Hey,
I have been having trouble wearing contact lenses in the water lately. Any surfers that wear prescription glasses have any recommendation of an alternative to contact lenses out in the water?
Regards,
Matt
I’ve been using contact lenses in the water for 13 years. I’ve lost a grand total of three. I wear disposable lenses though.
Are you limited to hard contacts or something that is not water friendly?
hey
i just usually ignore old friends
paddle for sets that are not coming
and smile at locals who are giving me stinkeye
acutally i thought about trying Barz Optics
howver they cant fit my prescrition
i need glasses for distance, but i manage without 'em when i surf.
could maybe get those oakley water sunglasses fitted with your 'scrip.??
Hey,
I wear the dailies & have only lost one once also. I have an eye alergy ( caused by the contacts ) & have been told not to wear contacts for 3 weeks. I can’t not surf for 3 weeks!
matt
Quote:
Hey,
I have been having trouble wearing contact lenses in the water lately. Any surfers that wear prescription glasses have any recommendation of an alternative to contact lenses out in the water?
Regards,
Matt
Well, i don’t know about contact lenses ,
but surfing becomes a contact sport for me ,
when i realise that rock i just ran over this morning actually had arms and legs
[sorry , ian]
at least with a mat i didn’t kill him !
ben
I surf sanz glasses, and so far I haven’t drowned or been pummelled too hard by a wave I couldn’t see. I’m hopefully getting contacts soon but I’ve heard that they will “float” out of your eyes in the water. Not something I’d like to try out. But it would be great to see what the hell I’m doing. Nothing is more fun than trying to climb down a rock wall with a board when you can’t see the rocks in front of you!
Get the eye surgery done, it well worth the money. I used to be blind as a bat 20/400, I wore daily disposables, lost a few. But when the offshore is blowing, and your trying to pull yourself over the ledge…nothing worse than having one come semi loose. I used to loos them all the time. I lost 3 in one day in Hawaii. Also with contacts you can’t open your eyes up underwater when you duck dive, and that is a distinct disadvantage when your in places like Hawaii where the water is clear and you can see those plumes coming at ya. Also you can’t open your eyes up in the tube,…another no, no. Contacts and surfing really don’t mix very well.
If you can afford it, stop screwing around with contacts. The surgery is complely safe. It will be one of the best things that ever happen in your life. It will rank like this: 1) birth of your child, 2) Eye surgery, 3) sex…yes it’s better than sex., it last longer.
I’m going on 3 years with the surgery, no side effects and 20/15 vision…my eye sight is so good, I can see you right now.
Oh yeah, my wife had it done too, she’s 20/20. My sister had it done too, shes 20/20 also. My best friend with a stigmatism had it done too, he’s 20/30…I know there are some out there that had a bad experience or tow, but those were years ago. Do what the doctor says, and go to a solid doctor, not some guy across the border in Mexico, and you’ll be golden.
Where’s the sense of pride and craftmanship in a computer made laser cut eye correction lens shape? Swaylocks is all about saving the art of eye glass construction. Some day it will all be gone, the art will be lost, taken over by computer generated and laser cut lens shapes performed in China. A very sad day at that.
The biggest reason I’m here is to pass along the skills it takes to make a handmade custom glasses. I personally never want to see a laser eye lens shaping machine or an acute vision corrector( AVC3000). But then again I don’t make a living doing this.
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yes it’s better than sex
sorry, dude…but…if you really believe that, then you probably aren’t doing it right…
My prescription is 4.5 in both eyes for Contacts, have got disposables to use now on the river, but have been warned that if wearing contacts in water, either the river, or the sea, with all the polution that there is these days, you are well advised to not keep them in for any length of time after you get out as the porous nature of the lense just soaks up every nasty germ that is floating around in the water. I don’t fancy an eye infection!
My advice to you if you are anywhere crowded is to get a flourecent yellow vest (the kind bikers etc wear) and write in permanent black marker “I AM BLIND” front and back, the bigger your board the more effective this becomes. You will be amazed how people will move out your way when they see you coming down the line!
To answer the original question, there are swim goggles available that can be fitted with prescription lenses, but those are special order items that will no doubt take longer than three weeks to get. Something to keep in mind, though, if this becomes a recurring problem. I was intending to get a pair made up if I couldn’t wear my contacts surfing.
I’ve been surfing for >7 years with soft contacts, and have had no problems. I have lost three contacts in that time, and two of those were on the beach after the wind and salt had dried them out. If you get lenses fitted by a competent ophthalmologist (and tell him or her that you surf with them), there probably won’t be a problem with excessive loss. You should also be able to open your eyes underwater - I can and do. Regarding bacteria - contacts float on the tears and other lubricating fluids of the eye. Those fluids continue to circulate while the contacts are in. Presumably any bacteria or other tiny foreign matter that got into the eye via ocean water would have approximately the same effect whether contacts were worn or not. I certainly would advise anyone who swims or surfs with contacts to disinfect them in the correct fluid between wearings and dispose of them on schedule.
I would also hope that anyone entertaining thoughts of a serious procedure like radial keratotomy would first seek the advice of an expert who doesn’t have a financial axe to grind. Complications can and do occur - it’s your eyesight we’re talking about…
-Samiam
HI Resinhead,
I’ve considered the surgery, but you know they say the success rate is like 98% and my feeling has always been- if you end up in the 2 % and your vision is screwed it wouldn’t matter if the success rate is 99.99%. Mr. .01% is hating life.
I wear disposables and lose a few a year, no big deal except it pretty much ruins that session.
I was wondering if the surgery weakens the eye at all? Like if you accidentally do a face plant on a 6 foot wave and land with your eyes open, are you more likely to tear?
Yep they will always tell you that there is a chance of risk…they have too. Because there will always be that guy that goes to the APES 4000 eye cutter and has a perfect eye cut, then he give it to some flunky with no skills to put final touches. Bam infection. Where’s the pride in that? Or worse the flunky runs the whole operation and gives kick backs to the name brand doctor.
Stay with quality and skilled labor of someone that cares about the art and you won’t be one of the .0002% Also listen to what the doctor says, like stay out of the water for 4 weeks. Anyhow I had great sucess with it, and I highly recommend it to anybody who is thinking about it…except that over sexed Boca Raton guy!
If you were blind your entire life, and one day you could see with out glasses. Where would you rank that in your life?
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Yep they will always tell you that there is a chance of risk…they have too. Because there will always be that guy that goes to the APES 4000 eye cutter and has a perfect eye cut, then he give it to some flunky with no skills to put final touches. Bam infection. Where’s the pride in that? Or worse the flunky runs the whole operation and gives kick backs to the name brand doctor.
Stay with quality and skilled labor of someone that cares about the art and you won’t be one of the .0002% Also listen to what the doctor says, like stay out of the water for 4 weeks. Anyhow I had great sucess with it, and I highly recommend it to anybody who is thinking about it…except that over sexed Boca Raton guy!
If you were blind your entire life, and one day you could see with out glasses. Where would you rank that in your life?
Yeah, I’m ~20/85 - at 20/400 it would absolutely be a different risk-reward evaluation, but that magnitude of nearsightedness is fairly unusual. I looked into the procedure, and apparently part of the problem is that some of the equipment is so very automated that it does not require an operator with a lot of skill or knowledge - at least for the >90% of cases where everything goes as expected. Needless to say, that is a situation that some practitioners are tempted to abuse. Choosing a surgeon carefully and reading the contract to make certain that the doctor selected is the one who will actually be doing the cutting are essential no matter what the procedure - many contracts allow the nominal surgeon to delegate…
-Samiam
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If you can afford it, stop screwing around with contacts. The surgery is complely safe. It will be one of the best things that ever happen in your life. It will rank like this: 1) birth of your child, 2) Eye surgery, 3) sex…yes it’s better than sex., it last longer.
I’m going on 3 years with the surgery, no side effects and 20/15 vision…my eye sight is so good, I can see you right now.
Oh yeah, my wife had it done too, she’s 20/20. My sister had it done too, shes 20/20 also. My best friend with a stigmatism had it done too, he’s 20/30…I know there are some out there that had a bad experience or tow, but those were years ago. Do what the doctor says, and go to a solid doctor, not some guy across the border in Mexico, and you’ll be golden.
Yeah! I thought I was the only guy raving about LASIK.
One of the best decisions I ever made. 20/15 6 years ago and proly 20/20 today. I paid $1K/eye at the time and now you can have it done for $300/eye. No brainer.
I couldnt agree more with Resinhead.
FWIW, I interviewed three prominent LASIK surgery doctors in the area. The first two places had the extravagant marble lobby and high overhead operation. Didnt get that warm fuzzy feeling, I felt like I was being sold at $3,500. The third guy was the geeky scientist early pioneer dude. One of the first guys to start doing LASIK on a regular basis years ago…he was quite young, late 30’s. I asked heaps of questions about the cutter…he told me he uses the best cutter (in its third generation), all the quirks that made the tool tricky to use was eliminated. In fact, the tool was fully automatic…the cutting action that is. The Doc has to properly place the tool on the eye (yeah real hard, its like a bullseye) and hold it there. The tool does the rest. Once its cut (about 320 degrees or so), he simply folds it back with a stick. Then you gotta look steadily at the red light while the laser reshapes your eye lens.
For those going for it, I recommend full relaxation mode before and during the visit…avoid jitteryness (some places will offer a sedative if your nerveous). You could even practice looking at a small red light at home, breathing and staying relaxed and steady. Your only requirement is to relax, look at that red light and stay steady…EASY.
Doctors are like anything else…there are good ones and there are not so good ones. Talk to many people, visit places and interview them. Pick the best and pay for the best.
Just by luck, one of the best guys was also not the most expensive. He was a solo practicioner who leased time at a LASIK facility with the most state of the art equipment. He didnt have all that overhead the other guys had…marble can be very expensive y’know…not to mention the LASIK machine.
I also heard there’s a ‘new’ procedure out that doesnt need pre-cutting…check it out.
hi dave
i was considering lasik until reading on the internet about problems people have had
that there vision at dusk become blurry and lighting looks blurry in low light
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hey
i just usually ignore old friends
paddle for sets that are not coming
and smile at locals who are giving me stinkeye
Hilarious, mostly because its true. I know this becase I’m as blind as could be and don’t wear contacts when I surf.
yeah
so true huh!
its dusk that the worse
one day we were meeting a friend for a surf
supossed to pick him up but he had just ducked into tha bakery to buy us a treat
we looked around for the car couldnt see it
and drove off to the break assuming he was there already
he turned up an hour later really pissed and paddled out
he was sittin in the line up for half an hour thinking i was ignoring him
got really shity and paddled over and started abusing me
i was going like wtf dude im blind
build a fence and get over it
Do the lasik, it’s a piece of cake. you’ll love it.