Here’s a good question that we received:
I’m in the market for new goggles and I really like the look of huge lenses, like on the Electric EG2 or Von Zipper Fishbowl goggles. Does the bigger lens actually help your vision?
Indeed they do help your overall vision, but it’s not a huge difference. It’s like going from 40″ TV to a 44″ TV. It’s not an insane difference, but it is noticable.
How much more vision do you get?
With my EG2s on, I’m barely able to see the sides and top of my goggles in my peripheral vision. With my Oakley A-Frames, it’s a lot more closed and I have more of my side and top vision obscured by the goggle frame.
Does it make a difference?
Will it instantly change your riding and make you able to spot every landing in mid air? No, but it does make it a tad bit easier to see where I am in the air when I’m straining to spot the landing on certain tricks.
I don’t feel like it really helps me to spot landings that I wouldn’t be able to see in my A-Frame goggles, but you do get used to slightly more peripheral vision.
Once you go big, you don’t go back!
I don’t think I could go back to normal sized lenses now. I’m too used to having a wide view of unblocked vision. Even though I don’t think it affects my riding in a huge way, I’m too used to my increased field of vision to swap back to smaller lenses now.
One more thing…
Make sure you account for how big your face and nose is. Some people get a lot of fogging in EG2s due to having too small a face to fit the goggles. Make sure you try em on for a good 5-10 min in the shop to make sure you’re not one of those people.
If you do get fogging, you may want to look at EG 2.5s. They’re the same as EG2s, except they have more padding over your nose to help them fit better.
If you can’t get EG2s, EG2.5s or VZ Fishbowls to fit your face without fogging, just go with smaller goggles. Like I said, it’s not a must have feature and it won’t really impact your riding in a major way if you can’t have huge lenses.
At the end of the day, fogged up lenses will actually impact your riding, whereas larger lenses are just a ‘nice to have’ feature.
– Jed