OPEN-WATER GOGGLES

Seven pairs of open-water goggles from the sport’s biggest brands are tested for their performance-boosting benefits

With so many different goggle options out there, choosing the right pair for you can sometimes feel overwhelming. And the inconvenient truth is that we all have different face shapes, eyesight and fit preferences. So, as with most tri kit, it’s simply a case of trying out as many as you can until you come across that hallowed pair that you can stick on and forget about!

While goggles aren’t your biggest financial outlay when competing in triathlon, the wrong choice can prove very costly if they don’t do their job properly in a race, which is why it’s important to settle on your go-to goggles well before racing in open water.

Okay, so that can be tricky in the UK where our water temperatures are bone-chilling until May, but making use of outdoor pools if you have one near to you, or indoor pools with lots of natural light, is worth it before you take to the open water.

When choosing, you might want to consider some clear and additional tinted or mirrored versions of the same goggles to account for different light conditions. Or you might find that the latest polarised and photochromatic lens technologies (found on many pairs in this test) work fine regardless of the weather.

There are numerous shapes and sizes of goggle in this test with various types of swimmer in mind, so we judged each on their own merits and compared where appropriate. We tested in the sea (Gran Canaria, not the UK – we’re not that hardy) and outdoor pools to get a good sense of comfort, how each pair reacted to differing light conditions, in murky and clear water, and in various degrees of chop.