Hi, Planning a trip to the Caribbean in 9-10 months and would like for wife & I to get open water certified. We have never used scuba before, but love to snorkel. Question is we both feel intense ear pressure when going below 10 feet. Is this something that we will build an immunity for or is the pressure we feel caused by us holding our breath.

Hi joljaz and welcome to thescubasite

The Caribbean is where I learned to scuba dive and it's still one of my favorite locations, definitely some of the best diving in the world round there, so snap up the chance!

In answer to your question about ear pressure, it is perfectly normal.

Your body has several "closed air spaces" - that means places your body holds air that aren't "open" to the surrounding world. When you dive deeper, the pressure of the surrounding water increases and this the pressure on the air trapped inside your ear also increases, which makes it shrink and causes "squeezing" feeling.

What you are feeling is the air within your ears being pressurised and the water "pushing" on your ear drum. It's not something you can become immune to - you have to equalise the air pressure. I suggest you read our article on ear pressure equalisation which will show you the few, simple techniques to alleviate this discomfort.

Welcome to the forum!

Where abouts in the Caribbean are you going? If you are worried about ear pressure it might be worth doing a try dive before you go. They are cheap and depending on the pool you will get an idea about what to do with adjusting for ear pressure. Where are you located? I no the local club here runs pool sessions every week where you can pay £10 to do a try dive if you haven't dived before.