Glasses Vs Prescription Lenses Vs Contacts - Which Is Best?
Unfortunately, some of us weren’t born with perfect vision (myself included), so what’s the best form of vision correction for snowboarding?
Glasses under goggles
One option is to wear your glasses under your goggles. Some goggles do come with extra space for you to wear your glasses, and it does give you okay vision on the slopes. However, the problem with glasses is that they tend to fog easily. If any moisture gets into your goggles and onto your glasses, it can become quite a chore to keep your glasses and goggles from fogging up.
In addition, the pressure on the side of your head from your glasses frame under your goggle straps can get a little uncomfortable. Not to mention you have a smaller field of vision, which can be annoying, especially in the terrain park.
Prescription Lens Mount
Bolle goggles with prescription lens mount
One alternative to wearing your glasses is a prescription lens mount, which is the more popular alternative to just wearing your glasses under your goggles. It’s basically a little mount that holds a special frame inside your goggles that holds a prescription lens. Kind of like glasses built into the inside of your goggles.
Be warned though that, like regular glasses, they fog easily and can cause headaches for people with very strong prescriptions. In addition, if your prescription is too strong, you may not be able to use a prescription lens mount.
Overall, this is probably your 2nd choice if the following option doesn’t work for you.
Contact Lenses
Contacts are by far your best bet for snowboarding. Not everyone’s eyes can handle contacts, but if your eyes are suitable for contact lenses, I HIGHLY recommend them. Wearing contacts is like not needing glasses at all, which means an awesome field of vision and no problems with glasses fogging.
It’s what I wear and it’s what I’d recommend as the first choice for anyone else. The worse case scenario is that they don’t work for your eyes, but it’s worth a shot to not have to deal with all the hassles of lens mounts and glasses fogging.
Good luck and happy riding!
– Jed