StanBrooklyn

Never heard of Sudafed, I'll give it a try. Thanks!

Alright, finally some real practical advices! So: - chewing a gum - swallowing - opening eyes wide and wiggling your jaw (never would've thought of this, I'll try it) - blowing your nose I know that for me the most effective way is to swallow some water, but I don't think that's an option while skydiving. I do this when on the elevators in skyscrapers or airplanes.

That makes sense that students mention it and not the experienced skydivers. Ear probably adjusts to it soon after. I suppose I'll consult a specialist if it persists after several more jumps.

Thanks for the reply :)

I suppose a better question was to ask how many of you experience ear discomfort while skydiving. Its common knowledge that with altitude change everyone experiences it, just at different degrees. I jumped with 6 friends and everyone experienced it, so I may be just making it sound worse to you guys :) it happens because the air above is less dense than on the ground, I mainly thought that there was a common way how skydivers deal with it, in an airplane its suggested to yawn and or blow your nose to relieve air congestion.

So it goes away, that's what I was curious about, thanks!

Well, I don't think it's a sign of an illness of any sort. All people experience it, perhaps I made it sounds worse than it did. You know how when you go on an elevator to the 100th floor in a skyscraper and there's this pressure accumulating in the ears? That's what it was, just much more due to the quicker change of height. I'm sure everyone experiences it, at least everyone I jumped with did.

I've already mentioned this in the introductory post, but I'll ask it here too. I'm going to start training within a month or so, depending on my financial capability and time availability. I did one tandem jump about a year ago and my main point of discomfort was the pain/ringing in the ears associated with change of height/pressure. Is there anything that can be done about it or you just learn to ignore it? Thanks :)

Hi :-) I'm from Brooklyn and I've done one tandem jump about a year ago. I didn't have enough money to start my training back then, I'm a poor college student. Now I'm planning on starting in January and am starting to look at the cheapest / closest dropzones near Brooklyn/NYC area. I'm convinced that skydiving is going to be my hobby for the entire duration of my life. I'm also interested in paragliding and piloting small airplanes, but that's in the future. There's just one thing that I'm worried about. As I did my jump, my main discomfort was caused by the pain in the ears due to the change in height/pressure. Is there anything that can be done about that or you simply get used to it? I'm also terrified of heights, but this won't be a problem, because skydiving is so awesome that I'm willing to get scared everytime I jump - lol.