water in the ears

hop on one foot till it comes out. If it still doesn't come out use some ear drops.

Whenever I get water in my ears and let it sit, i have a really hard time equalizing the next day...

Quote from madhatteras

hey yall I so new at this freediving thing and am still doing pool work. my question is in reference to water in the ears- I would like to know how to prevent this if possible and how to care for this when I do get water in my ears. thanks

Hoping on one foot and shaking your head works ( I do it) but also just to make sure put a couple drops of isopropyl alcohol in each ear every time you get out of the water ( pool or ocean) . Get it at the drug store-very cheap and put in a little dropper or squeeze bottle. This will dry out your ears and prevent an infection. Make it a habit. You can wear ear plugs,too if you want but only Doc's pro plugs in the ocean . The best for the pool are those silicon ones.

i slightly tilt my head to the side where i hear the water and then hop..i find this more successful than simply hopping and hoping

i agree about ISO after swimming, just to be safe w bacteria and such, but it is a nice drying tool too

If you look at the products they sell for swimmers like Ear-dry, etc, the active ingredient, like 98% is alcohol. A little tiny bottle is like 5 bucks, a rip off. I buy a big bottle of isopropyl alcohol 91%, for like 2 bucks at CVS and it last me like a whole year. Tilt my head, twist the cap half way, squeeze the bottle to get a small drip to fill up my ear canal for like 15 seconds and let it out. Repeat on the other side. Be careful though, it can make you dizzy as hell sometimes, the room will spin, but it wont last too long. If you can manage to get the alcohol close to body temperature, you wont get dizzy. I heard of someone using a syringe, filling it up with alcohol and run it under hot water in the sink to get it a bit warm... I tried it once and it worked, but its too much work for me so i just deal with it, it only lasts a minute or two. Alcohol dries relatively fast so it helps keep your ears dry.

I have always used hydrogen peroxide for its disinfecting properties.

After getting a few ear infections I started using 90% isopropyl alcohol cut with h2o,equal parts with a dropper.also use Docs ear plugs.there good for keeping water out,but also keeps your ear warmer.my ears are closing up from diving in cold Calif. water.you start to get this bump in the canal towards the bottom from cold water.Make sure you get the docs with the vent hole in center.