Did you know that your efforts at ear clearing directly impacts your attempts at saving air while scuba diving? Scuba divers equalize the ear canal for increasing water pressure as they descend.

And the least bit of struggle you have clearing your ears magnify that impact. The more you struggle the faster you burn through the air in your tank.

All scuba divers learn to adjust the empty space in the ear canal to the pressure of the water outside the body as you drop to diving depth. The diver who fails to equalize that pressure feels intense pain in the ears. The increasing water pressure trying to rush into the ears can destroy your ability to hear.

Before my research with scuba breathing techniques I had no idea ear clearing effected saving air while scuba diving. I just didn’t think about it until I deliberately set out to find ways to make my air last longer.

My ears are often slow to clear. Sometimes I struggle with my ear clearing efforts, and at those times I must descend slowly. On occasion I need to hover at one depth, and work on my ears a few minutes before continuing my descent.

I started paying attention to what happened with my air, and how fast I emptied each tank. I discovered that I sucked air faster when fighting to equalize my ears.

What I found was that as I struggled to clear, my anxiety grew. The more I fought to equalize, the faster I breathed. And until I realized that my breathing rate accelerated directly with increased struggles at ear clearing I didn’t connect it with ways for saving air while scuba diving.

As part of my campaign to discover how to make my air last longer I started paying attention to what happened when I cleared my ears. Each time I started a descent I focused on keeping myself calm, and my breathing slow.

The slowest way I found to breathe while ear clearing was to stop each time I felt the pressure, and stay at that depth until my ears cleared. While I clear my ears I focus on keeping my emotions calm, and my breathing steady, slow, and deep.

The task of hovering in place while ear clearing requires practiced skill at buoyancy control. If you continue descending before your ears clear you risk trauma to your auditory canal. At the very least you’ll never hear as well in your future as you do before the dive.

Sometimes to ease the pressure, and help you clear, you need to ascend a few feet. When you feel the pressure dropping off a little, clear your ears and start back down.

On dives when water conditions make your buoyancy control difficult you can surface fin to a buoy, or the anchor line. Use the line as a handhold to keep yourself in place while you clear your ears. I found that when I do this I don’t get as anxious, and my mind is much easier to calm. The rope serves as a psychological security point I guess.

You have a number of things to think about when you’re intent on saving air while scuba diving. Ear clearing is one of those safety necessities that impact your hearing ability. But struggles to clear your ears also can make you suck your air tank dry faster than a rattlesnake striking at your ankle.