hmmm. well i'm in the zone for those temperatures!.

I do use a hoodie in winter that covers the ears.

I'll keep on things.

yes Bille the older i get the less 10 foot tall and bullet proof i become!...

if only i was 18 again and knew everything like i did back in the day!

Sneaking up on me... no hearing loss yet but I have a thickening... and inner ears hurt a bit in the cold and wind. Going to 30 years on the water so I reckon I need to make sure I can support another 20+ years!!!

Found a distributor for the Doc ear plugs in my country, will try them out!

yeah thanks for this, didn't know. what about normal water temps? what gives.

Hoods tend to hold the water in my ear after a fall. Is that better or worse for surfer's ear?

I cut the neck strap off of my hood so that the water drains out.

I can see this being much more of an issue on the west coast of the US than the east coast. West coast is always 60 F or less water temperature, East coast, we only get water under 60 for about 4 months.

Hopefully in 10 years when I'm 40, they will have developed some kind of painless laser to fix my ears

It's an old and very well known disease.
Sailors in colder conditions usually have this issue, which can be cured with specific medicines, but now you also need to prevent.

My doctor told me earplugs can be dangerous in case of ear impact, you'll have an internal pressure which could cause even a bigger issue and anyway earplugs would not prevent freezing ears skull bones.

IMO, go and get an hood with micro holes in the ear zone. You won't be completely isolated.

ciao!

Faber -- do Ya think placing holes located where you suggest , then sewing
in a breathable fabric on the inside would work ? I'm thinking the fabric
would slow down the water movement, but also allow me to hear at the same
time ??

Bille

My brother has had his dug out and he's always used head phones, (10 years + kiting, 30+ surfing) so I don't think they work too well.

27yrs old here. been kiting for 5 years. wakeboarding since I was 14 and snorkeling since I was 8.

Water here is cold. generally in the 40-50deg F range.

I can tell my canal's are pretty small already. Can barely fit the smallest size earplug style headphones in at this point. Not looking forward to having my ears drilled out.

Is there anything we can do to reverse what has already happened before its too late?

Hi Bille,
Most of them are already built same as you described. That one in the pic I posted as well.
It works ! ( well, for me at least...) so far.

Sounds like the problem is the temperature in your ear canal more than the presence of water, if that's the case then just use a beanie that cover's your ears.

Where I kite it's cold even in summer and I'm bald so I always wear one.

I use the Ocean Rodeo one in the summer, it covers half of my ears and keeps them warm but doesn't really effect my hearing:
http://oceanrodeo.com/products/beanie

In the winter I use a thicker one from MEC that completely covers my ears and makes it rather hard to hear anything but it's toasty warm:
http://www.mec.ca/AST/ShopMEC/MensClothing/WatersportsClothing/HandwearHeadwear/PRD~5023-627/mec-noque-toque-unisex.jsp

If it's too hot to wear a beanie in Mojave then you could try the Mystic headband:
http://www.mysticboarding.com/products/general/gloves-and-hoods/product.php?pid=1389