How to equalize on your first freedive

Equalization is the skill that gates your first ten metres. Here's the Frenzel technique, broken down so your ears stop holding you back.

By Dive Together

A freediver descending a line into blue water

If there's one thing that ends more first freedives than anything else, it isn't breath-hold or cold — it's a pair of ears that won't cooperate. The good news: equalization is a skill, not a talent. You can learn it on dry land, today.

Valsalva vs. Frenzel

Most people arrive from scuba doing the Valsalva maneuver — pinch your nose and push air up from your chest. It works at the surface, but as you invert and descend it fights you: your diaphragm is busy, and the deeper you go the harder it gets.

Freedivers use the Frenzel maneuver instead. Instead of pushing from the chest, you use your tongue like a piston to drive a small pocket of air into the back of your throat and up the Eustachian tubes.

Valsalva pushes. Frenzel places. Once you feel the difference, you won't go back.

The four steps

Pinch your nose so no air escapes.
Trap a pocket of air in your mouth and close the throat (a soft "K" lock).
Lift the back of your tongue — think of making a hard "guh" or "teh" sound — to compress that pocket.
Feel the click. Your ears should equalize gently, with no strain.

Diagram-style underwater portrait of a diver pinching their nose — Equalize early and often — before you feel pressure, not after.

Practice on dry land first

You don't need water to build this. Sitting at your desk:

Pinch your nose and make the "click" happen on demand.
Try it lying down, then inverted over the edge of a bed (head lower than hips) — this mimics the descent.
Equalize before you feel pressure. The golden rule is early and often: one gentle equalization every arm-pull, never waiting until it hurts.

If your ears ever feel sharp pain, stop and ascend a little. Pain means you've descended past an equalization you missed. Back off, re-equalize, and continue only if it clears.

Where to go next

Once the click is automatic, the depth takes care of itself. From here, work on equalizing hands-free (the mouthfill), but that's a story for another post — and a deeper line.