My first open water race is coming up next month. I've practiced sighting simulations in the pool, but the practice buoy is only at the other side of the pool. I assume the real thing will be much more distant. I do not have access to open water to practice before my race and am worried about whether I will be able to see the buoy. Just how far away is customary? The swim in question is the Oxford-Bellevue Sharkfest, a 1500 m across the Tred-Avon River in Maryland. It is a straight line, not a triangle. Since this is my first such event, my goal is just to finish safely within the 40 minute DQ cut-off.
For Masters practice I have been wearing Speedo Vanquisher -2.00 strength optical goggles in order to read the whiteboard. (I can read the digital clock fine without magnification). I find these goggles uncomfortable after about 500 yards. When not at formal practice, I usually wear Aqua Sphere Lady Kaiman. They fit me great and are much more comfortable, but aren't available as optical goggles. I haven't found any optical goggles that fit like the Aquasphere or are open water style.
So my question is do I wear the comfortable goggles that compromise my vision or the uncomfortable ones that let me see better?
I have tried the TYR, but they were way to big on me and leaked badly. I did like the gasket and thought they also had sharper optics than Speedo so would definitely recommend them to larger people. That Roka looks interesting, particularly since it appears to come in a woman's size -- I haven't had good luck with unisex goggles. How does the Kiefer differ from Speedo? They look much the same but subtle differences in gasket could make a world of difference. Thanks for the sighting large optics tip. I have done that for recreational open water swimming.
One thing you might want to consider is looking for tinted lenses to see how the contrast on the buoys might be for you. Even though you won't be able to see them sharply with your vision, at least you'd be able to better pick out the blob of buoy in the distance. I don't have these Rokas yet to give you a review, I've heard good thigns about them from other OW swimmers. At least scroll down to this page to see how the different shading works for different conditions. It might help you pick a pair. www.rokasports.com/.../r1-goggle
+1 for tinted lenses. Huge difference on sunny days.
Adolph Kiefer also makes optical goggles. You can try those for a more comfortable fit. May work better for you.
Another tip is to look at the course pre-race and see if you can find a larger object that lines up with the buoy to sight on.
A lot easier to see a building or large tree, etc than the buoy. once you get closer you can sight off the buoy.
If you are not in the first group you can also get a pretty good idea by watching the caps in front of you.
Hope you have fun in the race. I have done the Alcatraz Sharkfest and it was well organized and fun.
I swam my first race without optical goggles, thinking I'd be able to see the turn buoys well enough because those things tend to be gigantic and bright orange. I could see them, but I couldn't really tell the difference between them and similarly bright orange kayaks containing safety volunteers. I ended up following other swimmers until I was close enough to know for sure which orange blob was my target.
I do use optical goggles now. They don't fit quite as well as the non-opticals I used to wear, and they don't correct my vision as well as actual glasses do. Even so, they make a big difference in seeing where I'm going. But I also learned from that experience that it's much more helpful to use large landmarks on shore as the main things to look for while sighting. Studying a course map before hand can be quite helpful, maybe looking at it on Google Map's satelite view, and also definitely taking some time before getting in the water to get a feel for how buildings, big hills or even particularly distinctive trees line up with key points of the course.
Optical goggles have made all the difference for me. I don't think I'd be an open-water swimmer without the confidence that being able to see things at a distance has given me. I use the Speedo Vanquisher opticals, and I guess I'm lucky that they fit me comfortably and without leaking. I even wear them in the pool now too.
One tip: I don't know about other models, but with the Speedos you can mix and match lenses from different sets. My eyes need substantially different corrections, so I bought a -2.00 pair and a -5.00 pair, disassembled them, and put them back together as two pairs of goggles, each with -2 on one side and -5 on the other. The disassembly/reassembly took 5-10 minutes. It's not hard. And I can see *so* much better with both eyes corrected.
Dylan.
