Nose and Ear care
1) As you spend more time underwater, you will develop the ability to keep the water out of your nose and sinuses without exhaling. This just takes time. I grew up on the swimming and diving team, so I guess I was fortunate to have developed this as a kid.
Ususally, water in the nose and sinuses is not a medical problem. In fact some people with chronic sinusitis problems irrigate their nose and sinuses with CLEAN salt water. Clean fresh water, is usually more uncomfortable as it is hypotonic and in pools is chlorinated. Do be a careful about getting fresh water in your sinuses, especially in warmer climates. RARELY one can aquire amebic meningoencephalitis from fresh water immersion. This is usually rapidly fatal!
2) Ears. Plain, over-the-counter rubbing alcohol is great for getting the water out. Some people mix in a small amount of white vinegar to drop the pH too.
This is NOT MEDICAL ADVICE. Please consult with your physician before putting anything in your ears or nose!
Best of luck.
I wear a mask
More comfortable to me than nose plugs, and no lake water in the eyes or nose. Second the motion for ear plugs too.
nose plugs
To summarize and 2nd the above:
- Low salinity water up your nose - not good. Wear nose plugs
- High salinity water up you nose - not so bad. Wear nose plugs if you hate water dripping down your nose afterwards.
- Cold water in your ears - not good - swimmer’s/surfer’s ear. Wear ear plugs.
- “Fresh” water is most usually anything but. Wear eye protection/close your eyes when rolling.
I practice for the real world.
Granted, with enough practice, your body forgets about the nit-picky stuff like cold water on the eyes or up the nose, but I still practice like I’m “out there”. To practice, I wear what I’m going to wear on the big trips. That includes NOT wearing nose plugs or dive masks. My solution is to use nasal saline spray or the like at the take out. No problems. Oh, and I don’t open my eyes underwater without a dive mask; I roll by feel alone whether I’m “boat-snorkeling” or just rolling.
Jim
http://www.flemingcompany.com/products/OCEAN/index.htm
I don’t open my eyes either
I never do under water w/o a mask, so I don’t do it wearing one unless I consciously decide to take advantage of them to check somethng. That’s pretty rare. No problem with the transition to real water, but it means I get out of pool sessions without redeye. A couple of years ago I worried about the protection creating a problem that’d kill a roll in the real thing - but after the first few capsizes or so in flat water and in surf it became clear that was a moot point. When you gotta roll the question of confidence, or not, completely overwhelms a little water discomfort.
As to ear plugs, I just don’t see any reason not to use them liberally. WW and divers I know do so for the same reason I would - being wet isn’t a good enough reason to lose hearing if good workable plugs are out there. We are doing some moving water practice tonight - the ear plugs will go in under the hood.
Ear plugs
I started wearing Pro Plugs. My ear problems have been diminishing as a result.
I don’t care for wearing ear plugs but these are fairly comfortable and I also find that I get less dizzy from rolling when my ears are not filled with water.
I got the ones with the vent hole…not sure if those or the non-vented ones are better for paddling.
Matt
Ears
I get dizzy if I get cold water in my ears, well, actually it borders on vertigo. So if I’m paddling in cold water where there’s a significant chance of capsizing, I wear cheap foam earplugs from the hardware store. They work really well.
Same phenomenon applies to real capsizes and ears with me as with noses — in a real capsize, I don’t have a problem with getting dizzy. I just roll, and sort out what happened later. I’m sure that if I capsized three or four times rapidly without earplugs that I’d have an issue, but that hasn’t happened.
Wayne
Chesapeake bay water
plug the ears and nose. After a few years I became so sensitized I’d get an ear infection in 12hrs
simple question about noseplugs
And earplugs.
I’m used to not using either when I swim or roll. I grew up on swim teams and have spent most of my life in/around water, kayaking being a fraction of the time. Once I learned how to breathe while swimming it bacame instinctual to keep water out of my nose without a nose plug (I admit I do open my eyes underwater often but other than pool water, only sometimes do I get a temporary irritation).
If swimmers can go without nose and ear plugs, why is it necessary for most people to do so while rolling, assuming relatively clean water and no predispositions? Are ears subsceptible from any water that gets into the nose?
Pools are generally clean and warm
Swimming pools are actually quite clean with the amount of chlorine in them, so ear plugs are usually not necessary to prevent infections. Those who get infections from pools usually do so because a small amount of water gets trapped in the external auditory canal after getting out of the pool. Over time irritates the skin.
The other problem mentioned above “surfers ear” or exostoses, is due to cold. For some reason, cold temperature (usually cold water), causes overgrowth of the bones in the ear. So yeah, if in cold water, wear plugs. Most pools are not cold enough to cause this problem.
head up versus head down…
Most of the time when swimming, your head is face down into the water. I have no problems swimming without nose plugs. However, when rolling, my head is upside down looking up and whether it’s gravity or some other factor, the water just rushes right into my sinuses. If I have to roll and I don’t have nose plugs, I tend to do a backdeck roll as my head stays in the face down position and thus I don’t get water up my nose.
I keep my eyes open…
… when rolling. Wife is jealous ‘cuz she wears contacts;-)
But, after reading this thread I might start wearing some ear protection when a dunkin’ is likely.
ok
I can understand that, but I roll every time without using nose plugs. Regarding ears, during late fall or early spring I try to use a hood; recently the NRS storm hood.
I suppose like some of the other responders said, it all depends what you’re used to and in some cases where you roll, and I’m wondering if this is true if there is any inherent risk if you’re accustomed to keeping the water out of your nose from experience in the water.
agree with jay
for rolling practice, i use plugs (smiley’s are the best) in both fresh and salt water for practice, and swimmers goggles to protect the eyes in fresh water as i prefer to roll with eyes open. when you need the roll, it won’t matter as you’ll soon discover when you capsize and realize that you forgot to replace the nose plugs!
As a mostly whitewater person, I used
to feel sheepish 25 years ago when I was wearing nose plugs on the Ocoee. Now, when serious playboaters may roll many times in a day, no one thinks much about whether one uses nose plugs or not.
I always use nose plugs that I can get on or off easily with one hand, and I only wear them if playing or if running rapids where my odds of having to roll are increased. But as I get more into touring kayaks, I sure don’t anticipate wearing nose plugs unless I am surfing waves.
Nausea and light headedness
I wear ear plugs for rolling practice and ww because I found I was getting light headed and nauseous when doing a lot of rolling. Doc’s Pro-Plugs are the best. I prefer the vented ones as I can hear and the pressure seems to stay equalized.
I also either either nose plugs or diving mask when practicing rolling in fresh, pool or cold water. I also do so in ww.
Nose clips and ear plugs
I too am prone to sinus infections and “soggy ear”, and fresh water burns too much anyway.
The one time I forgot to wear them in fresh water, I still rolled up just fine, so I no longer worry about that. The pain hits right after coming up, not so much while doing the roll.
There is NO WAY I would consider forgoing either nose or ear protection in a swimming pool. Despite heavy chlorination and a clear appearance, they are notoriously dirty–too many bodies in a very small amount of water.
The only times I have rolled and/or wet-exited in the ocean I never noticed any sinus pain even with no head protection at all. It’s the one place where if I forgot my plugs, I wouldn’t care.
Same here
Never had any problem with water up my nose swimming or diving or body surfing when I was a kid on the shore, still don’t. Rolling another matter especially when you are first learning and really have to stop and feel that upside down position - water has time to get places it doesn’t in normal swimming.
As to ears - I started getting pain in one ear at the end of the first season that I was really wet a lot, after I got the roll down well enough that I could pretty much count on it in practice anyway. I play violin on the side - can’t afford to mess around there. So I went right for the ear plugs, been wearing them religiously for practice or similar since then and haven’t had a problem again.
Do ear plugs stop that?
I sometimes get that light headed felling when practicing rolling. I always assumed it was blood sugar or something like that because it doesn’t always happen.
I’ll have to give ear plugs a try. Actually makes perfect sense.
Without the plugs
I just curse silently and try to ignore it.