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Depth Diving Goggles - Apnea lenses?

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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elfie71

New Member
May 29, 2008
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Hi

I am new to the sport and am slowly building up my cache of equipment. I am looking for some goggles for depth diving, I have heard of Apnea goggles / Apnea Lenses that look very similar to normal swimming goggles.

I remember seeing somewhere ( and I really cant remember where ) that there was someone in Australia / New Zeland making them. William Trubridge I think wears them. - does anyone know where can I get them?

Thanks
Elf
 
Kerian Hibbs (Wellington, NZ) makes them, I'll pm you his email address
 
Hello Elfie,

Thanks for asking about the Apnea Goggles I am building. You are right, William Trubridge used them in his world record dives earlier in the year. He has written a review on them here

You can order them from my online store from my website

Other athletes that are using them include, William Winram (Canada), Kathryn McPhee (New Zealand) and Frank Pernett (Columbia).

If you wish to know more, please do not hesitate in sending me a PM or checking out my online store.

Thanks

Kerian
 
Liquivision is bringing out a revolutionary fluid goggle in the next couple of months, as well bringing back the old Nirvana-Classic model. The Nirvana-Classic will still sell for the old price ($295), but the new goggle (name TBD) is going to be very expensive, around $600, but will offer unbelievable quality of vision.
 
Fortunately I managed to get my hands on some leaked information about the new goggles from Liquivision. The codename TBD stands for True Beer Dioptry, and you can see them on the photo below:

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Thanks for that information Kerian and Eric ( trux - not sure about that new model...might give it a go next time im at the pub tho!) I am keen to know the difference between having the lenses mounted in the goggle as per Kerians Goggles and ajar from the goggle as per the Liqivision goggles - can someone explain the pro's and cons of each design. I am eager to hear from people as to their experience with the goggles, I don't want to buy one pair for $300 and then find out that the other pair would be more suitable or beneficial. While not being a "deep" diver yet, ( on the dave mullins scale) I would be disappointed to find that one goggle can withstand the pressures of a deeper depth than the other ( although in typing this I realize it probably isn't relevant anyway as ).

Kerian - thanks for the references, I will attempt to contact those athletes for their thoughts on your goggles.
 
If I am not mistaken, liquid goggles are the invention of Eric Fattah (Liquivision.ca). He developed several different types - liquid goggles, liquid mask, and lately his TBD goggles that I am eager to see. There are several other freedivers who sell goggles that more or less copy the early models from Eric. That told, if you look for a superior product, Liquivision is certainly the company with most experience, and the way to go.

EDIT: this is the link to Eric's website: Liquivision X1 Home with the photos of both types Liquivision currently sells. The TBD goggles are not yet there, but I hope Eric will tell us soon more details about them and post some photos.

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Kerian's goggles use lower profile goggles to get the distance to the lens right. I haven't tried eric's ones, but found vision surprisingly good with Kerian's. Another diver had tried both and found his pair of liquidvision Nirvana's weren't as clear. Your mileage may vary.
 
Hi all,
Just to clearify something with the Apnea Goggles I have not copied Eric's design and take nothing away from him as the first person to bring the liquid filled goggles to the freediving masses.

When I first tried apnea goggles, which happened to be a borrowed pair of Nirvana's, I was not that pleased with the vision above or below the water. After discussing the concept with a friend who has worked with the British Navy designing (amoungst other things, full glass contacts which allow perfect vision above and below the water back in the 1970's), he suggested that with what we do in freediving, we forget about vision above the water and work on really good vision below the water. He did some tests on the pair we had access too and found that the refraction from the goggle was not helping with vision, which brings me around to why I mount the lens into the goggle itself. There were a huge number of factors which also needed to be considered, but eventually I found a lens / goggle that worked well together.

My goggles are not a rip off of Eric's but something that I worked to design and build in their own right. It was not until I met Eric at Deans Blue Hole earlier this year that I was aware that Eric had also played with a similar design quite some time ago and more than likely before I even discovered freediving for myself.

Personally I like them for their low profile goggle, their clarity of vision and that I made them myself of course ;-) but the feed back I have had from everyone who has tried them (with the exception of one person, yes Giant, you know who you are with your big eyes that fit right into the goggle) has been overwhelmly positive.

Will Winram summed them up the best when he tried them for the first time at Dean's Blue Hole, when I received an e-mail while still in NZ that said "If you have enough goggles I would love to get a pair...just tried Kathryn's pair and Holy s@%# batman...they are amazing...much clearer under the water than the conventional fluid goggles"

Kerian
 
Kerian, any suggestions for people who wear contact lens? I suppose since we do, we cannot wear the fluid goggles as the contact lens in our eyes might fall out. Is it possible to put a (fluid goggle) lens of a higher degree onto the fluid goggles instead of the standard power?
 
Hi Salibandy,

While testing Kerian's goggles in the pool I was wearing contact lenses on one occasion just to see what would happen... They stayed on but only slightly improved vision. The lens strength I have is about -3.5 and -4.5 with both a cylindrical too. My vision up to about 2 meters was good enough. Vision further away than that is not too important IMO for this kind of product.

BTW the lenses I used were cheap daylenses that I use multiple times until they have had about 10 hours of usage. I will not be using them with the fluidgoggles.

There were some annoying colour (rainbow) effect at first while looking at high-contrast objects, especially in the pool/bathtub. Your brain filters those out mostly after a couple of sessions!

What attracted me to Kerian's goggles was that they looked stronger than those of Liquivision. I never saw the later in real live so this is just my opinion from looking at pictures.

Eric
 
Hi Eric, thanks for the reply. I want to try and use the fluid goggles (with lens) while wearing my own set of lens as well. We'll see how it goes. I'll search for more opnion.
 
Thanks, Kerian, for the details. Sorry, I did not mean accusing you of any rip off. Finally, AFAIK, Eric did not patent the fluid goggles, so there is nothing wrong in building similar (or cheaper / better) goggles based on the same princip. I only thought that Eric desired some credit for the invention. I already saw selling fluid goggles on several websites of different freedivers (among others also on Martin Stepanek's website), but none of the freedivers bothered to give the well deserved credit to Eric. I think that mentioning the origin of the idea would be polite, and that's why I wrote about it here. There was nothing personal against you or any other freediver building liquid goggles.
 
Reactions: Erik
Hey Trux,

For sure, all credit to Eric for the idea. I dont want to take anything away from him at all. Without his pioneering ways we would still be seaching for tags with eyes closed :hungover

I just wanted to be clear that I had done my own research and executed my own ideas around the goggles I build to ensure that they are not considered copies or even comparable to what Eric offers.

 
I always use my soft contact lenses (-6.0D) while wearing fluid goggles, and I have never had a problem. Wearing contact lenses has little or no effect on the 'power' of the goggle. Similarly, myopia has little or no effect, since myopia is a mismatch between the corneal curvature and the axial length, and underwater the cornea has virtually no power, so there is no mismatch.

In 2001 I produced a lower profile goggle similar to Kerian's, and I only shipped one unit, and the customer returned it as he was unhappy that he could not see above the water. So I concentrated my efforts on goggles which offer vision above & below the water.
 
Is that so? Cool. I think I'm going to get me one of the new googles which can see both above and below. Thanks!
 
hello my name is kim
i m from israel
ido have aquestion are this goggles good for spear fishing
thanks for your answer!!!
:martial:martial
 
hi

eric/keiran can you guys confirm how man more metres roughly do fluid googles add to your max equalising depth? Current mask is a cressi occhio.

thanks
 
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