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stangbanger856

trouble breathing while jumping.

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Ok I'm new and I know it. I figured I could have this issue beat by now but I haven't so it time to ask why.

This past weekend I made my 3rd jump. Although it was another Tandem (friends party). Starting My AFF in the spring. For most people I know when they whent they just layed there and whent for the ride. For myself I know ill be eventually jumping alone so I took the time to at least set some personal goals for myself. 2 out of three I met. 1st was to be altitude aware and keep an eye on the altimeter. 2nd was proper body position which I believe I did well. 3rd I wasn't so lucky.

Everytime I have jumped so far I have a hard time breathing. In the plane I'm fine but not intill I'm out the door do I notice it feels like I'm haveing an asthma attack. (No I don't have asthma) my chest gets tight like the harness just shrunk 2 sizes.

I have tried a few different techniques to see what works but nothing really helps. I tried breathing threw my nose without effect and tried threw my mouth which seems to work the best and keeping my head looking to the horizon.

I know during a tandem you cant wear a full face helmet but during my AFF could it help?

Thanks for the help. I really want to fix this issue before. The spring comes around.

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Did you have a jumpsuit on? That can hamper your breathing, since in freefall the air pressure is actually forced into and absorbed by your exposed skin.


It's either that or anxiety, even money you had your mouth wide open the entire skydive. 99.99997% of new jumpers tend to do that. The air hitting your open mouth makes it harder to breath for some.
--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

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Sounds like it might be anxiety, what's running through your head when you exit.
Are yuo focussing on controlling your breathing all the way through the climb out?
You are not now, nor will you ever be, good enough to not die in this sport (Sparky)
My Life ROCKS!
How's yours doing?

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Remember to breath *out* after you breath in. (seriously)



I'm pretty sure I did my first 3 AFF jumps entirely without breathing. From, like, the moment I got on the plane.

Could also be you're just not used to that altitude. Personally I find breathing to be a lot easier once they open the door.

Speaking of which, I need to be very careful this week not to eat any of my current batch of "death chili" within a couple of days of my next jump. Hmm. Which might be Thursday if this weather holds...
I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

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Remember to breath *out* after you breath in. (seriously)



I heard this story when I started jumping. I know it isn't true but it sounds like it could have had merit ......

Back in the day an Army jumpmaster was trying solve the whole breathing problem. Being of American Indian descent, he got the troops to yell "GERONIMOOOOO !!!" as they went out the door. This caused them to expel the air in their lungs, causing them to have to take in a breath and start the normal in/out process. And thus is how paratroopers started yelling Geronimo.
Peace,
-Dawson.
http://www.SansSuit.com
The Society for the Advancement of Naked Skydiving

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I think it could be because of anxiety. Iys weird though. All the way up intill I'm half way out the door I'm completely calm and enjoying the ride.

Could it have been the extremely cold air? On the ground it was around 70 but had to be near freezing at jump altitude (11,500 ft) it would have been 14,500 but some cloud cover came in and couldn't make that height.

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re Cold air

Yeah the shock of cold on the face can cause a reflex for some people that makes it hard to breathe. There are one or two threads on it somewhere on dz.com. One gets used to it. Or maybe see if you can get your face partially out into the airflow on jumprun, to let you acclimatize a bit, before the actual moment-of-truth exit.

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Another thing that was different this time then the other jumps was where I was seated. The other times I was in the front of the plane near the pilot and had a small window to look threw. This weekend it was packed in there and I had to sit on the floor right next to the exit door which is clear. It made for the beat view I have ever seen while on a plane but it worked havoc on my nerves. I tried to push that out of my head and focus on my goals I had set. But I remember looking out that door the entire way up. Then at around 11,000 feet we opened it up and instead of a stand up exit we sat on the edge of the plane an rolled out the door.

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Go back and re-read posts 6, 9 and 10.

You aren't breathing out. It's not unusual.

You get so wound up (anxiety, excitement, whatever) that you breathe in, breathe in some more, and then try to breathe in yet more, but your lungs are full and you can't.
You clearly state that " my chest gets tight like the harness just shrunk 2 sizes."

That's because your lungs are over full.

Screaming will force you to exhale, and then you will be fine.
"There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy

"~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

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Yeah, the door's pretty intimidating, until it's not. You see so many Hollywood movies where people get sucked out of the plane, you kind of get that mental picture stuck in your head.

So what's the worst possible thing you can imagine happening there? That somehow your strength completely fails and you fall out? Then what? You have a parachute on and you were about to do that anyway! Once you're confident that the parachute will save your life, so what if you fall out? At any point where the door is open, you'd have plenty of time to deploy your parachute!

Of course, your conscious mind can realize that and you can still be nervous -- your subconscious has to realize this is true and that it doesn't need to try to save your life by freaking you out in those situations. Once all levels of your mind are on the same page, it'll be a lot easier to relax, smile and breathe. I'm not sure there's anything you can do to hurry the process along other than to demonstrate that you just did another jump and turned out fine!
I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

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new jumpers always complain about this. i had one tandem student who was particularly vehement in her claims that she couldn't breath. while skydiving.

on her third jump i brought along a handcam. in the door she takes a big deep breath and holds it and then spends the whole freefall with her mouth closed and her cheeks puffed out, like a kid underwater.

nobody has ever passed out and died because they couldn't breath, and i've never heard of an experienced jumper with these issues.

from my own experiments (executed while bored in droguefall) if you point your face straight down and open your mouth wide it gets hard to breath. i have no issues breathing with my mouth closed, wide open if facing the horizon, etc.

so, just do some more skydives and relax. save your worries for any of the other 80 things that can kill you :)

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On one of my early jump debriefs the instructor told me, “Good hotel check and count. I like it that you use your man voice”. When you get to your AFF you can expect to give some sort of a count to cue the instructors for the exit. Someone in a previous reply suggested you might yell on exit. If you yell your exit count that the instructors tell you to do, you will be ready for a breath after exit.

Spring is a long time to wait.
Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

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