Protip: having the right lenses on the water is more important than you may think

What’s in a lens color? You might personally prefer an opaque black, shiny silver, or any of the vast array of technicolor tints out there. How do you choose your sunnies? Whatever is the cleanest, meanest, steeziest? You probably know someone who collects sunglasses like they’re going out of fashion – they had to have every color frame, every style. Now there’s nothing wrong with a pair of sunnies for every outfit, but actually what’s more important is that we choose the right lenses for the type of light that we’re exposing our retinas to. This means you’ll either need multiple pairs of sunglasses or something like the Epicstoke Carvers, where lens swapping is an option.

The number one reason for having the right lenses

Before getting into the lenses you need while out sailing, wakeboarding, kiting, or just being out on the water this summer, let’s talk about one major reason this is important. You guessed it, keeping your eyes healthy is paramount. From snow blindness to the other not-so-fun things that could happen if you don’t take eye-care and eye-wear seriously, we want to help you make sure that they stay safe. Point blank, the long and short of it is the potential of damaged sight. No thank you. And what if you found out that the lenses on your sunglasses could be the difference between healthy and damaging experiences? As a result, we’re going into detail and talking to you about the best type of lenses for a particular activity that throws a lot of light at your eyes – water sports.

When you’re out on the water it’s not just about protecting your eyes from glare and from UVA and UVB rays. Yes this is vitally important, but, it shouldn’t affect your ability to perform and enjoy your ride. You need to be able to see the light waves, see across the horizon and also be aware of anything lurking under the water, so you don’t want to black out your vision too much.

Brown tinted, blue coated

Polarized lenses win hands down when it comes to cutting out glare and letting you see across the water to the horizon, but also help you cut through the glare to see what’s beneath the water. They’ll help when it’s particularly sunny.

Brown colored lenses are also a big win on the water, as they balance out variable light conditions so will help your eyes adjust no matter if it’s cloudy or sunny, but can also help improve vision through deep, darker waters by enhancing the levels of contrast that your eyes pick up. So that big shadowy rock is a lot easier to see, the sea life is much easier to spot and you’ll be able to make out currents and breeze directions.

Eyes behind a brown colored lens are more relaxed than with other lens colors too, because there’s no long lasting color distortion like would happen with blue or red lenses. This means less eye and this cognitive fatigue. Coole, eh?

Most importantly, brown lenses with a mirror coating, especially if blue, can help knock down blue light, the most harmful light to the human eye. If you’re lucky enough to sail the turquoise seas of the Carribean, head out on a Polynesian surf trip, or spend most of your summer days out on the water, then you’ll be glad you chose something to keep that blue glare at bay so that you can spend as much time out on the water as possible. Also, especially if you have blue eyes, your older self will be thankful as having some brown lenses with a blue mirror coating that are polarized will help ward off eye conditions like macular degeneration.

With all this in mind, we created what we believe is the perfect watersport lens: check the blue mirrored, brown tinted polarized lenses on our Carvers or Badpandas models. They’re a solid UVA/UVB blocking, polarized, summer choice. Enjoy.