Eye infection using contacts

I've worn contacts kiting for several years, despite a warning from the optician that there was a risk of infection. Well it finally happened. I've a bad infection now, out for 8 weeks, antibiotic drops in the eye, every hour, for 48 hours and hope it doesn't spread deeper into the eye- that would be really serious. Scarring is likely if it gets better, ruling out contacts in the future as infection loves scars. Recommend anyone using contacts take them out when you leave the water and rinse your eye. I was careless and maybe could have avoided this.

Anyone got any good ideas re glasses, sunglasses with prescription lenses? I can't see the lines all the way up without something.

Thanks

All through the 80's I used contacts with no troubles. They were semi-hard ones because that was what was available.

I would have thought daily disposable contacts would minimise the risk of infection. Google says otherwise with all the advice being to not use contacts in the water due to the risk of abrasion or infection.

I had laser eye surgery in 1995 and that fixed my eyes for good. I still have better than 20:20 distance vision. Close up is pretty crap but that's what happens when you get old.

Lips sunglasses are about the best available and they do prescription lenses. They are likely super expensive, but so is kite gear. My favourites are the photochromic lenses. www.lip-sunglasses.com/prescription/

Basically all glasses work fine in the water as long as you keep them clean. I wash mine with warm water and liquid hand soap after each session. If you rinse them and shake them dry properly then you don't have to polish them. I do the same with my reading glasses.

All glasses, including the Lips, "wet out" during a session and you can't see much through them. It takes longer with the Lips and their coatings but it can happen eventually. All you have to do is drop into the water then shake your head as you start off and you're pretty good to go. That cleans the glasses reasonably well.

I foil pretty much exclusively so it's possible to ride high and dry all session. That's a wonderful feeling with the sun shining and crystal clear glasses and nice water and reefs to ride over.

I had a problem with darker lenses if the sun went in, or it got close to sunset. You want the dark glasses to filter out the sun glare but it's a bit hard to see when it's getting on to dark. The photochromic lenses fixed the overclouding and late afternoon problem. I don't need prescription lenses so if it gets to dark or the glasses get to gungey I just push them down around my neck.

You could probably try with ordinary prescription glasses. You need a head band properly secured to the arms of the glasses, and a neck leash as backup. A head band is not enough by itself. Even with a hat or helmet, if you're going hard enough you can crash hard enough for the glasses and head band to get washed off.

I wouldn't bother with stuff like Rain-X or anti-fog waxes. They work, a bit, but they're not much better than a clean set of lenses and they're not close to being as good as a proper set of coated lenses.