No - I do not open my eyes when I flip. It's too ugly to watch down there:-) I have opened my eyes with contacts in underwater before with no problems. I have a spare pair of lens that live in my life jacket. The hard lens travels well and doesn't easily deform, won't dry out and can be popped in on the river (or anywhere) with only spit for a wetting agent:-)

Go for the contacts with glasses as back up. I wear contacts and Dave wears glasses. As you may have heard him say numerous times, he also boats wearing his sunglasses...."they're prescription."

I found it depends on your situation. If you have astigmatism (as I do) soft lenses must be weighted so they dont spin around, as they do for those with only a far/near-sighted correction. Unfortunately, even a few drops of water splashed on the eyes unbalances them and throws off the correction until you blink a few (or a few dozen) times to get all the water out, not so good for paddling big water. Hard lenses are only an option if your lens distortion(astigmatism) is on the OUTSIDE of the lens. If its on the inside (me again) hard lenses will not correct your vision. In that situation glasses are your paddling option.

Chris Hellmann

Oh thanks Chris! I was starting to feel like a big weenie with everyone saying that they didn't have issues with contacts and big water. BUT, I have astigmatism, so I'm not a weenie. My contacts are always shifting around. At the worst times. And now I know why. What a relief.

I'm thinking about an eye transplant.............

Bethany, I have astigmatism, too, but only in one eye. It sounds like I was lucky that wasn't the eye that got washed, last weekend.

I really want lasik. It's on the long list of super expensive things I want.

I've got astigmatism as well, and it's a lot worse in one eye. I wear daily disposable contacts on the river and just toss them after each run. Wearing glasses on the river for me is darn near impossible. They're always fogging up and then I can't see a thing. I wear a toric lense in my left eye, which has the worse astigmatism but my right eye lense is not corrective for astigmatism. The torics are a thicker lense and I find they get washed out easier than the thinner non-toric lenses. The daily's are the way to go, if one pops out on the river your not out too much. I always carry a few extree. I can't see perfectly with them but enough to see the bottom of the river as I'm punching big rapids ; ))

Later,
Boles

I've had a lot of conversations like this on the river. On the river, I wear monofocal glasses with a flexible titanium frame. We haven't gotten to the mono- vs. bi- yet, have we? Well, at the first clinic I made the mistake of wearing my bifocals (old eyes), and as a result, portaging (to re-run Nemo) was a nightmare. Of course, contact-wearers don't have to concern themselves, since they can leave the reading glasses in the truck (or have them hang from the pfd while styling rapids ). Anyway, it always seems to come down to dealing with astigmatism or foggy glasses, and so far the argument hasn't been definitive enough to make me want to poke my eyes (alright, I am a bit squeamish). Hanley recommended going to an autopart store and getting anti-fog wipes, and that helped some. Failing or forgetting that, I'll lay on a good coating of saliva. Of course, another way to deal with fog on the glasses is to wash them in the river as follows: flip your boat over, bring your paddle blade parallel to the water surface, and snap the hips. Okay, that really doesn't help much for the glasses, but is definitely recommended on a regular basis nonetheless.
Chris S.

Chris Schardl

Oh, and sorry about the thread-jack; I'm sure Brit has no interest in the bifocal discussion.
Chris S

Chris Schardl

Speaking of bifocal contacts - I've been using "mono vision" contacts. This is a bifocal strategy where one contact is set for reading and the other is set for distance. MV is possible because humans have a "dominant" eye phenomenon where one eye is favored over another. In my case it's the right eye and so that's were the distance contact is used. When viewing anything with these contacts the will brain will automatically select the eye that gives the best focus.

I can usually read just about anything when my MV contacts are brand new but as they age and get scratches it becomes more difficult to read and I start depending upon reading glasses...

In my opinion, the only way to go is contacts with no glasses / goggles covering. The splash drops and fogging were just too much for me to deal with with glasses. Contacts are far from perfect, however, and I am routinely blinded in the middle of rapids wearing soft contacts for astigmatism. This is changing though b/c....

For those that have astigmatism, you really need to try the Accuvue Advance for Astigmatism lenses if you haven't yet. I used Soflens Toric 66 lenses for a while when paddling and they rolled around in my eyes with the slightest splash. I tried the Accuvue lenses and they are sooooo much better at staying in position that it is amazing - supposedly from a multi point weighting system.

The only trouble with the Accuvue Advance lenses is they are offered in a limited cylinder range (only down to -2.25) and won't fit everyone's astigmatism. They are so much better that I have chosen to wear ones, only on the river, that don't fit my precise prescription (I need -2.75) but that stay in place. I figure clear, less-than-perfect vision is better than what I have been dealing with the last few years....