Fluid goggles came on the market in November 1998. The first customer was Rudi Castineyra/Tanya Streeter for Tanya's 57m freshwater CMAS/AIDA constant ballast record attempt at the 'forty fathom grotto' in Florida. Unfortunately there was a shipping mixup and the goggles didn't arrive in time, and there were still some problems with them.
I revised the goggles and by October 1999 they had vastly improved, and again Rudi was a customer but this time it was Yasemin Dalkilic who was going for the record, a 68m constant weight record. She used the goggles and they worked very well. That was the first world record set with the goggles. At the time I was selling the goggles for US$350, even though each pair cost $1000 to make, not including $6000 in failed prototypes.
Then, in August 2000, I went to the AIDA world cup in Switzerland, and I brought seven pairs of goggles, each of which cost US$1000 to make. Many freedivers tried them, including Pradon, Nitsch, Baumann, Chapuis, Buyle, etc... and there was lots of attention. I sold pairs to J.M.Pradon and Andy LeSauce. They complained that $350 was too much, and they didn't understand that at the time each pair was $1000 for me to make!
I took the goggles again to the next AIDA world cup in Nice, France, in October 2000. I distributed flyers advertising the goggles, in 5 languages.
J.M. Pradon was there again, and told me he loved the goggles he bought in Switzerland. Andy LeSauce was also there, and liked his goggles.
At that competition I sold one pair to Nicholas Kouvaras of Greece, and I gave a free pair to Bernard Chabannes, the inventor of the paradisia nose clip. He had many business contacts and I thought it would be good exposure. These goggles were still costing me $1000 each.
I also gave a free pair to Karoline Dal Toe and Frederic Buyle, who were going to test the goggles for a review in Freediver Magazine (with the cooperation of Howard Jones). The review appeared a few months later, and both Karoline and Fred like the goggles and wrote a nice review. The asking price was still $350.
The review did not generate any interest, and I was losing more and more money, after giving away so many $1000 goggles.
The year 2001 came. I created a very simple website for the goggles. I tried to create a very simple, very cheap goggle which did not work well. I sold two of them but neither person liked them. I realized that making 'crappy goggles' wasn't going to work, so I concentrated on the expensive ones.
In the next few months, I sold the last two pairs I had, each for $350, though each cost $1000.
I was now training for the constant weight record, but I had no goggles to use! I tried to make a batch and spent about $2500, but I was trying a new version of the goggle and it was a disaster, and I only ended up with one good goggle, and one bad one (I needed both a vacuum chamber and a 100PSI pressure chamber with a heater in order to make this version). I used the one good pair to set the 82m record in August 2001. This was the first time the AIDA constant ballast record had been set with fluid goggles, so I hoped it would generate some interest. It didn't.
By then, David Lee and Yasemin Dalkilic had set several unassisted (no-fins) records with the goggles, but still it generated little interest.
However, the goggle I had sold to David Lee was a prototype of a new version which worked just as well but cost me less to make. David and Yasemin both liked that version of the goggle better than the original.
The end of 2001 came, and AIDA voted on the goggles/equipment rule. I think the vote was 12-4 against them.
In the first half of 2002, I spent time saving up money to make more of the new version. Since all the money was coming from my job, it took half a year to save up enough (while trying to pay off the debt I already had).
By June 2002, I saved up enough money to make 25 pairs of the new version of the goggle. I ordered the parts for about $3500 and spent weeks building them late at night after work. Finally, they were ready. Except that there was a big problem. The new type of epoxy glue I used didn't bond properly to polycarbonate, and as a result, the 20 first pairs of the goggles were 'defective', and would not be very strong. I corrected the mistake on the last 5 pairs. So, I now had 20 defective goggles and 5 good ones. I sold the defective ones at a huge loss, only $95 each, and many people on the forum bought some. By now I had a new, 'flashy' website (with online ordering), and I had paid DeeperBlue US$350 for one month of advertising the goggles on the front page, but I only sold 2 goggles. The last 3 pairs I gave to Kirk Krack to try to sell in Kona, Hawaii, at the Pacific Cup. In order to try to promote the goggles, I sold them at a loss, for only $150, and Kirk kept $60 per pair. Kirk sold all three of the goggles at that low price. Do the math: $3500 in parts, 100 hours in labor @ $20/hour = $5500. Total sales from this batch, $95 x 20 + $150x3 - 3x$60 = $2170. Net profit: +2170 - 5500 = LOST $3330.
The adverstising on DeeperBlue did not produce enough sales to offset the cost of the advertising, so I cancelled it. Another year had passed and I had lost thousands again, mainly due to the error with the wrong type of glue.
The end of 2002 came, and AIDA voted on the goggles/equipment rule again. I hoped so badly that the goggles would be allowed, so I could pay off my debt. No. They voted against them again.
In 2003, I spent the first part of the year saving up again, and tried to pay off the old debt. I saved up enough to make 25 pairs again. This time I knew the correct type of glue, and all the goggles worked. One of the secrets was to use goggles which did not have anti-fog coatings on the inside. With some difficulty I was able to buy the 'smoke' goggles from China, without the anti-fog coating (custom order). However the 'clear' goggles were only available with the anti-fog. I had tried almost every goggle on the market and there was no alternative. So I had to scrub the 'clear' goggles with hydrogen peroxide for HOURS to get the coating off, and about half of the goggles were scratched and useless.
Eventually I made about 18 pairs of smoke and 7 pairs of clear goggles. I gave Kirk a bunch of goggles to sell in Cyprus. He only managed to sell two pairs, one to Guillaume Nery, and one to Carlos Coste, for the discounted price of $220, and Kirk kept $70 per pair.
Guillaume didn't have enough money with him, so Kirk gave him the goggle anyway, but it was many weeks until Guillaume managed to pay.
Since then, of the batch of 25, I think I sold maybe three or four pairs, so I still have about 18-19 goggles in stock, but they don't sell because of the AIDA rule.
As we near the end of 2003, the AIDA vote is coming again... what will it be this time? Will I be able to pay off my debt....?
Eric Fattah
BC, Canada
