Are the new Predator goggles really for "deep"?

[Matte]

Hi everybody,

I bough them Zoggs | Predator Wiro-Frame™ and I think they are fine.. They distort a little (as the sphera/seal of aquasphere/aqualung) but they are VERY comfortable (for my face). The fact is that the seller told me that the "divers" love it and "they" said they could reach -40 m with this goggles no problem. Since I was in Eriksdalbadet in Stockholm, and knowing that actually some real divers are training in that pool, i believed her. I tried them at -3m and are much better than other models I tried. Then I took a look at the design and I have to admit that I thought it could be possible.. not sure for the -40m but I believe (just seen from the outside) that at least -20m are fisible.
BUT before trying them I would like to ask some competent diver if they know the zoggs predator, and if what I heard and said could be/is possible/true.
Thank you in advance, ciao,
Matteo.
PS for me -40 m is deep.. not planning to go deeper for the moment

 

[demasoni]

Cool looking googles,

How do they go -40M without equalizing the goggles? I can't imagine going -10M with goggles before my damaging my eyeballs...are the goggles extremely flexible or fluid goggles? I'm confused

 

[trux]

Well, you can make the calculation yourself very quickly. If you think the goggles can compress to 1/5 of their initial volume than it might be possible. However, I strongly doubt that you will find any goggles being able to compress that much - they would be simpy too huge on surface. You will barely find any goggles copressible to 1/2 - possible to use to approx. 10m. The only solution is compensating them by your mouth with a small tube or from an external reservoir.

 

[Matte]

Mine are only suppositions, but I actually think they might compress to one third of the initial volume.. I think the trick is in the frames (one frame per eye): they are curved and follow more or less the shape of the bones around the eyes and are 5 mm thick. Very soft silicone gaskets allow a distance to the skull bone of at least 10 mm which can be totally compressed to 0 mm (the frame is as well made of plastic reinforced silicone, making it flexible and adaptable to the skull). So just in THEORY one shoudl have 10+5=15mm and 15/3=5mm which is the thickness of the frame or better the distance from the lens (made of flexible plastic as well of course) and the bone around the eye (how do you call it in English? damn how ignorant I am).. ok I hope someone could understand what I wrote.. I myself probably could not .. sorry about that, loong day..
PS Trux thanks: I was thinking to make myself some pipe goggles but I don't have the time just now.. in that case I will probably try the external reservoir version.. Just having enough hard time equalizing my ears, the goggles shoud do that by themselves.. I will send you a picture when I will be done with them. BTW Have you seen the noseclip I made?.. (on my profile image together with the predators) it works wonderfully :<) ciao.

 

[efattah]

I have taken my Sphera to -40m without equalizing it....

 

[trux]

I have taken my Sphera to -40m without equalizing it....

Eric, do you mean the Spheara mask with or without nose? If it was the mask with nose, are you sure you did not equalize it inconsciously? Personally, I'd be really afraid taking any mask to 40m with no equalizing at all, even if it is as flexible as the Sphera. And at goggles I'd be afraid even more.

 

[BennyB]

I've had mask squeeze twice with a Sphera, both times on dives to 42m. The blood vessels on the white of my eye burst which made it look lovely for a week or so. Funnily enough another guy got mask squeeze on one of those days with a dive to 45m+ with a Sphera, except his squeeze brought up little red dots all around the skin underneath the bottom eyelid but left his eyeball unaffected.

 

[wet]

I have taken my Sphera to -40m without equalizing it....

Eric, The Predator has blue tint lens, some goggles are yellow high contrast, some are mirrored, some red, some clear. In an old thread about your (B) fluid goggles, you had smoky lens that filter red. AFAIK red and IR from sunlight only penetrate water a few inches before being absorbed, but blue reaches down much farther, is one color lens better than the other for serial diving (non-competitive) to 20m, regarding light and color at that depth? (not regarding effects on fish etc.)

Eyeglasses and sunglasses can be made with self-darkening coatings applied (photo-gray), are there any diving goggles with this? I'm thinking in terms of a diver maintaining optimized dark-adaptation (excellent vision at depth) both at depth and when surfacing in bright sunlight due to the lens darkening. Seems to me that goggles or a mask with clear lenses (at depth) which immediately darken as the diver ascends towards the sunlit surface, and preferentially which only allowed partial red light (like a photo darkroom) onto the eyes would best maintain optimal dark adaptation (possibly over long term significantly reducing oxygen cost due to vision changes) and reducing sun glare, while still allowing relatively good surface vision. [I think that ancestral diving seashore people simply closed their eyes while backfloating during inter-dive rest periods, but that might be dangerous now-a-days, with all the traffic]

Does Liquivision offer this type of photo-gray/red lens in fluid goggles? If so, how much for a pair of goggles? If not, would you like to invent them?

DDeden

 

[jome]

Well, let's suppose one COULD go to -40 with these goggles (which I very highly doubt). Why would you want to? A mask is so, so much more comfortable.

Also regarding pipe goggles etc...They're fun to make, but I've found it easier to train hands free equalization than to learn how to use it efficiently. I'm not aware of any diver (except Nitsch, well ok, that's one helluva diver), who regularily and succesfully uses them...And a lot of people have built them.

But the equalisation becomes really complicated. "Blow air to ears, blow air to tube, relax this, relax that, equalize mask again - oh ouch, why are my ears hurting...Oh yeah, equalize again. Now my eyes hurt. Damn now I've got a leak somewhere, oh the tube slipped from my mouth...Better put it back..oh damn, there goes my mouthfill - turn....Why does my nose feel like it's blowing up? Oh yeah, gotta relax the soft palate. oops too late, there goes my noseclip and air..."

You can learn it, but you will wonder if it really is worth the trouble

 

[Matte]

Ok guys,

thank you for the different answers and extremely respectable opinions: please allow me summarize a bit in order to see if I got the message..
Considering that if you really want to go deep you have to use fluid goggles or contact lenses, on the other hand if you are just human and for you -40 is a respectable depth, then a good mask together with a well learned handsfree equalization technique will give you more satisfaction than a well learned double tongue piston (one for the eyes and one for the ears) technique. OK ,this make sense so far; since I know you have tried for quite a long time, I agree with you Jome I am bringing the mask with me in my next dive.

But lets spend few lines for who "hates" the mask. What if one cannot pull the handsfree out. Maybe someone has "uncontrollable" eustachian tubes and is happy "just" with frenzel. What can he/she do? Yes, pinch the nose, nothing against it, but then what about all the people that just bought the paradisia.. :head? I personally would love to own fluid goggles, and soon or later I will make the investment, but in the meantime if -50m is your limit (and you need the noseclip to equalize) maybe the pipe goggles with an external reservoir (as trux called it) could be your solution..

Ok I'll try to "design" one and then you tell me what you think. The sure problem clould be where to store the reservoir; in fact if your goggles have say 15ml of volume per eye then you need 30ml times 6 (one has 6 bar @-50m) = 180 ml of reservoir which would require 90g of weight in order to be neutral at -10m (= 2bar).
ok a little confusing.. I repeat:
30 ml = volume goggles
180 ml = required reservoir volume in order to equalize the goggles at -50m
90 ml = volume of the reservoir at -10m where should be neutrally boiant
90g of weight to balance the reservoir volume
Considering the tubing we can say 100g will be enough.. and back to the original question: where to put the reservoir . I was thinking: around the neck attached to the weight people already use .. another thin-walled bigger tube up to 180 ml .. if you consider 30 cm lenght then should be enough with 2 cm diameter.. (if can compress completely to 0 volume .. take bigger diameter then)

Ok ok, it would not be that confortable.. but still fisible right? :hmm

PS about the predator. I checked while I was wearing them: the distance from the frames and my face granted by the gaskets is 5mm so this goggles can compress easily to twice the initial volume and SHOULD be therefore comfortable up till -10m.. so no news on the goggles side.. sorry for my previous mistaked calculation.

 

[ahinalu]

You could use a small resevoir bag from a hydration pack, put it on a strap under
you suit on your back???

 

[Mullins]

Is this for recreational diving or diving down a line? If it's the latter there is no real need for a mask at all, just use a noseclip. Bit painful in cold water though...