EVIL Surfer's Ear

General Discussion
41

Welcome, 'cane.

Sounds like your ears aren’t self-equalizing. As you dive deep, the eustacion tube won’t allow air to enter the middle ear behind your eardrum, and the pressure difference applies pressure to your eardrum.

To equalize the pressure, grab your nose, and gently try to blow out of it, even though it’s blocked. your ears should pop, and feel like the pressure has eased, and you should suddenly be able to hear better. Release the pressure by opening the throat and shifting the jaw around. Ears usually decompress more readily than they compress.

BTW, I ruptured one of my eardrums in overhead surf at Ocean Beach last summer–miserable, scary experience.

I was on a steep, bowly left that was horse-shoeing in ahead of me, so I dove off head first to penetrate, and got a little sideways, and when I hit, I heard this PWEEEEEE-GURGLE GURGKLE GARKLE! really loud in my left ear. Upon surfacing, I was horrified to see the world tilting violently up on it’s side and spinning rapidly around! I had some serious vertigo. It was so bad, I definitely couldn’t see, or anyway process visual information enough to orient myself or identify direrction. I was tumbling and spinning and falling, just sitting there. After flailing around trying to find my board and figure out which way to shore, I got hit by the next wave. Underwater it was worse! I could no longer discern which way was up! after flailing around, I reverted to my winter training, and grabbed my leash at my ankle, and started to hand over hand by feel, until I got to my tail. I then grappled onto the board and sat there until the next wave smacked me, and I belly rode it in, trying drunkenly to stay straight.

Then I hit the beach, crawled to shore, stood up, took three staggering lurching steps to the right, and bonked my forehead right into the sand! From my mixed up point of view it seemed like the ground tilted up and smacked me in the noodle! I lay there for about five minutes, desperately grabbing onto a violently spinning, pitching world, that I felt like was going to throw me off into space any second. Just to add to the fun, I got rapidly motion-sick, and puked onto the sand.

It was extremely debilitating, and was the least in control of myself I have been in a while.

Eventually, the spinning subsided to a manageable 15 degree yaw to the left every second or so, and I was able to weave my way up the beach to the truck. My ear was bleeding, and tentative gentle attempts to equalize produced a loud cacophany of rumbling fluids, and an increase in the spinning, so I left it alone. plus, it was starting to hurt real good at this point, a line of searing pain from my throat to the middle of my skull, and throbbing too.

Long story short, I got to the doc’s, and they dropped in some antibiotics and shoved a cotton stopper in to keep anything from getting in there, and sent me home with a good batch of pain meds. (Mmmmmm, paaaiiin meeeeddds!) When I was at the follow-up appointment, the doc took the stopper out, and there was a bunch of sand on the end of it that had drained out of my ear! He was quite surprised, and mentioned that the sand probably contributed to my acute vertigo. I was going to Nicaragua in two weeks, so the doc said that if it was gonna rupture again, it would probably do so on the plane, and to stay out of the water if it did. No problems.

He also told me that ruptured eardrums are the reason many divers die, the vertigo disorients them and they can’t find their way to the surface, or accidentally go too quickly…

Scary stuff.

Wells

42

I ruptured my left ear drum years back, but a little differently. In my pre-hood days I used to get ear infections pretty regularly. They usually went away over time, so one time I was suffering along hoping it would get better, but it got worse. Then one morning I woke up with no pain whatsoever in my ear – but blood all over my pillow. The doc said I got lucky, though, it was a clean rupture and healed up nicely, with only a bit of hearing loss and not too much scarring.

Nowadays, hood, eardrops, very few ear infections. And if I do get one, I take it more seriously…

43

Keith, what about in the summer do you still wear the hood ?

44

as a surfer and a past competetive swimer i used to get ear infections like every other week. there are some plugs called seals, i think thats where there called anyways but there really good. its a custom fit plug that cost like $40. macks pro plugs are really good for the throw away kind. if you want to make your own ear drops mix equal parts rubbing alcohol and hydrogen peroxide. clears your ears up pretty good. man thinking about how much it sucked having all those ear infections is making my eyes water.

45

Wells,

Nasty experience man! I have had friends burst the ear drum, but never in the surf like that. Whats bothering me with my ears is I know how to equalize. I’ve been swimming/diving/surfing for thirty years and this has just started happening in the yast two years.

The other thing I didn’t mention is the pain isn’t each dive, it’s more of an accumulated effect. I don’t know if I’m having more trouble clearing my ears now, if I’ve somehow sensitized myself it it, or if I’m just more of a wuss now!

46

If it’s chilly (dawn patrol, evenings) yes. Mid-day, no. Just can’t bring myself to do boardshorts & hood! I try to wear plugs if no hood.

47

I’ve tried almost every variation of plug…

The “hard” silicone plugs with the flanges hurt so bad after an hour I couldn’t use them.

The soft silicone plugs like Mack’s fall apart easily and aren’t really waterproof.

Doc’s Proplugs never seemed to fit right for me and therefore weren’t waterproof. I also didn’t like the leashes.

Custom fit plugs from the audiologist? Too big, too uncomfortable, and let water in. I whittled them down to a managable size, but they just weren’t right. I did find a supplier for the goop they use to make the mold plugs, and the dispenser gun…thought I’d just make my own, but I haven’t gotten around to trying it due to the cost.

Cotton with vaseline…disgusting.

Woodshop earplugs…not bad, but get slimy once wet, then work their way out.

In a pinch I once even tried surf wax. That was a fiasco. It took some time and dexterity to get the wax out of my ear canal.

Poster putty is the best. It stays without a hood, it’s fairly soft, it’s cheap, and you can find it anywhere you can find office supplies. If you’re worried about blowing your eardrum out, put a coffee straw through the stuff, then there’s a passage way for air. Otherwise, just try to evacuate some of the air in your ear canal as you put the putty in. That way you start out without any pressurized air in the canal. I’ve been using it for two decades, and I like big waves…never had a problem…except for being half deaf and missing some of the lineup chatter. Equilibrium…not a problem.

P.S. Boric acid and isopropyl works great. Just don’t go out into the wind after you’ve applied the stuff since you’ll be asking for more evaporative cooling courtesy of the alcohol.

48
Quote:

Keith, what about in the summer do you still wear the hood

I have to agree with Keith about wearing a hood with trunks. Fortunately I don’t get as much warm water as he does so it’s seldom an issue for more than a couple of days a year for me. The thing is, wearing a hood all year keeps a hell of a lot of sun off your head and ears. It really is a good thing to do all year round for more than ear protection.

The way I sometimes get around the vanity issue posed by hood/trunks is to wear a rashguard, and when I used to have a wetsuit vest I’d wear that. Pure vanity but that seems to be my line in the sand, so to speak. Look at an old wetsuit hood sometime and see all the sun fading on the nylon outer and imagine that on your skin.

49

I was informed today that an incision just in front of the ear may be preferred to the rear approach. Just as easy to access the bone in the canal, and less complicated recovery as the ear (or, really, the pinna) is not involved.

50

Hurricane,

I dunno, then. (pardon the “basic” answer, but I thought it might be instructive to include a description of equalizing for the record)

I’ve had allergies all my life, and I have noticed a cumulative pain after too much deep water when I was congested. It usually hit me in my sinuses–forehead, temples and bridge of nose, but would occasionally be in one or both ears. It usually lasted 6 hours to a day…Decongestants for a few days helped. Your sinus can be clogged even if you don’t have congestion elsewhere.

How long does it last? when does it start?

just a thought…

51

Thanks, Blakestah et al, for the informative information.

For most of my surfing life, I was plagued by horrible wintertime sinus infections - until several years ago when Flonase was prescribed. Since then, I haven’t suffered from anything worse than a slightly stuffed nose. A “Do Not Enter” sign was posted at the beach this morning. Looks like it will be a while before the water is safe again, even with ear plugs. Here’s a picture of the river yesterday (note the water’s unusual “elasticity”):

52

orr great! another thing i have to worry about,

first it’l be tinius from playing drums, then more tinius (ringing constantly in ear) from pluggin’ my headphones into my amp and next surfers ear GREAT!

enenphusiastic josh.

53

Wells, I understand the basic answer, after reading your post I realized I didn’t give nearly enough info. The congestion answer seems much closer to what I ‘ve been dealing with. Pain in the ears & sinuses. It will last for a day or more & once it starts, even diving 6-8’ hurts. I thought maybe a blocked ear canal(ie. surfers ear) might be limiting my ability to clear my ears, but I bet blocked sinuses would do the same.

54

Actually, that sounds like a clogged eustacian tube from sinus infections, not surfer’s ear. If the eustacian tube is clogged, the middle ear cannot clear. This applies a pressure difference across the ear drum. Which hurts a lot - the ear drum is very sensitive.

55

Just had the surgery yesterday on my right ear.

They went in through the ear canal and didn’t have to slice my ear off.

Pain isn’t bad so far. They gave me a good supply of Percocet. I’ve already got family members putting in their orders for any leftovers I don’t use!

I’m a little concerned because the paperwork they gave me describing the post-op protocol mentioned a tear they had to repair in my eardrum. I’ll find out more details and, specifically just how long I’ll be out of the water when I go for my followup visit with the doc next week.

For now, it’s la la land with the drugs. Whoopee!

56
Quote:

I’ve had allergies all my life, and I have noticed a cumulative pain after too much deep water when I was congested. It usually hit me in my sinuses–forehead, temples and bridge of nose, but would occasionally be in one or both ears. It usually lasted 6 hours to a day…Decongestants for a few days helped. Your sinus can be clogged even if you don’t have congestion elsewhere.

The whole sinus issue deserves exploring on its own right. You can get also incredible tooth pain from sinus infections. My wife had that late last year and I then I had it too. Fortunately our dentist is a scuba diver and he was all over this, having had the same experience. You can feel like you have a bunch of sore teeth ot whetever, and make them hurt pushing with your tounge. He explained that by tapping the teeth he can diagnose a sinus problem and proceeded to do so. He took one of his torture implements and tapped one, then another, then another, until he hit one certain tooth and about made me jump through the roof.

He described it from a diver’s perspective. Every time he went down one atmosphere he pain got worse. He said finally around 30-40 feet it felt like this one tooth was going to explode…a very apt description.

We started this go round with sinus problems after the California fires about a year and a half ago. Dirt and particulates can contribute to sinus problems. From there I don’t have a clue about affecting the ears, but it’s all in the same neighborhood.