Bloody Nose

Blood in the snot is usually associated with equalizing problems. Were you having difficulty equalizing and blow too hard? You can force it and dive like this, but if you always do it eventually you'll have a time where the effects will persist after the dive, and may completely prevent you from equalizing and diving again for a couple of weeks. It's not a big deal but best to stop and not dive for a couple of days until your passages clear up.

Thread moved to diving section.

welcome to the board
as for the nose blood, i think it just happens to some divers perhaps related to thin capilaries or nasal membranes..based on the fact that you are congested I would say it is more related to that...esp at the shallow depths you are diving

my advice would be to let your cold pass, then get in the habit of either taking sudafed the night before a dive of using a sinus rinse (i use the neti pot) often to keep your sinuses clear.

on a side note, since you are in my neighborhood, we wont be diving for a while looking at the extended forecast :@
happy and safe diving

My friend had a similar problem and it turned out that he had sinus polyps that had to be removed with surgery. However if you had a similar condition you would probably know about it already.

Clark...wow, good to ask, you are not equalizing your mask, or your tubes it sounds like. You can seriously hurt yourself and it is a good thing you have been staying shallow.

pinch your nose with you hand and GENTLY blow out your nose...your ears will "pop", this is equalizing, you should do it every three - five feet as you dive, or when you feel pressure. on land you are over pressurizing them and that too can be dangerous...your lungs can generate astounding amounts of pressure.

I can clear with out my hands but dont because of the mask issue you discussed.

the mask air will be compressed as you decend, this creates a vacuum which will pull very hard against your face and tender membranes in your nose and eyes..after you clear your ears you release your hand from your nose and some air will be released from your nose into your mask and equalize it to the depth...very little air will do it.

it will come with some practice and very quickly be second nature.

you can practice in a regular pool at the bottom

hi clark first welcome and second lunker hit on with the way he say but i may add something to help you that i use , i have hard time in my left ear sometimes and if you move your head sideway pointing you ear up and do it gently this help to clear that side that is giving you problems . i hope this mya help . be safe you try to swallow in dry this is hard but no imposible , but with some practice it will come to you and that is save for outside the water. good luck .

que viva la pesca:cuba:

You equalize by closing your mouth and your nostrils/pinching them together with your fingers, and forcing air into your upper cavities by flexing something in your throat/neck area. Some people can do this without pinching the nose.

I doubt you would be diving to 15ft if you weren't equalizing in one way or another, you'd feel too much pain in your ears.

The only thing about a mask is that it allow easy pinching of the nose from the outside.

I have noticed that around 30' even with clearing my ears I have to blow a very small amount of air into my mask though my nose to depressurise my mask and it make me much more comfortable.

Hi guys, I didn't want to start another thread and clog up the forum but need some advice from you all. Went diving two weeks ago and had some sinus pressure that usually just goes away and "squeaks" out when i get to a certain depth, however this last time I had bloody mucus coming out my nose and in my loogies when I hucked it out. I waited about a week and went on antibiotics per the doctor's orders and did the neti pot 2x a day 4 days before my last dive and took claritin D and mucinex to help thin my mucus. This past dive, sinus pressure wasn't as bad, but still had some blood coming out.

Talked to my dive buddies and had two different opinions. One said to not dive for a month to give the blood vessels time to heal and the other said that diving more often helps cleared him up when he had the same problem. Any advice from guys that have similar experiences?

Thanks!

I had this a couple of times. My feeling is to ease off on the diving. It helped mine go away. The simple logic is that you're stressing blood vessels which is causing the bleeding. If you keep stressing them, they don't get a chance to heal.

Thanks Dan, any suggestion how long to not dive? Two weeks? A month?

I'd do two weeks. Then try and you'll feel it if it's happening again, if so stop diving and wait another week. It should clear up eventually.

Will do. Guess I gotta service my gear and watch YouTube videos! Haha.
Thanks for the advice.

The negative pressure in the mask can pull some blood out from the nose/sinuses. The pressure from the mask will also make equalizing the ears more difficult. So when you feel the mask getting tight, it's better to first equalize the mask and then the ears.

There are 2 main equalizing techniques, Valsalva and Frenzel. Valsalva is not good for freediving. Frenzel can take some time to master, if you're not doing it naturally, however it is a superior technique. Also many people equalize partly with Valsalva and partly Frenzel.