Skiing and Snowboarding — Do You Wear Earplugs?

Hey everyone,

I need some advice from people who often go skiing or snowboarding. Does it spike your tinnitus? I went skiing a few times this year and never had a problem. This week I took my snowboard for a ride and it felt pretty harsh, more wind noise and also riding down seemed louder.
I tried foam earplugs for a bit, and while they help with the external noise they make the internal rumbling from the ground pretty loud.

I am not too sure if I suffered a spike since my tinnitus was already elevated a few days before that, but let's just say that it didn't felt very pleasant.

Any advice?

 

I don't wear any ear plugs when I ski. I wear my hearing aid. No adverse effects to report.

 

I wouldn't wear earplugs because of the vibrations. Have been snowboarding numerous times when I had milder T without adverse effects. I have a helmet that has covers over the ears. Don't know if that helps. I've found some ski lifts and gondolas to have loud machinery, so if you're waiting in queue you might want to consider popping plugs in for the older installations in the resort.

Oh yeah, the goggle kind of slots right in to the space next to the earflaps on the helmet so the air flow is pretty streamlined. When you're hauling ass, wind noise can be a bit louder, but it's hardly continuous and unless you're straightlining your yaw angle relative to the wind changes all the time. So in terms of exposure you'll be fine.

 

I also have a Helmet that covers the ears, that already dampens the sound a bit. The Gondolas seem pretty quiet so I think that should be ok, I was more nervous about ground and wind noise. But like I said, went skiing a few times and had no problems, just this last time snowboarding I felt like my tinnitus spike a bit.

But you are probably right, earplugs seemed to make the noise worse, so i will not use them again.

@GregCA Also thank you for your advice

 

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I've been looking for solutions for wind noise during road biking. I have both the Cat-Ears and Windfree earmuffs. They both help to some degree, although you should be able to take off the ear covers on your snowboard helmet in order to fit the windfree earmuffs. That said, I guess they do pretty much the same as the ear covers already on your helmet.

If you have a bit of a gap between your face and your helmet's ear covers they might not help with the wind as it passes through regardless.

Try adjusting both the strap's triangle and get your chin strap tight so the ear covers push against the sides of your face.
If you can't eliminate the gap experiment by propping it up with a strip of fleece material and add as much as needed until it does.

If that helps you can permanently attach them. You could also use the Cat-Ears for that. The Classics are made of a furry material designed in the wind tunnel. It works at disrupting the air flow and they're pretty bulky.
Bonus points for the Elvis look!

For road biking, no matter what I tried, I couldn't eliminate the low rumble the wind makes while riding a road bike but succeeded in eliminating the harsher mid frequencies.

Enjoy the shred!