As a child I wore a single brand of goggles: Hind. They were inexpensive, readily available, consistently produced, and pretty darn comfortable. Of course, I was a child and I probably didn't have the capacity to know if they were actually comfortable or not.
On this rainy rest day, I'm organizing my pain cave and all of the stuff that I have accumulated over the years. And boy howdy do I have goggles. This surprised me because my son is a Division 1 water polo player and he is always prowling my pain cave to pinch my goggles for practice (he has a knack for loosing or breaking his goggles). In my entire inventory, there are only two or three goggles that I like wearing.
Magic5 Goggles: Are they worth it?
Yes. Yes they are. No, I'm not paid to say that.
So, why are they worth it to me? Simple: I don't have a burning desire to lift my goggles to my forehead between each and every set. As a matter of fact, I am at the point where I just keep them on my eyes the entire 60 - 90 minutes that I am swimming. I don't even put them up when I'm using a kickboard.
That said, I only ever wear them in the pool. The ocean is quite chilly right now (around 52F) and I like a little more face coverage than the Magic5 give me. So, the Magic5 goggles are pool-only for me. I also wonder how water-tight the seal would be around my eyes as waves are slapping me in the face and knocking me around. The goggles barely sit on my eyes and are not cinched down at all.
The other reason they are pool-only is because of the tint on them. I like an amber tint for ocean swimming for visibility. The Magic5 that I bought are a dark, blueish tint so the world is a little darker and grayer than I would want for ocean swimming. For instance, when I'm swimming in the early morning, the sunrise is very dull while wearing the Magic5 goggles. When I take them off I am taken aback by the beautiful orange and pink sunrise that I couldn't see through the goggles. My next pair will be a different tint to see if I can get that amber coloring.
TYR Sport Special Ops 2.0 Polarized
Right now this is my open water swim goggle. There are a couple of reasons for this.
1. I can see really well through these pale blue tint, bigger lens, polarized goggle. I know I just said that I like an amber tint, but these really work for all sorts of light conditions. They aren't the most-visible goggles I've used, but they sure do a good job.
2. Everybody can see me. One of my fellow ocean swimmers told me he can spot the blue eyes from a mile away (or maybe 20 yards away). I wear a neon yellow pinnie, so to be honed in on the blue and white goggles over the pinnie fascinates me. The goggles much catch the sun.
3. These things are wave proof. Between the big eye gasket, the flat and split strap, and low profile on my face, I can take a wave in the face and not get water forced into the goggle. This has even been true when getting out past big surf or riding waves in and subsequently getting washing machined.