[quote=“MJB”][quote=“jdsmith”]As part of my scuba course, I had to do some skin diving in a 5 meter pool. So, I took a couple of deep breaths, and piked my body, straightened my legs and went down. When my fins were under water I kicked twice and before I could even pinch my nose and equalize the air pressure in my ears, POOOOF, my eardrum blew out!
So, now what? There’s nothing I can do right? Just wait. My ENT Dr gave me some antibiotics, and set up an appointment to check my hearing in a few days.
Now, the headache is gone, but I feel like I’ve got water in my ear and say “Huh?” a lot.
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You must have had either a nasty ear infection or a pre-existing condition in either the middle ear or your eustachian tube (some people’s are abnormally small). It’s not common to pop an eardrum at such a shallow depth, but your instructor should have made aware to you that it is much more difficult to equalize in the heads down position. In order to compensate for this, you need to equalize before your fins even get to the water when freediving. Two fin kicks in the head-down position could have taken you right to the bottom of the pool, and you should have equalized at least twice by then.
This is bad news for your future hobby…You’ll need at least a year to recover, and then you’ll be faced with having a predisposition for the same problem. You were lucky it didn’t happen in the open ocean, as vertigo and nausea are common after rupturing the eardrum.
If you are cleared for diving sometime in the future, remember to test the entire assembly before even going down, whether it be freediving or scuba. Do your first equalization at the surface…Both sides should equalize smoothly and without much effort. Then drop down 4 feet or so (in a heads-up position) and try again. If your equalization is as smooth as before, then you can consider your descent. If you feel pressure to equalize then you’ve already waited too long…Ascend a few feet then equalize.
Lastly, find a sports ENT who has experience with (diving) pressure-related ear injuries…And make sure you are cleared by him before even attempting to dive again.
You have a long wait my friend…Sorry. 
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Sorry jdsmith. That’s a real bummer. I reckon MJB’s right about having already had some sort of problem or weakness with your ear before this happened though. Either that or it was just one of those freaky bad luck things. I used to be a lifeguard at a Commonwealth (think “almost” Olympic) swimming pool, and the diving pool was 5 metres deep. Before even getting the job, you had to dive down to the bottom as fast as possible and pull up a heavy dummy. The pressure down there is not pleasant at all, so I feel for you. That said, the whole 5 years that I worked there, I never heard of anyone damaging their eardrum. If you had hurt it while you were equalising, I would have said that you had forced it a bit too much, but like you said, you hadn’t even got to that part.
Oh, and by the way, I’m pretty sure you shouldn’t use earplugs (someone mentioned them) to avoid the pressure down there. I’m not a diver though. Maybe someone else would like to comment. I only know that we were told as lifeguards that it wasn’t a good idea.
Sorry.
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