Exposure to salt water can irritate your eyes causing excessive eye strain, fatigue, and temporary blindness. Contact lenses wearers put themselves at risk for infection when water comes in contact with their lenses or fear losing a contact lens in the water. Those who wear glasses also fear losing their glasses in the water so they often go blind in order to participate in these sports. Water sport sunglasses or goggles can be worn to protect the eyes from the water, protecting your contact lenses, and can also be fit with a prescription so you can see. They also filter 100% of the ultraviolet light, and can be polarized to block out glare which improves the clarity of your vision by eliminating the reflections off the water. Some of these lenses can also be hydrophobic, which the water to bead off instead of getting in the way of your vision. Here is what to look for when purchasing sunglasses for water sports:
• Ultraviolet Protection: Since these activities take place outdoors, you really need to protect your eyes from ultraviolet light. Ultraviolet has been linked to many diseases such as cataracts, macular degeneration, and cancers of the eye. Also, when on water, light is reflected off the surface of the water, and UV is in higher concentration. Therefore, it is important to make sure that the goggle you use absorbs 100% of UV radiation.
• Polarized Lenses: Glare results from sunlight reflecting off the water into your eyes causing temporary blindness and resulting in you having to squint. Polarized lenses absorb 98% of the glare, so that your eyes can relax.
• Lens Color: Tinted lenses will shade your eyes from the brightness of the sun. This allows your eyes to relax and see better.
• Prescription Lenses: If you wear a prescription, you have several options. You can have prescription lenses made directly for the sunglasses or goggles. Another option is to purchase sunglasses that have an insert for a prescription. The advantages of having the insert are that your eyewear doesn’t fog up as easily and it is easy to change the prescription relatively inexpensively if your eyes change.
• Proper Seal: For a goggle to properly work, it must create a good seal so water cannot seep into the goggle. You want the goggle to fit on the bone around the eyes, not inside the eye socket itself. An improperly fit goggle will cause "raccoon eyes". This is because the goggle rests on the socket, instead of the bone, and cuts off circulation. Also, the goggle must seal completely. Put the goggle on and make sure you can see no visible gaps between the goggle and your face.
We offer sunglasses (polarized or non-polarized) with prescription inserts starting at only $125 including tax. We are currently also having a pre-summer sunglasses sale with 20% off all sunglasses! Which brings this one down to only $100!
Please visit this link for more information and photos: http://www.lfec.ca/index.php/products/sunglassesRemember to have fun, but protect your eyes while doing so! If you are looking for some contact lenses, prescription sunglasses, or goggles, give my office a call (604.777.7577) or email ([email protected]) to find out more information. 
