Anyone try the LiP Sunglasses (is Zeiss worth the extra $) ?

[lindseym]

Greetings all,
I'm not digging Sea Specs and am looking to switch. Have any of you ever used the LiP glasses and if so which model (Typhoon or Surge)? The only difference between the two is that the Typhoon has "ZEISS" polarization but they are $119 more (Surge = $99 and Typhoon = $218). What do you guys think? Is the ZEISS polarization really worth nearly $120 or is it just a fancy name.

Thanks for the input.
Lm

[jakemoore]

The ocean will give you stronger winds and better waves when you sacrifice more expensive glasses. Definitely worth it for you and all of your friends will thank you.

[lindseym]

The ocean will give you stronger winds and better waves when you sacrifice more expensive glasses. Definitely worth it for you and all of your friends will thank you.

Yes, given the number of glasses, hats, and other stuff I've "gifted" we should have a solid year of 20Kts days ahead.

[BWD]

Polarized is good for fishing and cutting glare, avoiding shoals in boats...
Sometimes too good, though - while kiting you need to see the surface of the water accurately to judge wave/chop shape, spot landings etc. This can be harder with polarization.
And to me it's a stretch to go for perfection, polarized or not, considering salt, sweat, and sunblock are some of the "special optical coatings" you will be applying to the lenses.

[lindseym]

Polarized is good for fishing and cutting glare, avoiding shoals in boats...
Sometimes too good, though - while kiting you need to see the surface of the water accurately to judge wave/chop shape, spot landings etc. This can be harder with polarization.
And to me it's a stretch to go for perfection, polarized or not, considering salt, sweat, and sunblock are some of the "special optical coatings" you will be applying to the lenses.

Yes - very true. Thx

[OzBungy]

Below are comments I posted about the Lips Typhoons on another forum. In short, I was sceptical, bought them prepared to return them, now I like them a lot.

Are they worth the money? Nothing in kiteboarding is worth the money. Kiteboarding is a particularly useless activity. It's nice to get a bargain. It's nice to get great use out of a cheap thing. it's depressing to spend money and get something that doesn't work very well. But if you buy something and it works well, you soon forget about the money you paid for it.

I have several pairs of Seaspecs (bought on one of their many 3 for 1 sales), and have owned lots of different types over the years. I have recently bought a pair of Lips Typhoons after reading the comments here.

At first I was a bit disappointed with the Typhoons. They weren't that much better than a well maintained pair of Seaspecs or other glasses. I kept using them and I have found that at their best they are excellent. At their worst they are still pretty good. Now I use them all the time.

Other glasses tend to degrade over time and you always get a day when they're just crap. The water sheets over the lenses and dries into film. On the Typhoons the water might start off as sheets, but coalesces into drops that dry and are not that noticeable.

There is a little maintenance workload for the Typhoons. You're supposed to rinse them in fresh water after use and occasionally wash the lenses with a little gentle detergent (I use the hand wash stuff we have sitting in the bathroom). You let them dry then polish with the supplied cloth. At $300 a pair it's not hard to get motivated to look after them. I think they would work adequately with just a swoosh in the sea as you take off.

I have tried all the other stuff on Seaspecs and the like (RainX and waxes and stuff). The workload to keep them clean was a pain, and there were always days when they just got too grubby to see.

[gbrungra]

I recently bought a cheap pair of sunglasses safety glasses from Home Depot, and a short piece of string. Drilled holes in the back of the temple pieces to tie the string.

I've done two sessions, and they stay in place when I crash, and have no frame to block my peripheral vision of the water.

Maybe $20 when I eventually lose them, and replace them with another pair of the same.

[IainMacaskill]

Luxottica is the Italian company that owns the sunglasses market, they own all the big brands including all of the "sports eyeware" brands. Sunglasses cost about 30p to make and through amazing marketing people pay over a hundred quid for two screws, two lenses and four bits of plastic.

Don't be taken in, just buy the cheep ones off eBay.

[jakemoore]

Luxottica is a big name in optical and has a vertically integrated monopoly reaching from frames to stores to doctors to insurance. They own quite a portfolio of eyewear brands. If you go into a Lenscrafters or Sunglass Hut you might think they have all the brands.

In fact the Luxottica booth represents a tiny portion of the eyewear displayed at Vision Expo, and only a portion of brands show there. It would be like saying Neil Pryde owns kite surfing. Marchon is another big player. You can spend less for commodity eyewear. You can spend more on boutique and luxury eyewear brands. We carry some Lux in our store because people ask for it.

I'm a big fan of trying on glasses before buying. I like Costa's silver sunrise lenses. I also like the safety glass idea.

[PullStrings]

They don't say if the back of their lenses are treated with a multi-layer anti-reflective

Makes a great difference in clarity and comfort to have that along with the hydro and oleo technology on the backside of sun lenses