I’ve spent most of my adult life swimming in glasses. It’s terrible.
My contact-lens-wearing days ended with an eye infection in college, and my significant nearsightedness means that I can’t function well without my glasses. So my only choices have been to take them off and blindly jump into the water, or to keep them on the whole time, which is inconvenient and nerve-racking.
If you think I’m being dramatic, please consider that my -7 prescription is so strong, my clear-eyed co-counselors at summer camp used to borrow my glasses, put them on, and stumble around, calling them “drunk girl glasses.”
I’ve spent decades breast-stroking on the surface like a grandma who doesn’t want to get her hair wet, unable to dive or swim underwater, to avoid losing my glasses.
All of that changed when I discovered prescription swim goggles in 2021. I had never even considered it as an option, but after hearing about them through a parenting Facebook group, I ordered a pair for myself. I put them on and was immediately able to walk to (and jump into) the water without tripping or stumbling. I no longer had to worry about bumping into another swimmer in the lap lane, and I could finally glide underwater and pretend to be a sea creature tickling my kid’s toes.
I want to shout it from the high dive: You too can have inexpensive prescription swim goggles, and they can change your life!
Unfortunately, my original pair is no longer sold, but I tested a few more to find a new favorite. In the end, it was the off-the-shelf cheapies that won the day.
