We should be wearing sunglasses throughout the day and especially while kiteboarding! Why aren't we?

[Flyboy]

Just to let you know how the cataract op goes, you basically get to look into a light while the guy sucks your old lens out with blunt tipped cannula, although you can't feel much you get the vibration, a bit like at the dentists, your knuckles go well white as you grip the arm of the chair as he sucks about emulsifying and aspirating the old lens, you get to watch it all, a bit blurry of course because he's just destroyed what's left of your sun damaged lens.

Trust me, my time over again, I'd never go on the water without shades...

There is that more accurate and less scary for you?

Snowflakes.

Geezus Cap - you're SO macho!

I used to have polarized glasses but was given to understand that polarizing does not make a significant difference?

I tie my glasses to my harness with a piece of flying line, otherwise I inevitably lose them at some point ... I've even lost a pair when they were tied to my harness, during an explosive crash during a squall.

[pitbulldoug]

RainX is superb but I would not use it on glasses that have expensive lens treatments such as AR or oleophobic surface e.g. Crizal etc. But if it’s a cheap pair of sunglasses or RX with CR39 lenses then RainX is great.

Tried rain X not that great results for me really perhaps it was my lenses not being compatible?saliva you name it, and still have not found a good saltwater drop on lense reducer can’t stand kiting in waves/chop without good visibility,the best kiting sunglass I tried were the kurtis but the spray they came with for cleaning/waterspots was not too good,hoping that some company comes out with a real good saltwater spot aid for extreme sports like kiting,a lot of variables with saltwater kiting ie salinity water temp so definitely a difficult task, but seems like with all the technology out there we would have some product out there for this than what’s currently available

[Barryg101]

Such thing as polarized contact lenses?

Could be the future for us water addicts

[Kamikuza]

Got some photochromatic glasses cheap from AliExpress to try on the water, but I just realized they might need direct exposure to UV to darken and I tend to wear hats ... anyone have experience with them?

Such thing as polarized contact lenses?

Could be the future for us water addicts

First page: the answer is yes.

[Flyboy]

Got some photochromatic glasses cheap from AliExpress to try on the water, but I just realized they might need direct exposure to UV to darken and I tend to wear hats ... anyone have experience with them?

There will be enough light hitting the lenses to darken them even without direct sunlight.

[HALF]

Polarisation does not protect the eyes, it just blocks big percentage of reflected light as reflection changes the light polarisation(thus giving you a clearer vision in some cases). You need UV blocking lenses, and I don't think the contacts are big enough to protect completely your eyes.

[slowboat]

Don't confuse polarization with UV protection. UV protection is what you want. Those super cheap dark glasses without UV will increase eye damage by causing your pupils to dilate (since they block light). They may claim UV protection but who knows? Polarization does not protect your eyes. For water sports, the coating matters. I use Lip and find their lens coating does an excellent job of shedding moisture and minimizing fogging. They recommend a fresh water soak after every use. I stick them in a bowl while showering. Lip's retention system is state of the art and the little vents work. On the most challenging days, I may get a little fogging but it dissipates quickly when I start moving. Disclosure: I have no financial relationship with Lip.

[HALF]

Even cheap glasses provide very very good UV protection, it is just cheap and easy to apply during the manufacturing process. There were some tests of 1$ cheap sunglasses, and all of them had 100% UV protection.
Contacts on the other hand may not have the coating and they are way thinner.

[Kamikuza]

Don't confuse polarization with UV protection. UV protection is what you want. Those super cheap dark glasses without UV will increase eye damage by causing your pupils to dilate (since they block light). They may claim UV protection but who knows? Polarization does not protect your eyes. For water sports, the coating matters. I use Lip and find their lens coating does an excellent job of shedding moisture and minimizing fogging. They recommend a fresh water soak after every use. I stick them in a bowl while showering. Lip's retention system is state of the art and the little vents work. On the most challenging days, I may get a little fogging but it dissipates quickly when I start moving. Disclosure: I have no financial relationship with Lip.

I got some cheap-as sunglasses from AliExpress but forgot about UV protection ... I've got a UV torch that I got for curing SolaRez so I guess I could test with that...?

I made a leash system like Lip's with a $5 pseudoscience power necklace. Works a treat.

Defogging seems to depend on airflow. The worst glasses at defogging are those that have the rubber bumpers that seal to the face. My $70 Dirty Dog Curls are going on 4 years old (die, damn you!) and still defog instantly when you turn your head into the wind. They're also annoyingly good at repelling water. They're so adequate that I just can't justify spending $200 on the Typhoons, no matter how much I want them

[slowboat]

People think of Lip as the $200 Sunglasses but you can get a model at $100 which work just as well as their $200 Typhoons