![]() Anatomy of the Ear Equalizing Our Sinuses When We Freedive ![]() ![]() We need to put air into our sinuses, ears, and mask in order to equalize the pressure within them as we descend in order to prevent potentially serious injury. They reduce the weight of your skull, humidify the air that you breathe, help prevent infection from the body, insulate the eyes, protect the brain during head trauma and add resonance when we speak or sing. Our sinuses, meanwhile, are small air cavities in our frontal skull, behind our eyes, nose, and cheekbones. When we talk about equalizing our ears, we are actually referring to our middle ear, located behind your eardrum and connected to the back of your throat via the Eustachian tubes. The air spaces that need to be equalized when we freedive are our ears, sinuses, mask, and lungs. If we do not add air into these spaces to compensate – equalizing the pressure within them and bringing them to the same volume we have at the surface – then injury will occur. Our body contains air spaces and as discussed in the previous article on depth and pressure, when we descend in water, the air spaces inside our body get smaller. Freediver descending down a line and equalizing (Photo: Immersion Freediving) What Do We Need To Equalize When We Freedive? Here we will look at how to equalize, the common problems you might encounter, and how you can overcome them. I always tell students that if I can learn to do it, then anyone can, and I have never met anyone who cannot learn to equalize for freediving, given enough time and perseverance. It took almost a year for me to learn how to equalize headfirst and for my body to adapt to being in water and upside down. This was incredibly frustrating, compounded by those around me who told me that I would never be able to equalize because there was “something wrong” with my ears. I could just about equalize to a depth of a few meters if I hauled myself down feet first, but if I tried to equalize head first then nothing happened. ![]() When I first started freediving I was limited immediately by my inability to equalize the pressure in my ears. This article is part 11 of 21 in the Beginners Guide to Freediving ![]()
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