Common misconception with goggles

A commonly held misconception is that the rubber is what creates the seal to keep water out with goggles, I thought that too.

So if you've read this blog over the past 4 months or so, you will know that I've been floundering around in the pool,  Waving around my arms pretending that I'm swimming.  Well I had a pair of goggles that I liked quite a bit, but in my brilliance and probably morning sleepyness I left them somewhere.  So I had to get a new pair and Lisa had told me about these amazing things called swedish goggles.  In my ignorance, I asked who makes their goggles in Sweden, at which point she corrected me to say that they're called swedish goggles, originally made by Malmsten.  Then they got bought by Speedo, and now they make them.  So what do they look like?

Cool thing with them is you can really customize them however you want, different lenses, coatings, nose pieces, strap, string, and they're fully customizable (more on that later).  So I walked into Swimco and asked about them, the sales lady kindly told me these are like the worlds most uncomfortable goggles.  Inside I'm thinking great.  As you'll see there is no rubber gasket on these goggles which is usually what helps to keep the water out, so more doubt on my part, but hey don't judge a book by it's cover. 

So I got Speed Theory, my team shop to order a pair for me, they're not too too expensive, it's 18 bucks for two pairs.  Now the only catch is that you have to assemble them yourselves.  This is both a blessing and a curse.  That nose piece is the worlds most finicky thing ever, I actually messed it up on my of my pairs (I tied it too short, and already cut the string).  But this allows you to customize the fit so it's perfect on your face, so long as you don't do anything stupid like cut the strings too short.  Second problem I ran into was I attempted to rub off the anti fog coating on one of the lenses, not only did this scratch the hell out of that lens, but it's also not anti fog which is mildly annoying.  So in terms of building it, just go meticulously, slow is smooth, smooth is good.

So how do they stand in the water? Well they are indeed waterproof, no problems on that.

These goggles really are minimalist design, but that's actually what makes them so amazing. They don't feel like they're there after the first little bit, you have pretty much unobstructed view under water, and lets be honest, they actually look pretty sweet, and they're not bulky.  So even though I screwed up with all the troubl of assembling mine, I think as long as you assemble them properly, these goggles are amazing, and you never really do want to go back to a regular pair.

~Cheers