Snowboard goggles are an essential piece of kit that can make or break your day, Being able to see where you are and where you are going is arguably the most important aspect of snowboarding. But in the modern retail landscape, picking a good goggle can be a daunting task, every brand has their own marketing term for similar features and it can get confusing trying to decipher what features will make your perfect goggle. So let’s break it down and hopefully you get a better idea of what to look out for!
The first key aspect to look out for is shape, ain’t no use having a flashy new set of specs if they don’t make a good seal around your face and are nice and comfy. Brands now do a range of sizes and fits, Sometimes brands will do size variants of the same frame. Oakley, Dragon and Electric do a smaller variant in some of their frames. Keep in mind the size of your face when picking out a frame. Make sure you don’t have any undue pressure around your eye socket, pinching on the bridge of your nose, or gaps between your face and the frame that will allow too much air in.
Have a look here for some smaller frames, and here for some large frames.
Secondly is lens shape, Goggles will typically come in either a Cylindrical style lens or a Spherical style of lens.
Cylindrical or Flat Wrap lenses are great as they allow brands to make a lens with all the great anti fog features, tints and function of their Spherical counterpart at a lower price point, at the cost of some of your peripheral vision, glare and distortion.
Spherical lenses are the cream of the crop, they have a bubbled out type of look that helps in giving you better peripheral vision, less glare, and less distortion as the lens remains an equal distance from your eyes in the corners of your field of vision. They also have a slight advantage in terms of anti fog, as they allow for more air volume on the inside of the frame, though anti fog treatments are so good these days that this gap has somewhat closed.
The last key aspect we want to consider is the lens tint and features. Most good goggles these days will come with multiple lenses in the box for different light conditions, or features built into a single lens so they can adapt to a wider variety of conditions. Take into consideration the UV rating on the lens, if they have a chrome finish to reflect more light on those sunny days, or if they are an adaptable lens that you can take out regardless of how much light you have to play with. The best source of information about lens tints is straight from the horse’s mouth, so here’s a bunch of links to each brands lens tint guide
Oakley-
https://www.oakley.com/en-au/lens-guide
Dragon-
https://www.dragonalliance.com/tech-lumalens
https://www.dragonalliance.com/lumalens-photochromic
Anon-
https://info.burton.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000081694-Anon-Lens-Tint-Guide
Electric-
https://au.electriccalifornia.com/pages/goggle-technical-information
If swapping and changing lenses all the time isn’t for you, have a look at Oakley’s Prizm, Dragons Lumalens and Anons Sonar line of lenses. These lenses are tuned to block out specific types of light and enhance others. The end result is a lens that can adapt to multiple light conditions, making a lens that usually would be just for a bluebird day handle some of those overcast conditions. Or a low light lens that still performs when the sun pokes it’s head out. If you want to take this concept and take it to a whole other level, Have a look at Dragons Photochromic lenses, These beauts actually change from a transparent tint to a dark grey as the sun comes out, meaning you’ll never have to change a lens again!
That’s about it folks, all the info you’ll ever need to pick out your perfect goggle. Jump online and check out our massive range of goggles here, or come pay us a visit in store and speak to our awesome staff who can help guide you in the right direction!
