Tips on ski sunglasses

Ise,
My optician said he thought either the transitions or the prescription sunglasses would be fine for normal ski-ing, but not for glacial ski-ing (I told him I'd been on the glacier at Tignes for 3 days). He says you need even darker (or whatever the technical term is) glasses for that. But my eyes seem to be fine now, anyway, after ski-ing in full sunlight on the glacier.
I tend to wear my transition glasses if I can, because they are vari-focal as well. I have been short-sighted since I was about 15, and the last couple of years I've started to go long-sighted as well, with age. So I need my vari-focal transition glasses to read the piste-map (otherwise I have to take my prescription sunglasses off).
And, of course, when it's snowing I have to wear my goggles over my transitions.
Getting old is very complicated! I am waiting for the day when I have to ski complete with walking stick, glasses, and hearing aid :lol:

I never give anyone a star rating. I don't feel like I'm qualified to do so. I was a trained NVQ assessor once, but I went on a course then, and I knew what I was doing, so it was okay.

Ally

baillie353 wrote:A little tip from me about Oakley sunglasses, if you visit this site:
http://www.oakley-vault.co.uk/?gclid=CMCbuJyU254CFUoB4wodj3h4JA
(Don't really know if that's considered advertising - my apologies if so)
That site offers a wide range of Oakley goods for discount prices.
I got myself a pair of Oakley Half-Jackets (fire irridium lenses) for £80 in an outlet shop in York.. Then when I got home, checked the price of them on that website and what d'ya know.. £70!
Worth checking it out :)

are they definately real though?! have seen a few of those type of sites that do "discounted" glasses

like the profile pick btw!

AllyG wrote:Ise,
My optician said he thought either the transitions or the prescription sunglasses would be fine for normal ski-ing, but not for glacial ski-ing (I told him I'd been on the glacier at Tignes for 3 days). He says you need even darker (or whatever the technical term is) glasses for that. But my eyes seem to be fine now, anyway, after ski-ing in full sunlight on the glacier.

That's reassuring, it's exactly what I'd have said :) If you're up on a glacier at 3000m you need pretty strong glasses blocking at 90% or over as I mentioned earlier. If you're skiing in the trees in Austria at 1000m then you're getting about 25% less UV anyway and there's less snow in the background to reflect, snow reflects about 80% of light that falls on it so it's a significant difference.

Whether what you have works is obviously not quite the same question as what you'd buy for the average European conditions.

AllyG wrote:I tend to wear my transition glasses if I can, because they are vari-focal as well. I have been short-sighted since I was about 15, and the last couple of years I've started to go long-sighted as well, with age. So I need my vari-focal transition glasses to read the piste-map (otherwise I have to take my prescription sunglasses off).
And, of course, when it's snowing I have to wear my goggles over my transitions.
Getting old is very complicated! I am waiting for the day when I have to ski complete with walking stick, glasses, and hearing aid :lol:

My eyes have altered a bit recently so I now use contacts which give me good distance vision and I can wear standard glasses and googles then I use reading glasses to look at maps if I need to, real maps I mean, I don't bother with piste maps :) That's handy because the contacts block UV to a degree anyway.

rossyhead wrote:
are they definately real though?! have seen a few of those type of sites that do "discounted" glasses

like the profile pick btw!

Yup they're definatley real, the outlet village I was at in York had an Oakley store called Oakley Vault and they were advertising their website, I checked it out when I got back home to Glasgow to find out its that bit cheaper :)

Thanks for the comment about the pic :D That was in Alpe D'Huez, great times.

Just some UV 400 safety glasses

http://www.google.com/products?q=%22uv+400%22+%22safety+glasses%22&aq=f

I'm picking up a pair of these for gate keeping at races (I need reader glasses). Not sure what bifocals would be like to ski with, but sure would make looking at trail maps easier.

http://www.vssunglasses.com/ShopOnline/detail.aspx?ID=2388

Trencher

Trencher wrote:

http://www.vssunglasses.com/ShopOnline/detail.aspx?ID=2388

Trencher

Thanks Trencher,
I had a look at this site, and they do vari-focals as well as bi-focals (and they also do transitions). Vari-focals are supposed to be better than bi-focals because there is no cut off line between distance vision and reading vision - it happens gradually somehow.

I have vari-focals and my optician told me it was a good idea to get them early, before my reading eyesight had deteriorated too much, so that I could get used to them. He said people who have had bi-focals for a long time generally can't get used to vari-focals. Mine are fine. The first time I wore them for driving, I completely forgot I had them on, and they were no problem. So I can drive, ski, and read a piste map wearing them :D because they are transition vari-focals. I have forgotten how much I paid for them, but I rather think it was around £120 for the lenses and the frames. I can check if anyone wants to know.

Ally

AllyG wrote:

Trencher wrote:

http://www.vssunglasses.com/ShopOnline/detail.aspx?ID=2388

Trencher

Thanks Trencher,
I had a look at this site, and they do vari-focals as well as bi-focals (and they also do transitions). Vari-focals are supposed to be better than bi-focals because there is no cut off line between distance vision and reading vision - it happens gradually somehow.

I have vari-focals and my optician told me it was a good idea to get them early, before my reading eyesight had deteriorated too much, so that I could get used to them. He said people who have had bi-focals for a long time generally can't get used to vari-focals. Mine are fine. The first time I wore them for driving, I completely forgot I had them on, and they were no problem. So I can drive, ski, and read a piste map wearing them :D because they are transition vari-focals. I have forgotten how much I paid for them, but I rather think it was around £120 for the lenses and the frames. I can check if anyone wants to know.

Ally

I find varifocals difficult, because your horizontal range of vision is very limited, and to the centre of the lens So scanning a page is a pain because you can't swivel your eyes across the page, becaue you get out of focus, and I find having to swivel my head back and fore to read a line of text irritating. I am on my first pair, and don't use them very much, preferring to use my other pair (reserves).

Tony_H wrote:

Caraon-a for example doesnt like negative or provocative posts, and is likely to 1 star them.

I'll leave the rest for you to work out.

where on earth did that come from Tony :?:
I've posted a 1 star on one occasion a very long time ago but felt so bad about it that I've never done it again.
I have, however, given quite a few five stars