HANDS FREE Equalization: This Technique took me to 30m+

🤿 Help FREEDIVERS and SPEARFISHERMEN Hold Their Breath for 4+ Minutes! 💦

🐬🐬 Hi, I'm Gert Leroy, a certified freediving instructor and former national record holder. On this channel, I'll guide you on how to hold your breath longer and enjoy more time underwater.

🐬🐬 Join me for:
• Expert breathing techniques
• Extended breath-holds
• Powerful meditation practices

#Freediving #Spearfishing #Breathing

[gertleroy]

🤿 Help FREEDIVERS and SPEARFISHERMEN Hold Their Breath for 4+ Minutes! 💦

[nathankeck]

I have taught myself voluntary tubal opening as a kid. The method I used was first block my ears whilst being above water by pinching my nose and making a slight vacuum or suction in my mouth. Next whilst maintaining the suction and pinched nose you equalise by either moving your jaw or swallowing. You will hopefully feel your ears block up. When you can block your ears like this manually you use this to focus on consciously controlling the eustachian tube muscles to 'click' open or contract. It sounds like a click inside your head. I believe everyone hears the click when they equalise, your goal is to do this on purpose. I practiced blocking and unblocking like this for several minutes multiple times per day untill I was able to one day just do it automatically without touching my nose both blocking and unblocking.

[hawkfpv]

I'm blown away, I always tried to go to the bottom of the deep end when I was swimming (12 feet) and couldn't because of the pressure and I always wondered how scuba drivers did it. 😅 I can't wait to try equalizing

[williamstreet]

I'm 71 years old and just beginning to free dive. I don't get very deep now. But I'm working on improvement - not for depth records - just for the ability to see more beauty and to spearfish. I currently use the nose hold to equalize and am not great at that. My deepest free dive is only about 10 or 12 meters. Thank you for this video. I look forward to trying this in the Med in the fall.

[AndiRahmanChanharun]

HI Gert, I really appreciate your youtube channel, all things that I search all of my life about freediving knowledge and technique, finally found it here. Thankyou so much!!!

[Monorijder]

In the past with scubadiving I had always ear and equalizing problems. Even with the swallow technique I couldn't get equalized. What worked for me was starting equalizing before my head goes under water. These days I practice underwaterhockey and have no dificulties getting equalized anymore 😀. Great footage Gert 👌

[davidcollins]

I use hands free without swallowing. I create a pocket of air between tongue, and roof of my mouth. I then press my tongue up agaist the roof of my mouth. Some of the air moves into the ears. Been doing it for years.

[roccothamanoidis]

Learned it right away with hands free on my first 4 scuba training dives this year. It was the method that worked best for me. :)

[chimberlysilooy]

Woww!!!! This is the content I need! Before I got a lisensce, I ever had watching movies that showing people can stay for a long time in the water and deeper and then I got the answer from your video. Hopeful I can learn more from your video and also practice this technique! Thank you so much!

[exoticbutter]

I can just pop my ears whenever i want without doing anything dont even know how

[jfb]

I use the half-yawn (not sure how else to call it). When I yawn fully, I always hear a popping sound in both my ears. So, I started doing the first movement of the yawn without actually opening my mouth and that again popped my ears. I can now do this equalising almost instantaneous without having to swallow, just a small movement of my tongue is enough.

[daveb]

Two thoughts on practice:
1) swim along bottom of 4-5 m pool, equalizing continuously (hands free). This is how I learned initially.
2) On the line, equalize normally at 5m. Then, go down hands free, head up from there. The pressure change is slower, of course — easier to learn.

[jonasfoglszinger]

I was able to hands free equalize for almost as long as I can remember.
I taught it to myself by trial and error at the age of ~6 to equalize the pressure from tunnels in trains without having to touch my nose.
Its hard to describe what I am doing. Its like wiggeling your ears.
I would say the following:
For me it simple feels like there is amuscle (and there probabply is), which opens up the path to the ears.
I think it is importaint to know that this is possible at least in principle (even if you can't controll this muscle right now)
So How to get there:
Swallowing is a good start I guess. Maybe try to wallow with less and less Saliva. You will sometimes fail to swallow, but justTRY.
The funnny thing is: Sometimes or even mostly, you will equalize even if you fail. You can do this easliy at land as well.
Just pay atttention to what is going on there (musculr wise). Try to recreate this without actually swallowing at last.
Trying this you will can and probably should create all kind of Gurns. Thats what I did in the beginning.
By now i can equalize constantly (simple keep the connection open), or open and close it at a rate of about 1.5Hz without showing any facial expression.
You can do it as well.

[freediver_j]

Hey Gert! I've been able to hands free equalize for as long as I remember. I've been diving following my spearo brother around since I was around 9 (16 years ago) and I don't ever remember needing my hands to equalize.

Not sure what technique I use but if i had to describe it, it is like forcing a hiccup, if that doesn't get it done then I do the force hiccup while simultaneously flexing the side of my neck (focusing the on the muscles attached just below my ear to my salivary gland under my jaw, but not the entire muscle going down to the base of the neck). Usually the faster I go down, the easier it is because that extra pressure acts as potential energy that allows me to do lighter "hiccups" and/or side neck flexes.

If I had to describe the "hiccuping" it would be like this:
1. Your teeth are not closed and your lower jaw is relaxed open.
2. Very very slightly imagine you are flexing the muscles under your chin to push your lower jaw in back towards your throat. But very very lightly. Even just the thought of trying it should be enough.
3. Flex your throat WITHOUT flexing your neck (except you can optionally flex the small muscles on the side of your neck that go from the bottom of your ear to your salivary gland under your jaw).

[gdmfsob]

i am taking my level II AIDA course this month! nervous and excited!

i have never used my hands on my face to equalize. a combination of swallowing, pressing the soft palate with the tongue, and moving my jaw has always worked for scuba (100 feet, slow descent) or recreational freediving (10 meters, slightly weighted descent). hopefully this capability will serve as i get formal training. but learning frenzel as backup sounds pretty smart as well ❤

[buggersofoz]

Thanks Gert! So easy! I learned this technique from another video with schematics of the oral and nasal cavity, tongue, eustachian tubes etc. I forced myself to completely close my throat as if I was making the T sound and the doing the swallowing movement. Your explanation is so much easier! But at least this way I leaned how to do it without even thinking to produce saliva. And it works head first. I'm only a begginer and have been freediving up to 10m to get a closer shot of sharks or some bottom-dwelling fish like rays, so I adopted learning by doing technique instead of doing apnea walks and meditation. The awe of seeing amazing ocean creatures relaxes me in a way I'd never be able to on the surface :)

[zenobiuskondo]

i love snorkling since i was kid.
I never learn how to pop, but i can do it automaticly, since i realize, by putting pressure in my troath, without swallowing, it can equalize well.

[BeefD]

Ik denk niet dat ik ooit mijzelf zie freediven, maar ik heb onlangs bij TODI in Beringen voor de eerste keer een persluchtduik met volgelaatsmasker gedaan en ik was er echt helemaal weg van! zeker iets wat ik snel weer hoop te doen. het was echt niet te geloven hoe zo onderwater duiken je hoofd ineens zo klaar van mindfulness maakt. echt een fantastische ervaring!

[photelegy]

And what's about diving back up?
What do you do there? The same thing?

[Chriscrowns]

I used to dive with a high volume scuba mask that required a ton of air to keep from getting mask squeeze. Once I started filling that thing up with air through my nose I just popping my ears simultaneously. Blowing air into the mask as long as it’s tight works pretty well for equalization