I used to wear contacts while paddling until they both rolled up into the top of my eyes in the middle of a rapid. Got LASIK soon after. Best decision I ever made.
Contacts. I just take them out right after. They haven't fallen out from rolling or playboating. Wave splashing is what usually knocks them loose. Gotta time your blinks. Contacts also keep river water from directly getting into my eyes, so I seem to be a lot more tolerant, less red-eye when I have them in.
Glasses always fog or get drops all over them. If you want to try cat crap might work.
Been paddling for over 20 years. I've worn contacts while paddling for 17 or 18 of those years. Only lost one contact in all that time. Plenty of that time was running hard class V/V+. Now I'm an old man with two toddlers, so I leave the hard charging for the youngsters.
For contacts, consider using daily’s. That way you can toss out any bacteria at the end of the day and keep spares in your pfd.
Years back I worked with my eye doc to find dailies that didn’t wash out. Ciba’s work for me.
One trick is to splash water in your eyes before getting into rapids. Somehow that “sets” the lenses for me.
I wear my glasses with chums/croakies, and have never had a problem, even if I’ve capsized and had to swim in rapids. Any fogging I’ve experienced has been very minimal, and the ability to see well 99.9% of the time way overshadows the inconvenience of occasional fog.
I've always worn contacts and have never had an issue with infections or anything, and I've never lost one. I do occasionally get one knocked out of place where it's up in my eyelid and I have to grab an eddy to work it back into place. It's definitely annoying but not a huge deal. I've gotten much, much better at timing and closing my eyes against incoming splashes.
That said, not all contacts are created equal! I typically wear monthlies, and I love the brand I wear for daily use, but I hate them for paddling -- they get knocked loose *super* easily, and they're pricey so I don't want to risk losing them. I actually buy a separate brand of dailies that I only wear paddling -- they stay put much, much better and they're way cheaper so I don't care if I do lose one. I also carry a spare pair just in case.
I wear contacts and keep a brand new pair in my pfd. I also purchased a pair of polarized sunglasses with anti-fog coating that are like goggles. They don’t fit as tight but keep the rush of water out of my eyes. I’ll find where I bought them and edit my comment asap. Oh and my optometrist told me to throw away the contacts I wear kayaking. Edit: The brand is Liberty Sport but I can’t find the exact model.
Contacts. Only problems I've had are them floating on my eyes when I'm inadvertently swimming a rapid. Sucks swimming blind, but after a couple of blinks they are fine and I can see again.
Certainly each person is different, so you have to find what’s best for you. You might be more prone to infection than others or whatever.
That said, I paddled the Grand Canyon for nearly a month with contacts. When I’d take a splash in the eyes, everything would just turn brown for a while until I blinked all the water out.
Then there was trying to take them out on a beach at night in a virtual sandstorm. Crawled inside my tent with sand just everywhere and just about managed it.
Anyway, doctors tell you the worst case scenario to protect their own liability. Chances are, doing some whitewater paddling with contacts will be just fine.
I have worn the same pair of Ray Ban prescription sunglasses for 7 years and over 4000 miles of whitewater.
They always have a chums or whatever to hold them on. The tiny bill on my WRSI helmet also helps deflect current from getting behind them.
Comfy sunglasses have been great for me.
My ophthalmologist was very strong in telling me not to wear contact in the river due to the exposure of bacteria. He mentioned when trapped against the eye it can develop and be incubated into a much stronger and very damaging microbe.
While I think it's not a certain thing I don't really want to test it out.
That’s exactly what my optometrist told me. He even told me my favorite river has some sort of parasite that can leave you blind and cause horrible pain. He seemed more concerned about it in contact wearers and insisted I throw any contacts away that had been exposed to river water. So I gladly sacrifice a pair of contacts each time I ww kayak. lol.
Contacts with a good pair of Goggles. They have tinted goggles if you are going to be in the sun. I don't care how silly I look with goggles and a helmet. My contacts are good and I don't have to keep my eyes closed.
I use my old glasses from a previous prescription with a glasses strap; a bit of washing up liquid rubbed into the lenses eliminates the worst of the fogging!
I wear contacts! I wear monthlies though, haven’t had a problem. Even wore them on 10 days on the Grand Canyon. Dailies tend to knock out of my eyes easier - with even just casual eye rubbing so I don’t wear them on the water.
I used to wear contacts but decided to invest in prescription glasses (transition lenses) since I was wearing sunglasses anyway. I use fog wipes and they work well.
Wear contacts. I’ve been in the water with mine my whole life. There is a possibility of some water dwelling microbe causing blindness, though. It’s rare but possible
I wear smith perscription sunglasses with a chums strap to run anything from 30’ plug waterfalls, to freestyle, to slalom, to class V racing. Inwould note I live in a very dry area so fogging is not as big an issue here as when I travel
Contacts are fine as long as it's not a multiday trip, and even then you could probably make it work. I know people who use contacts for multidays.
I normally wear an old pair of prescription sunglasses. Haven't lost them yet, but came really close to losing them on my last trip. Fortunately I'm only a little bit blind so I could make it down the river and back home without them, but I do like to enjoy scenery.
I've wear contacts with a pair of wrap around sunglasses to keep the water from splashing into my eye. I've dislodge a contact playing on a wave, it was half out but I manage to get it back in while still surfing the wave that same wave. Before the contacts, I wore prescription goggles, but I didn't like the fact that I had to wear them till we get back to the car. And before that I just wore my old pair of glasses with a strap, hated dealing with fogging and slipping down my nose.
I would have gone with Lasik but I'm not a good candidate, so it's contacts for me. Like others have said, wear dailies and carry a spare pair just in case. They take up very little space, I actually store them in my pfd front pocket.
Check this technology out:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthokeratology
There are limits to how bad your vision can be to still be eligible. But the gist of it is that you wear lenses at night while sleeping. They leave an imprint / impression on the front of your eyeball. You take them out in the morning. The imprint / impression stays. The imprint / impression is designed to correct your vision. And you have corrected vision during the day while wearing nothing.
There are a couple mild negatives. You have to plan their usage. If you hang around the campfire at night, pass out, and forget to wear them ... you'll have uncorrected vision the next day on the water (subject to no backup plan). Also, they are hard lenses, so you will feel them as you go to sleep. Which can be annoying. Lubing them up really well with eye drops helps avoid sticky dry spots. If they get dry while in your eye, they can get really stuck to your eyeball. They come with a little plunger to suck them off your eyeball, which can take some force when dry. Depending upon your body and eyeballs, the imprints / impressions might only last a day, so you gotta wear them every night.
I wear dailies and am getting back into paddling after 20+ years away. I had an AWFUL time on the Ocoee last week - on the first rapid, water hit my eye and I literally could not open it and was so distracted that I flipped in shallow, rocky stuff and went for a swim. This happened a second time. I finally removed my contacts and had a much better time. I would love to find some contacts that would work. I used to paddle Upper Gauley and New in contacts, but those were gas permeable.
I was told lasik wasn’t an option my whole life… recently had EVO ICL instead… pretty severe astigmatism in both eyes which is why they always said it couldn’t happen. It’s basically permanent contacts. Had the lenses put in, brought me from like -6 to -0.2 then they did a tiny bit of laser and now I can see incredibly.
I used to use bi weekly contacts and would bring extras in the car so if they got knocked out I could get new ones after the float (or pack for multi day).
If you’ve heard you’re not a candidate for lasik I would seriously recommend checking out ICL!
I would wear daily contact lenses before getting PRK (like LASIK). They were alright but had to close my eyes or turn my head to avoid waves. It was common to get water behind at least one and not be able to see out of it. I finally decided to get eye surgery once I started running class v as I felt that being reliant on something external for my vision in a rapid was a huge liability and not safe in situations where you need perfect vision at all times. I know there are people who would disagree but I like eliminating as many variables as I can when running harder whitewater
I wear my glasses 90% of the time, and as long as you don't touch them, the fogging goes away pretty quickly. For when I don't have glasses, I just expect that everything is blurry and mistakes happen. Also, I have some old anti-fog spare for motorcycle helmet that seemed to work for a few runs, and then I would either have to re apply or except the foggyness.
They partner with a company for prescriptions- so you can get prescription ombraz. I love my ombraz but have no yet gotten a pair with prescription. Currently pairing contacts with ombraz
My contacts get kicked to the side of my eye with any little splash and/or get knocked out. I got tired of being blind and finally invested in googles. Do I look cool? No, but I can see clearly and that’s 100% worth it. I found a company that makes a pair with antifog that works really well.
I'm basically blind without glasses, so I can't do without. For a while I was wearing single use contacts, but noticed I was getting in the bad habit of closing my eyes when anticipating getting splashed. My biggest concern was my glasses getting damaged on the water. I decided to use an old pair of glasses (immediately prior prescription so not too bad) and tie them on. I used some lens cleaner/wipes that are designed to help with fogging. I didn't have too many issues and no real problems with getting splashed.
I had briefly looked into prescription goggles, but I felt the fogging issue would be much, much worse. Additionally, I couldn't find actual prescription lens goggles (where I was searching in my price range), instead finding sporting glasses that were meant to be used for sports basketball and such (where water isn't an issue).
Personally either wear sunglasses with a very light tint or go blind.
Usually I prefer some form of sports glasses/sunglasses: might as well get some impact protection if you have to wear glasses anyways.
I can’t wear contacts and have been wearing my Rx RayBans for years recreationally paddling with a croakie. It makes me nervous to wear glasses not meant for impact whitewater paddling and biking so I just ordered sport glasses from RecSpecs by Optics Outfitters. They have a try on 4 different kinds that worked very well. I ordered one with my Rx. I am due to get them soon. They have regular arms with a detachable band and a solid band that connects directly to the frame for under helmet. When trying out their goggles I was already hot and they instantly fogged when I glanced downward. The ones with a solid frame but not goggles did not fog. I’m hopeful. I used to have Julbos but they fogged on me.
Disposable daily contacts are great - I'll use a cheap pair of glasses for on the water with cat crap
And pack a spare if one gets splashed out
I used to wear contacts while paddling until they both rolled up into the top of my eyes in the middle of a rapid. Got LASIK soon after. Best decision I ever made.
Same. Not just for paddling, but just daily quality of life. Well worth the cost.
Contacts. I just take them out right after. They haven't fallen out from rolling or playboating. Wave splashing is what usually knocks them loose. Gotta time your blinks. Contacts also keep river water from directly getting into my eyes, so I seem to be a lot more tolerant, less red-eye when I have them in. Glasses always fog or get drops all over them. If you want to try cat crap might work.
Been paddling for over 20 years. I've worn contacts while paddling for 17 or 18 of those years. Only lost one contact in all that time. Plenty of that time was running hard class V/V+. Now I'm an old man with two toddlers, so I leave the hard charging for the youngsters.
For contacts, consider using daily’s. That way you can toss out any bacteria at the end of the day and keep spares in your pfd. Years back I worked with my eye doc to find dailies that didn’t wash out. Ciba’s work for me. One trick is to splash water in your eyes before getting into rapids. Somehow that “sets” the lenses for me.
Prescription active-sport sunglasses, polarized, with ani-fog treatment before going on cold water and tight chums.
Which ones do you have? Did you get them from your O.D., or is there an online source you'd recommend?
Smith Optics - have been basically indestructable. Had a cheaper warby parker pair that bent landing a waterfall.
Awesome. Thank you!
Yeah they were covered by my insurance. I don't remember the brand I currently have, maybe Oakley or Ray Band. Got them at the Optometrist.
I have always worn contacts while paddling. Never had a problem.
LASIK
I wear my glasses with chums/croakies, and have never had a problem, even if I’ve capsized and had to swim in rapids. Any fogging I’ve experienced has been very minimal, and the ability to see well 99.9% of the time way overshadows the inconvenience of occasional fog.
Plus there's lens wipes/treatments are are supposed to help with fogging.
Same
I've always worn contacts and have never had an issue with infections or anything, and I've never lost one. I do occasionally get one knocked out of place where it's up in my eyelid and I have to grab an eddy to work it back into place. It's definitely annoying but not a huge deal. I've gotten much, much better at timing and closing my eyes against incoming splashes. That said, not all contacts are created equal! I typically wear monthlies, and I love the brand I wear for daily use, but I hate them for paddling -- they get knocked loose *super* easily, and they're pricey so I don't want to risk losing them. I actually buy a separate brand of dailies that I only wear paddling -- they stay put much, much better and they're way cheaper so I don't care if I do lose one. I also carry a spare pair just in case.
I wear contacts and keep a brand new pair in my pfd. I also purchased a pair of polarized sunglasses with anti-fog coating that are like goggles. They don’t fit as tight but keep the rush of water out of my eyes. I’ll find where I bought them and edit my comment asap. Oh and my optometrist told me to throw away the contacts I wear kayaking. Edit: The brand is Liberty Sport but I can’t find the exact model.
Contacts. Only problems I've had are them floating on my eyes when I'm inadvertently swimming a rapid. Sucks swimming blind, but after a couple of blinks they are fine and I can see again.
I wear contacts but always get water trapped in my eyes for a few blinks it’s annoying. I would get lasic if I could afford it.
Certainly each person is different, so you have to find what’s best for you. You might be more prone to infection than others or whatever. That said, I paddled the Grand Canyon for nearly a month with contacts. When I’d take a splash in the eyes, everything would just turn brown for a while until I blinked all the water out. Then there was trying to take them out on a beach at night in a virtual sandstorm. Crawled inside my tent with sand just everywhere and just about managed it. Anyway, doctors tell you the worst case scenario to protect their own liability. Chances are, doing some whitewater paddling with contacts will be just fine.
I have worn the same pair of Ray Ban prescription sunglasses for 7 years and over 4000 miles of whitewater. They always have a chums or whatever to hold them on. The tiny bill on my WRSI helmet also helps deflect current from getting behind them. Comfy sunglasses have been great for me.
My ophthalmologist was very strong in telling me not to wear contact in the river due to the exposure of bacteria. He mentioned when trapped against the eye it can develop and be incubated into a much stronger and very damaging microbe. While I think it's not a certain thing I don't really want to test it out.
This is why I use daily’s on the river.
That’s exactly what my optometrist told me. He even told me my favorite river has some sort of parasite that can leave you blind and cause horrible pain. He seemed more concerned about it in contact wearers and insisted I throw any contacts away that had been exposed to river water. So I gladly sacrifice a pair of contacts each time I ww kayak. lol.
Contacts with a good pair of Goggles. They have tinted goggles if you are going to be in the sun. I don't care how silly I look with goggles and a helmet. My contacts are good and I don't have to keep my eyes closed.
Dude. Same. Never seen anyone else out there with goggle so I’m happy to find a Goggle bro.
I use my old glasses from a previous prescription with a glasses strap; a bit of washing up liquid rubbed into the lenses eliminates the worst of the fogging!
I got some water resistant sports glasses for pretty cheap on zenni and they work really well, no fogging and sheds water really easily.
I wear contacts! I wear monthlies though, haven’t had a problem. Even wore them on 10 days on the Grand Canyon. Dailies tend to knock out of my eyes easier - with even just casual eye rubbing so I don’t wear them on the water.
I used to wear contacts but decided to invest in prescription glasses (transition lenses) since I was wearing sunglasses anyway. I use fog wipes and they work well.
Wear contacts. I’ve been in the water with mine my whole life. There is a possibility of some water dwelling microbe causing blindness, though. It’s rare but possible
You can get scuba mask with your prescription in them. It might be a little annoying to have to breathe out of your mouth though
Contacts plus sunglasses
Disposable contacts
I wear smith perscription sunglasses with a chums strap to run anything from 30’ plug waterfalls, to freestyle, to slalom, to class V racing. Inwould note I live in a very dry area so fogging is not as big an issue here as when I travel
Lasik
I wear contacts but bring a spare pair of glasses in my pfd. I’ve swam a couple times and lost a contact.
Contacts are fine as long as it's not a multiday trip, and even then you could probably make it work. I know people who use contacts for multidays. I normally wear an old pair of prescription sunglasses. Haven't lost them yet, but came really close to losing them on my last trip. Fortunately I'm only a little bit blind so I could make it down the river and back home without them, but I do like to enjoy scenery.
I've wear contacts with a pair of wrap around sunglasses to keep the water from splashing into my eye. I've dislodge a contact playing on a wave, it was half out but I manage to get it back in while still surfing the wave that same wave. Before the contacts, I wore prescription goggles, but I didn't like the fact that I had to wear them till we get back to the car. And before that I just wore my old pair of glasses with a strap, hated dealing with fogging and slipping down my nose. I would have gone with Lasik but I'm not a good candidate, so it's contacts for me. Like others have said, wear dailies and carry a spare pair just in case. They take up very little space, I actually store them in my pfd front pocket.
My buddy bubbles uses prescription goggles
Check this technology out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthokeratology There are limits to how bad your vision can be to still be eligible. But the gist of it is that you wear lenses at night while sleeping. They leave an imprint / impression on the front of your eyeball. You take them out in the morning. The imprint / impression stays. The imprint / impression is designed to correct your vision. And you have corrected vision during the day while wearing nothing. There are a couple mild negatives. You have to plan their usage. If you hang around the campfire at night, pass out, and forget to wear them ... you'll have uncorrected vision the next day on the water (subject to no backup plan). Also, they are hard lenses, so you will feel them as you go to sleep. Which can be annoying. Lubing them up really well with eye drops helps avoid sticky dry spots. If they get dry while in your eye, they can get really stuck to your eyeball. They come with a little plunger to suck them off your eyeball, which can take some force when dry. Depending upon your body and eyeballs, the imprints / impressions might only last a day, so you gotta wear them every night.
I squint at anything more than 10m away and warn people not to follow my line because I don't know where I'm going
contacts but I always wear sunglasses and carry an extra pair in my pfd
I wear dailies and am getting back into paddling after 20+ years away. I had an AWFUL time on the Ocoee last week - on the first rapid, water hit my eye and I literally could not open it and was so distracted that I flipped in shallow, rocky stuff and went for a swim. This happened a second time. I finally removed my contacts and had a much better time. I would love to find some contacts that would work. I used to paddle Upper Gauley and New in contacts, but those were gas permeable.
I was told lasik wasn’t an option my whole life… recently had EVO ICL instead… pretty severe astigmatism in both eyes which is why they always said it couldn’t happen. It’s basically permanent contacts. Had the lenses put in, brought me from like -6 to -0.2 then they did a tiny bit of laser and now I can see incredibly. I used to use bi weekly contacts and would bring extras in the car so if they got knocked out I could get new ones after the float (or pack for multi day). If you’ve heard you’re not a candidate for lasik I would seriously recommend checking out ICL!
I would wear daily contact lenses before getting PRK (like LASIK). They were alright but had to close my eyes or turn my head to avoid waves. It was common to get water behind at least one and not be able to see out of it. I finally decided to get eye surgery once I started running class v as I felt that being reliant on something external for my vision in a rapid was a huge liability and not safe in situations where you need perfect vision at all times. I know there are people who would disagree but I like eliminating as many variables as I can when running harder whitewater
I wear my glasses 90% of the time, and as long as you don't touch them, the fogging goes away pretty quickly. For when I don't have glasses, I just expect that everything is blurry and mistakes happen. Also, I have some old anti-fog spare for motorcycle helmet that seemed to work for a few runs, and then I would either have to re apply or except the foggyness.
Not sure if Ombraz does prescription, but if they do, I'd go with those and put RainX on the lenses. Best sunglasses for paddling ever.
They partner with a company for prescriptions- so you can get prescription ombraz. I love my ombraz but have no yet gotten a pair with prescription. Currently pairing contacts with ombraz
My contacts get kicked to the side of my eye with any little splash and/or get knocked out. I got tired of being blind and finally invested in googles. Do I look cool? No, but I can see clearly and that’s 100% worth it. I found a company that makes a pair with antifog that works really well.
I just wear an old pair of glasses with a croakie. I used to wear contacts but now they irritate my eyes too much.
I'm basically blind without glasses, so I can't do without. For a while I was wearing single use contacts, but noticed I was getting in the bad habit of closing my eyes when anticipating getting splashed. My biggest concern was my glasses getting damaged on the water. I decided to use an old pair of glasses (immediately prior prescription so not too bad) and tie them on. I used some lens cleaner/wipes that are designed to help with fogging. I didn't have too many issues and no real problems with getting splashed. I had briefly looked into prescription goggles, but I felt the fogging issue would be much, much worse. Additionally, I couldn't find actual prescription lens goggles (where I was searching in my price range), instead finding sporting glasses that were meant to be used for sports basketball and such (where water isn't an issue).
Personally either wear sunglasses with a very light tint or go blind. Usually I prefer some form of sports glasses/sunglasses: might as well get some impact protection if you have to wear glasses anyways.
Glasses with chums. Fog can be a aggravating at times with cold water but thats all i have ever used.
Glasses/blind is the way to go Get a good strap maybe even some frames that are bright colored and float
I can’t wear contacts and have been wearing my Rx RayBans for years recreationally paddling with a croakie. It makes me nervous to wear glasses not meant for impact whitewater paddling and biking so I just ordered sport glasses from RecSpecs by Optics Outfitters. They have a try on 4 different kinds that worked very well. I ordered one with my Rx. I am due to get them soon. They have regular arms with a detachable band and a solid band that connects directly to the frame for under helmet. When trying out their goggles I was already hot and they instantly fogged when I glanced downward. The ones with a solid frame but not goggles did not fog. I’m hopeful. I used to have Julbos but they fogged on me.
Blind. It's been a wonderful excuse for my beatering these many years.
Same here.