Silver Fish RX Sunglasses HELP

I got my husband a pair of Seaspecs--similar to the Silverfish, nonprescription. They were really slow to ship, in fact I had to email them to ask where they were about 2 weeks after they'd charged my credit card. So I'd be hesitant about ordering prescription lenses from Seaspecs. And he's not that happy with them, the lenses aren't all that dark even though I ordered the ones that were supposed to give the maximum protection.

I could use something like Seaspecs or Silverfish, though. I'm really nearsighted and don't like wearing contacts anymore (your eyes get drier when you get older and I need bifocals now and I just couldn't be bothered anymore). For the time being I'm wearing my old pair of prescription glasses, which have Transitions lenses and darken up in the sunlight, with one of those Croakies eyewear retainer straps which they sell at Burt's Surf Shop. If these glasses get broken I'll have to see about getting prescription Silverfish or something.

I'll be interested in hearing in how you like the Silverfish.

 

I'd be hesitant to pay that much for something that could come off in the water and never be found again. I'm not sure how I'd solve your problem, I'd just hate to see a thread on hear a week from now about how you lost your 200 glasses on a wipeout.

 

So, I have a very big head, and am very nearsighted. Also as a not-that-great bodyboarder who paddles for any wave, I spend a lot of time getting rolled underwater / duck diving / face planting / etc. Without glasses, I can basically see 1 wave (i.e. the wave closest to me) and maaaaaybe get a general idea of the wave behind it if I am super lucky, but I definitely cannot see any farther than that. Also, for me, again, with the amount of time I spend with my head under water / getting rolled along the bottom after getting slammed bodyboarding heavy shorebreak closeouts, contact lenses seem like a really terrible idea; they would either fall out or I would get sand/gravel/bits of seashell caught under the contact lenses slicing my eyes up, like, almost immediately.

It's been a bit of an issue because, like, bodyboarding in Baja on a 5-6 foot day I could not see the outside sets until they were about to land on my head (ouch!) and this was in a semi-sketchy spot where I really did not want to get caught inside/rolled. Also same spot in Baja when it was getting big and choppy and scary but I wanted to tough it out/keep riding, I couldn't see the rest of the lineup ~200 yards away (if I had, I would have seen that all of the ~20 surfers who were ~10000% better than me had paddled in and I was now out in the **** alone).

I have an rx dive mask and swim goggles, I have tried them in the past but even with the fanciest anti-fog they fog up pretty much instantly; anything that seals your eyes in isn't gonna last more than ~10 minutes.

So anyways, I bought a set of Silverfish Whistler-IIs, just the frames (I think it was only like, 50-70 bucks for the frames? )... the strap is pretty darn strong and well attached to the frames themselves, and they are actually a shape that even with my huge head they can go over top of my wetsuit hood just fine; they have this little add-on nosepiece that is vital because without it, they sit too close to your eyes and your eyelashes end up making the lenses smear.

The nosepiece also kinda hooks into your eye-sockets in such a way that if a giant wave crashes on your head, they will never slide _up_ your face, they will slide down towards your neck. I've had this happen, let a ~5 footer break on my head and it definitely was strong enough to loosen the strap and pull them down my face, but they really don't tend to pull up. The strap itself will loosen when something like this happens and the weak point is definitely where the straps attach to the frame (although it isn't exactly "weak" this is the most likely point to break). However, they come with a leash or if your wetsuit has a zipper-pull, you could attach that to the strap; then, if one end of the strap breaks loose, the other will still be attached so the leash will save them.

For lenses, I'm currently really into Crizal lenses, so I had a local shop I like order+cut me a set of Crizal high-index lenses with a crazy 3 or 4-layer lens coating -- Crizal's anti-scratch, their polarized transitions coating (so they act like polarized sunglasses in the sun, then clear at night for night sessions), and finally "Opti-Fog" which is Crizal's super fancy anti-fog coating which comes with a bottle of "activator" anti-fog drops.

I find the Opti-Fog coating actually works pretty baller, although with the amount of duck diving, face planting, over-the-falls-going, etc that I end up doing, they still eventually start fogging up after 2-3 hours. Then I can either paddle in and rub a couple more drops of the "activator" on and have them clear as day, or just dip my face in the water for a second and shake them off which also works but doesn't keep the lenses magically clear/clean the way the opti-fog activator does.

The lenses were kind of expensive (okay, honestly, very expensive) but to me like, paying the hospital bill when an outside set I couldn't see without glasses slams me into some rocks could also be expensive?

 

Also because sometimes I like to wear earplugs, especially in cold water... so without them I would be basically deaf+blind out there, can't even hear other people yelling "outside!"