I Go Camping Every Summer. I Never Thought My Ears Were Something I Had to Worry About.

There is a moment on a camping trip that you probably know well. You have been in the sea for an hour. You pull yourself out onto a rock, towel around your shoulders, sun warm on your face. And then it starts. That dull, muffled pressure building behind one ear. That sensation of water sitting somewhere deep inside that no amount of tilting or jumping on one foot will shift.

For years, I just accepted it as part of the experience. You swim in the sea, your ears fill with water, you spend the next two days half-deaf on one side and hoping nothing worse develops. It was an annoyance I had filed under “just what happens when you swim outdoors.”

Last August, things got worse than annoying. We were three nights into a van trip along the Cornish coast. Brilliant spot, brilliant weather. I had been swimming every morning off the same little cove below the campsite. By day four my left ear was throbbing. Not just that blocked feeling. Genuine pain. A low, relentless ache that made sleep difficult and turned every campfire conversation into a lip-reading exercise.

A friend who is a nurse told me later what had most likely happened. The ear canal traps water, especially in cold open-water conditions. That water softens the skin, and bacteria that normally cause no trouble suddenly have the conditions they need to multiply. Swimmer’s ear. The kind that can end a trip early if it gets bad enough, and sends you to the pharmacy for antibiotic drops you did not budget for.

I drove to the nearest town the following morning and spent half the day in a walk-in clinic waiting room when I should have been on the beach. I was frustrated, uncomfortable, and genuinely annoyed at myself for not doing something about it sooner. The doctor was kind. She said it was incredibly common in people who swim in natural water during summer. “Most people,” she said, “just don’t think to protect their ears until something goes wrong.” That was me. That had always been me. But that was also the last time.

Until I Found a Waterproof Solution from a European Hearing Brand That Changed How I Camp

Back home after that trip, still finishing my course of ear drops, I went looking for a proper answer. I had tried the cheap silicone putty plugs from the pharmacy before. They work adequately in a swimming pool with still water, but in the sea, with waves, with jumping off rocks, with campsite outdoor showers that spray at an angle? They shift, they leak, they fall out entirely at exactly the wrong moment. I needed something designed for real conditions.

A piece in an outdoor gear magazine mentioned Bollsen, a European hearing protection brand based in Slovenia that had developed an earplug specifically for water use. The Watersafe+. The write-up was brief but it said three things that stopped me scrolling: waterproof to 3 metres depth, dual-flange design that locks in place during jumps and flip turns, and medical-grade silicone that creates an actual seal rather than just sitting loosely in the canal.

I ordered a pair. When they arrived, the first thing I noticed was how different they felt to anything I had tried before. Two distinct flanges, one inner and one outer, that press independently against different points in the canal. You feel it seat properly in a way that cheap plugs never do. I tested them in the bath before our next trip. Submerged. Tilted. Shook my head. Nothing got through.

Then I took them to Norfolk. A week of van camping on the north coast, daily swims in some chilly North Sea conditions, two campsite outdoor showers per day. I wore the Watersafe+ every single time I got in the water. I was half-expecting something to go wrong. Something to slip, or to feel so uncomfortable that I would give up and take them out after ten minutes.

So What Exactly Makes the Watersafe+ Different?

The Watersafe+ is not a foam earplug with a coat of rubber. It is a purpose-built waterproof earplug made from medical-grade silicone, free from BPA, PVC, and latex. The dual-flange design is what makes the difference. Most earplugs have a single tip that creates one contact point with the ear canal wall. The Watersafe+ has two flanges that press at different depths, creating a layered seal that holds under pressure and does not dislodge when water hits it from unexpected angles.

The 24 dB noise reduction is certified by the German testing laboratory PZT GmbH (Notified Body No. 1974), which independently tested over 1,700 samples. That certification matters because it means the seal has been verified under lab conditions, not just in the brand’s own marketing claims. In practical terms, 24 dB cuts ambient sound significantly without making you feel completely isolated from your surroundings. You can still hear someone calling you from the shore.

It is also rated for diving to 3 metres. That means a proper seal under actual water pressure, not just splash resistance. For sea swimming, cliff jumping, or even the campsite shower that hits at full pressure, the Watersafe+ maintains its seal throughout. And unlike single-use foam earplugs, a pair lasts up to 100 uses. Washable, reusable, and stored in the aluminium travel case that comes in the box.

I Came Out of the Water and Realised I Had Not Thought About My Ears Once

The first morning in Norfolk, I walked down to the beach at half seven, fitted the Watersafe+ properly (there is a short learning curve to seating them correctly, but you feel when they are right), and swam for forty minutes. Cold water, a bit of chop, one wave that hit me at exactly the wrong angle. I came out, walked back up the cliff path to the van, made tea, and sat watching the water.

It was only when my partner asked how my ears were that I realised I had not thought about them at all. No pressing. No tilting. No that feeling. Nothing. They were fine. Completely fine. As if I had not swum at all, except I had the salt on my skin to prove it.

We swam every day that week. Sea swims, one river swim, campsite showers twice daily. I wore the Watersafe+ every time. By the end of the week I had stopped thinking of them as a precaution and started thinking of them as just part of getting ready to swim, like putting sunscreen on. Something you do before, so you never have to think about it after.

The trip I had been dreading, after what happened in Cornwall, became one of the best weeks we had in years. No ear pain. No clinic runs. No lying in the tent at 2am with a headache behind one ear wondering whether it was getting worse. Just camping. Just swimming. Just the holiday I had been looking forward to.

Why the Watersafe+ Works When Other Earplugs Let You Down

Most water earplugs on the market were designed for swimming pools. Still water. Predictable conditions. The sea, and especially camping trips where you are showering outdoors, jumping off things, and generally doing more with your body than completing laps, is a completely different environment. The Watersafe+ was built with that in mind.

Medical-grade silicone moulds to the shape of your canal without irritating the skin, which matters because cheap rubber can cause the kind of micro-irritation that actually increases infection risk over a long trip. And at up to 100 uses per pair, you are spending less on ear protection across a full summer than you would on two packs of pharmacy foam plugs.

What the Watersafe+ gives you on a camping trip:

✅ Waterproof seal to 3m depth — holds through sea swims, cliff jumps, campsite showers, and open-water conditions
✅ Dual-flange design stays put — does not shift when waves hit; you feel it seat correctly before you get in
✅ Prevents swimmer’s ear — blocks water entry that causes the bacterial conditions leading to infection
✅ 24 dB independently certified — German lab tested (PZT GmbH, Notified Body No. 1974) across 1,700+ samples
✅ Medical-grade silicone — BPA-free, PVC-free, latex-free; gentle enough for daily use across a long trip
✅ Up to 100 uses per pair — washable, reusable, stored in the included aluminium travel case
✅ Trusted by 1,000,000+ people — over 10,000 verified reviews across Bollsen’s product range

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