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

[Matteo V]

Warning: Do not try on a pair of high quality lenses sunglasses with backside anti-reflective for kiting with Hydro and Oleo tech in them
It's a highly addictive product !!
Once you get to see the difference through those lenses there is no coming back to the El Cheapo tolerable kind

I will take your advice on this.

Question about your beloved $1 glasses for work and kiting :
Do you also wear them to drive your car when it's sunny ??
Or do you have a better pair for that ??
After all most of us spend more hours behind the wheel than behind a control bar

Car driving....glare glare from everywhere....not just disabling but the blinding kind....so dangerous you could run somebody over by not seeing them !!
From driving directly towards a low sun in the morning and the afternoon
From the road wet and dry....from your dashboard...from the inside of your windshield...from the back window of car in front of you...your own hood...etc

That's it. I am giving up kiting because with all the other people out there driving without $200 sunglasses, one of them is going to kill me the next time I do drive to the break. - Sarcasm

You have some pretty big claims here. They are the usual "everyone's doing it wrong so they are going to die" ones. Again, my sunglasses work fine for driving. A pair of gold mirror ones (Checklite Crews CL119) saved my eyes (and likely life) in a collision with a deer at 70mph. Spend what you want, and I cannot disagree that a Rolex tells better time than my Casio, but not everyone needs to be that "in style".

[CaptainCore]

That's it. I am giving up kiting ........ "in style".

Oh Joy!

So, can we stand the style police down then?

Will this mean kiting related interwebery bandwidth will be alleviated?

A truly red letter day..

[PullStrings]

A pair of gold mirror ones (Checklite Crews CL119) saved my eyes (and likely life) in a collision with a deer at 70mph.

[Matteo V]

A pair of gold mirror ones (Checklite Crews CL119) saved my eyes (and likely life) in a collision with a deer at 70mph.

1st deer - raccoon came out first, then a split second later, the deer. I hit both, the raccoon did some damage underneath that totaled the vehicle. This was in Kansas just before midnight trying to get to another lake to continue 3 days of wind for another 3 days.

2nd deer - less than 40days later on my new vehicle with just under 3000miles on it, is when the next one jumped out in front of me in Montana and smashed the glass into my face at 70mph. Again those safety glasses allowed me to continue to see through a bit of gap where the windshield pulled away from the pillar. No glasses, I would have been completely blind.

Wear safety glasses.

[Rufusz]

If you don't thrust cheap chinese glasses you can always go for safety glasses.

Some are designed for outdoor tasks in extreme environment, bulletproof and guaranteed protection.
Of course they all lack of bullshit hype and bling...

For instance a Bollé polarized sunglasses costs $100+, the similar Bollé Safety costs less then half price.

[jakemoore]

2nd deer - less than 40days later on my new vehicle

Woah! If you hit two deer in 40 days its time for an eye exam or driving lessons. Your lucky to be alive and lucky you didn't kill someone else.

I had a patient where an opposing car hit a deer and launched into the windshield of his truck. It killed his wife and took his left eye. Life changing for this poor young man.

You need to be able to see to drive and when you see deer, slow down.

[slowboat]

If you don't thrust cheap chinese glasses you can always go for safety glasses.

Some are designed for outdoor tasks in extreme environment, bulletproof and guaranteed protection.
Of course they all lack of bullshit hype and bling...

For instance a Bollé polarized sunglasses costs $100+, the similar Bollé Safety costs less then half price.

Not sure what "hype and bling..." you are referring to but state of the art sunglasses designed for water sports (or cycling for example) have vents and/or hydrophobic coatings that actually work and makes a difference as far as fogging and water droplet buildup. You can see better out of them while out there=greater safety. This insight came to me when I tried Lip sunglasses ($100) after going through a bunch of the "cheap" ones.

[Barryg101]

The brand BUOY WEAR tha make floating caps worn by lots of instructors have just launched sunglasses that float too , polarized , full UV protection and apparently impact resistant.

I'm not a rep or related to the brand in anyway but saw the post on Instagram and like the look of these a lot

They sell for less than 40$ and look pretty nice, might be worth a look

[PullStrings]

2nd deer jumped out in front of me in Montana and smashed the glass into my face at 70mph.
Again those safety glasses allowed me to continue to see through a bit of gap where the windshield pulled away from the pillar.
No glasses, I would have been completely blind.
Wear safety glasses.

1st deer was at midnight and if you were wearing your no tint safety glasses... well then your vision was poor through lenses because the front and back surfaces are reflective
Polycarbonate without AR treatment is very highly reflective and terrible to see through at night
Plus maybe you need a correction RX for driving....at night pupils open large and you can't see like during daytime


2nd deer was daytime wearing your safety glasses "gold mirror" " not polarized "....guess what ...you really can't see that good through them
Mirror on the front of lenses creates strong reflections on the back of the lenses close to your eyes....worsening vision
So they don't really help.... except for not shattering and protect your eyes....but you need to think about others on the road that you may not see in time to avoid
You get with them distracting glare from the back of lenses and blinding glare through them



Here is an illustration (from Smith) of the multi layers that makes the best sunglasses
One of the most important "to see with extraordinary clarity"...effortlessly... is the second layer starting from the back of the lens...."Backside Anti-Reflective"

[Matteo V]

BS

You sound like pumpy on this! If it is too hard to see through polycarbonate lenses, then why are safety glasses used in:
1. construction (often at heights while walking on narrow ledges)
2. factory assembly (where accuracy and placement are extremely important)
3. machining (where detail is extremely important)

Are you trying to say "everybody is doing it wrong"? Come on, who are you really working for?

But since you seem so into it, can you answer some questions like -

What the heck does anti scratch coating actually protect against? Will it actually stop a piece of sand on your wiping cloth from scratching the surface? How about if you drop them on gravel or concrete? How is the light that made it to the inside of the glasses on close wrap style glasses (like my safety glasses) too hard for someone to possibly see through?


And hey, first deer did not break the windsheild. But it was on a narrow 2 lane highway (60mph) with steep drop (embankments) to either side as I had just crossed the creek in the bottom of a valley.

And I have avoided many deer collisions. But it is not possible to do so when the deer come at full speed perpendicular to the highway from a tall weeded ditch. I don't know how many "frames per second" a human can see at, but that both were only about 2 images that I can recall.