I swam 3km front crawl with these today for the first time.
The goggles came fitted with a “medium” nosepiece and three spare nosepieces were included in small, medium and large sizes. I wasn’t sure about the medium so tried
the small one but the goggles pinched the bridge of my nose with that one in so I swapped back to the medium.
The goggles were easy to adjust to size before I got into the water and whilst they didn’t have much suction to my face they didn’t leak at all during the swim. The adjustment didn’t slip either, unlike the Speedo Aquapure goggles that I’ve worn for the last six months or so which have slipped so often that the numbers on the adjustment scale printed onto the straps have worn off.
The view through the lenses was very clear and bright though felt somewhat restricted. The actual flat area of the lens feels smaller than the Aquapure. In fact they’re pretty much the same size. The Aquapure may be a couple of millimetres wider, but that’s it. Including the clear curved area of the lens the Bolt is much larger and transmits images from the pool nearby but not in a way that makes a discernible image. I found that a little distracting at first. The lenses didn’t mist up at all.
The most noticeable thing about the goggles compared with most of my previous pairs however is that the silicone gasket is much more shallow. This meant the goggles felt far less forgiving and much harder once on. I thought that might make them uncomfortable to wear for long, but actually I didn’t take them off at all for the entire swim, though I did re-seat them on my face a couple of times to try to make them more comfortable.
I’m not completely sold on them yet. I’ll keep another pair of Aquapure goggles on poolside just in case I decide I can’t live with them, but I’ll certainly keep trying them. Sadly they don’t appear to be available with dark or mirrored lenses for swimming outdoors in the sun. I could do with such a pair for holidays.
