showed it being used w/rats. The rats, poor guys, were held underwater (boy were they freakin' out) until they started to breathe the "water" and calmed down. But they still had this messed up "something isn't right here" look on their faces.


Lethal

 

[smp]

Originally posted by: rgwalt

Originally posted by: KnightBreed

Originally posted by: rgwalt The reason your ears hurt is that the pressure on the outside of your ear drums increases as you dive deeper. The pressure on the inside of your ear drum does not compensate, and the difference in pressure stretches your ear drum causing pain. To counter the effect, a scuba diver will pinch their nose, close their mouth, and blow or try to exhale. This forces more air through your eustation tubes (sp) to the cavity behind your ear drum. In doing so it is like you are blowing up a ballon, and you equalize the pressure on either side of your ear drum. Ryan

Not to be a dick, but have you ever actually tried this? If you blow too hard, you can easily hurt something - especially as you come back up to the surface. I recommend just practicing. You're less likely to hurt yourself this way.

Well, my dad used to dive and this is what he taught me. smp asked about scuba diving, not free diving. Your method would definitely work better for free diving. In fact, blowing, swallowing, or chewing doesn't really work at all for free diving. The reason it works for scuba diving is that the regulator matches the pressure that your air tank delivers with that of the surrounding water. If it didn't, you couldn't breathe. This is why you can't breathe through a hose that runs to the surface unless something is supplying compressed air. Ryan

Yeah, actually, I'm more interested in the steps that I can take to be able to dive deeper free diving (w/ snorkel anyways) ... so chewing or holding my nose and blowing would work right? What about coming back up, you would outward pressure on your ears on the way up wouldn't you? I mean, if you put more air into your ear sacks or whatever then when you come up it would expand would it not? I'm really digging the info in this thread though, didn't expect people to know this much .. hey, where is maxdepth?

 

[Luden]

trial & error.

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

Originally posted by: smp

Originally posted by: rgwalt

Originally posted by: KnightBreed

Originally posted by: rgwalt The reason your ears hurt is that the pressure on the outside of your ear drums increases as you dive deeper. The pressure on the inside of your ear drum does not compensate, and the difference in pressure stretches your ear drum causing pain. To counter the effect, a scuba diver will pinch their nose, close their mouth, and blow or try to exhale. This forces more air through your eustation tubes (sp) to the cavity behind your ear drum. In doing so it is like you are blowing up a ballon, and you equalize the pressure on either side of your ear drum. Ryan

Not to be a dick, but have you ever actually tried this? If you blow too hard, you can easily hurt something - especially as you come back up to the surface. I recommend just practicing. You're less likely to hurt yourself this way.

Well, my dad used to dive and this is what he taught me. smp asked about scuba diving, not free diving. Your method would definitely work better for free diving. In fact, blowing, swallowing, or chewing doesn't really work at all for free diving. The reason it works for scuba diving is that the regulator matches the pressure that your air tank delivers with that of the surrounding water. If it didn't, you couldn't breathe. This is why you can't breathe through a hose that runs to the surface unless something is supplying compressed air. Ryan

Yeah, actually, I'm more interested in the steps that I can take to be able to dive deeper free diving (w/ snorkel anyways) ... so chewing or holding my nose and blowing would work right? What about coming back up, you would outward pressure on your ears on the way up wouldn't you? I mean, if you put more air into your ear sacks or whatever then when you come up it would expand would it not? I'm really digging the info in this thread though, didn't expect people to know this much .. hey, where is maxdepth?

link

 

[MajesticMoose]

Originally posted by: KnightBreed

Originally posted by: rgwalt
The reason your ears hurt is that the pressure on the outside of your ear drums increases as you dive deeper. The pressure on the inside of your ear drum does not compensate, and the difference in pressure stretches your ear drum causing pain. To counter the effect, a scuba diver will pinch their nose, close their mouth, and blow or try to exhale. This forces more air through your eustation tubes (sp) to the cavity behind your ear drum. In doing so it is like you are blowing up a ballon, and you equalize the pressure on either side of your ear drum.

Ryan

Not to be a dick, but have you ever actually tried this? If you blow too hard, you can easily hurt something - especially as you come back up to the surface. I recommend just practicing. You're less likely to hurt yourself this way.

I've tried it and i know it works, as opposed to your method which would just strech the ear drum, which is bad. You can not blow too hard to hurt yourself, you can't even generate the pressure that accumulates at ten feet. as you rise to the surface, the excess pressure vents naturally.

As for the original question, pinchiing you nose and blowing is the most surefire way to do it. It will work everytime but you have to do it often. swallowing may work, but it is harder to do and doesn't do it for everyone. also the best way to hold your breath is to let it slowly escape. if you do that and build up slowly to longer times, you'll be pretty damn good soon.

 

[Atrail]

Becareful or you'll get The Bends...

 

[aphex]

Wear a condom.

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

Originally posted by: KnightBreed

Originally posted by: smp

Originally posted by: rgwalt

Originally posted by: KnightBreed

Originally posted by: rgwalt The reason your ears hurt is that the pressure on the outside of your ear drums increases as you dive deeper. The pressure on the inside of your ear drum does not compensate, and the difference in pressure stretches your ear drum causing pain. To counter the effect, a scuba diver will pinch their nose, close their mouth, and blow or try to exhale. This forces more air through your eustation tubes (sp) to the cavity behind your ear drum. In doing so it is like you are blowing up a ballon, and you equalize the pressure on either side of your ear drum. Ryan

Not to be a dick, but have you ever actually tried this? If you blow too hard, you can easily hurt something - especially as you come back up to the surface. I recommend just practicing. You're less likely to hurt yourself this way.

Well, my dad used to dive and this is what he taught me. smp asked about scuba diving, not free diving. Your method would definitely work better for free diving. In fact, blowing, swallowing, or chewing doesn't really work at all for free diving. The reason it works for scuba diving is that the regulator matches the pressure that your air tank delivers with that of the surrounding water. If it didn't, you couldn't breathe. This is why you can't breathe through a hose that runs to the surface unless something is supplying compressed air. Ryan

Yeah, actually, I'm more interested in the steps that I can take to be able to dive deeper free diving (w/ snorkel anyways) ... so chewing or holding my nose and blowing would work right? What about coming back up, you would outward pressure on your ears on the way up wouldn't you? I mean, if you put more air into your ear sacks or whatever then when you come up it would expand would it not? I'm really digging the info in this thread though, didn't expect people to know this much .. hey, where is maxdepth?

link

link #2 (some more info)

 

[jjones]

The best and most commonly used method by divers is to pinch the nose and blow to equalize the pressure in your ears. You have to do this frequently as you descend because even at 33 feet your at 2 atmospheres and that's why it can be painfull to even go 10 feet down without equalizing.

When ascending a scuba diver has to continually breath to exhale the compressed air he's receiving from his tank into his lungs; as he ascends the compressed air will expand and he can keep exhaling without very much inhaling. It doesn't matter for a free diver or snorkeler because the air in your lungs is taken in at the surface and your not breathing any compressed air.

Most recreational diving tanks are filled to 3000 psi; it's strong but it's not going to sever any limbs. Nitrox, Heliox and Trimix are mixed gases that generally speaking are for deep diving of 200 feet plus. Heliox is rarely used and most prefer Trimix when going really deep.

The latest diving technology is going to rebreathers; these are awesome self-contained units that recycle the air being used so you can dive deeper and longer. I have a friend exploring the underwater caverns here go as deep as 400 + feet using rebreathers. Very dangerous because its new technology and hasn't quite got all the bugs worked out of it yet. Getting in trouble at 400 feet underwater and inside a cave is not where you want to be.