New to this group and fairly new to scuba diving

[raeskates]

Hi all, I got my certification for Open Water Diver in Sept. 2008 and since that time I have been to Hawaii and Puerto Rico. Unfortunately, my husband has major problems with his ears, so he did a one tank shore dive in Hawaii and I did a two tank dive. We then did a quarry dive last summer where we were part of a group trying to get the Guiness record of the most divers submerged in a quarry for 20 feet for 20 min. Well, we didn't quite get the record and my husband got a very bad ear infection, so we didn't get to scuba dive in PR, which was two weeks later. We are going to Aruba in May, so we are hoping to get a change to scuba dive there. We are also hoping to go to Tenn, to do some practice diving however before we go. He needs to learn better control, so he doesn't pop himself up out of the water, which I think is partly causing his problems.

So, has anyone been to Aruba. Is there any good shallow diving there?

I am looking forward to being a part of this forum.

Rae

[greenturtle]

Welcome to the community! Hope to see you around.

[lottie]

Hi Rae,
Firstly welcome to the boards and congrats to you on getting your OW, such an achievement and the start of an obsession (if that's the right word) to a very expensive hobby.

Even though Aruba must be about 600 odd miles from where I am in St Lucia, I haven't heard what the diving is like down there - hopefully someone else might be able to assist.

What's the problem that your husband is having with his ears? Is the problem happening more on the ascent or the descent? Maybe if you give us a bit more info, we could probably come up with a few suggestions he might like to try.

We're a friendly bunch on here, so please feel free to jump right in with any questions/jokes/pictures/ and anything else for that matter

[acelockco]

There are a few different items out there that can help people with ear problems while diving. There is a mask with some type of ear covering that connects to the front of the mask. There are also special diving ear plugs available.

[diverchrispy]

Try SE Aruba Fly 'n Dive or Unique sports of Aruba. Both are very good operators and will take you on some great dives. For your ear challenged husband there is a very shallow site called Pedernales that is a nice site for fishes and max depth 25 to 28 feet, they often take open water students there for training and it is also a nice night dive. Water varied between 79 and 81 last week when I was there.

[raeskates]

I think that problem with his ears starts because he comes up too fast. He almost always gets a nose bleed when he comes up and then he gets blood and crud stuck in his ear. He has had to go the ear specialist and take antibiotics and prednisone to get his ears cleared up.

Rae

Hi Rae,
Firstly welcome to the boards and congrats to you on getting your OW, such an achievement and the start of an obsession (if that's the right word) to a very expensive hobby.

Even though Aruba must be about 600 odd miles from where I am in St Lucia, I haven't heard what the diving is like down there - hopefully someone else might be able to ***ist.

What's the problem that your husband is having with his ears? Is the problem happening more on the ascent or the descent? Maybe if you give us a bit more info, we could probably come up with a few suggestions he might like to try.

We're a friendly bunch on here, so please feel free to jump right in with any questions/jokes/pictures/ and anything else for that matter

[raeskates]

Where would we find the mask and ear plugs? I have never heard of them but then as you know we are new to this.

Thanks,

Rae

There are a few different items out there that can help people with ear problems while diving. There is a mask with some type of ear covering that connects to the front of the mask. There are also special diving ear plugs available.

[raeskates]

I can't wait to go. I will take your recommendation of operators. We had seen an ad for SE Aruba but not Unique sports. I think the Pedernales sounds like a great spot for us. Thanks for letting me know.

Rae

Try SE Aruba Fly 'n Dive or Unique sports of Aruba. Both are very good operators and will take you on some great dives. For your ear challenged husband there is a very shallow site called Pedernales that is a nice site for fishes and max depth 25 to 28 feet, they often take open water students there for training and it is also a nice night dive. Water varied between 79 and 81 last week when I was there.

[acelockco]

Where would we find the mask and ear plugs? I have never heard of them but then as you know we are new to this.

Thanks,

Rae

The mask you are going to look for is called a Pro Ear. Check around, your best bet is to try to find a local dive shop that has one he can try on, but here is a link : Amazon.com: IST Pro-Ear 2000 Scuba Dive Mask - ProEar Swim Mask: Sports & Outdoors

The ear plugs are here:

http://www.proplugs.com/scuba.html


NOW, more importantly why is your husband coming up too fast? This is an extremely serious problem. If we just mask his earache and nose bleed, it could be much worse. If he needs additional training, plenty is available but he needs to be comfortable in the water, know his gear and how to use it and he needs to follow the rules of scuba that he was taught. Many dive operators will supply a personal Dive Master or Dive Guide to you for an additional fee. If you explain to them the situation, they can help your husband figure out the situation.

Good luck.

[raeskates]

The mask you are going to look for is called a Pro Ear. Check around, your best bet is to try to find a local dive shop that has one he can try on, but here is a link : Amazon.com: IST Pro-Ear 2000 Scuba Dive Mask - ProEar Swim Mask: Sports & Outdoors

The ear plugs are here:

http://www.proplugs.com/scuba.html


NOW, more importantly why is your husband coming up too fast? This is an extremely serious problem. If we just mask his earache and nose bleed, it could be much worse. If he needs additional training, plenty is available but he needs to be comfortable in the water, know his gear and how to use it and he needs to follow the rules of scuba that he was taught. Many dive operators will supply a personal Dive Master or Dive Guide to you for an additional fee. If you explain to them the situation, they can help your husband figure out the situation.

Good luck.

Why is he coming up too fast? Well, he is still not very comfortable with finding how to hover. We are planning on taking a refresher course and then going to a lake or quarry to practice in shallow water. I think it's because he's so afraid to touch the bottom (obviously doesn't want to destroy coral or in the quarry, stir up the bottom so you can't see) and so he tries to add air to his BCD, instead of taking a deeper breath or just kicking upward as he gets too close to the bottom. He was not much of a swimmer to start with (He could float but that was it). Until we did this he had never put his head below the water, so I am very proud of what he has achieved so far, but he is still not much of a natural underwater. In Hawaii, we did have our own personal dive master and did a shallow shore dive. He was able to do it, with no nose bleed and no ear problems, so I do think that it would help just ot get more practice.

Thanks for the info about the earplugs.