Pool/beach with very poor sight

[Waffle12]

Hi
I am very short sighted and need contact lenses/glasses at all times. I have never been much of a water person, and this tailed off completely from my late teens when I started to need glasses all the time. But I want to start liking the water again, especially as I now have kids of my own who love it!!!

This may be a silly question, but what do people with very poor sight do in the pool/sea? I HATE wearing my glasses and only wear them when i have to- but apart from that its not very practical and if they get knocked off I would have trouble finding them again! But obviously contact lenses are a no no with the salt/chlorine.

Am I missing something obvious? What do professional swimmers do?

Thanks

Me too, I'm -12 and & -17 and just try to keep my face out of the water, so the goggles are just for splashes

I use prescription goggles.

I also use last times glasses and sunglasses with a neoprene band on if swimming in sea or just in shallow end of a pool bobbing around.

I wear an old pair of glasses in the swimming pool/sea.
I don't care what other people think.

Prescription goggles for serious swimming
For splashing about, a length or two of breaststroke, playing and, most importantly, lolling about by the swim-up bar I have a pair of moulded all-plastic tortoiseshell specs from SelectSpecs £10 range.

My everyday glasses are £300 varifocals with metal frames and some sparkly bits, I've found they go green if used in pool/sea. Not a good look. I think it also effects the anti-glare coating.

This is what I was going to say. You can get a band to keep them on. I always have to wear sunglasses anyway and don't like putting my head under the water so that isn't an issue.

Prescription sunglasses I mean. I don't wear contacts.

Yep like many others, i wear daily contact lenses and change them straight afterwards to minimise infection risk. For proper head down swimming i wear normal goggles over the top. For splashing about in the sea or playing with the kids in the pool on holiday, just keep my head out of the water/close my eyes when required.
Prescription goggles are OK for full on length swimming (and i had them when i was a competitive swimmer in my 20s), but for holiday swimming its not great to constantly be in a pair of goggles!

Prescription goggles for proper swimming (tinted ones for sunny sea swimming). Aqua aerobics, daily contact lenses. General beach/sea stuff, either daily lenses and regular sunglasses, or old prescription sunglasses (both with a neoprene band to keep them on). If I'm falling off a paddle board I try to shut my eyes to keep the lenses in place.

I have had laser eye treatment now and it has changed my life - but before I had TERRIBLE vision and as much as I loved swimming and the sea and watersports always worried about not being able to see

I used a combo of prescription sunnies if I wasn't planning on getting soaked or doing anything that would lose them (so just splashing up to waist height or sailing or something). Disposable contact lenses if doing something that I might lose my glasses (e.g paddleboarding), with cheap sunglasses over them to minimise water in my eyes and then take them out and rinse eyes once back on dry land. Prescription goggles (can get them pretty cheap) for actual swimming. Alternated the above with old pairs of glasses and prescruption sunnies that were slightly wrong prescription but I wasn't fussed about losing to the sea!

Meant I had to take a whole bag of eye related paraphernalia whenever I went on holiday though!

I just wear my lenses with goggles however I did buy a pair of prescription goggles off the internet they were cheap and work really well

I’m amazed so many people get on so well with prescription goggles! I have found them ideal for serious swimming, and can see underwater with them on, but they are useless for just looking around, playing with the kids, etc. I’ve never tried contacts (in or out of the pool) and really struggle without my glasses. I quite like the idea of a prescription face mask though, as someone mentioned earlier. I don’t care if I look daft, I just hate not being able to see - really puts me off swimming, with the kids in particular. Hope you find a solution that works for you.

I have to have things in my bedroom in the same places as it's the only place I spend a few minutes without glasses or contacts

I have a similar prescription to you and I find this so odd. Why aren’t your glasses just on your bedside table? I don’t mean to be arsey at all just can’t imagine this set up. Why do you keep your glasses somewhere other than your bedroom?

I wear daily disposable contact lenses when I go swimming. Been doing it since I went short-sighted as a teenager (now 31). Hasn't yet caused any issues.

-10 in both eyes here so I feel your pain. I still go to the pool most days, but I don't put my head under the water any more. I once lost my glasses while ducking under a lane rope, and my friend had to find them for me. I would have to find the pool by following the chlorine smell if I didn't wear my specs

Yes I do that in swimming pool but swim being blind

I worry about contact lenses now with water

Never used to

Daily disposables and goggles for swimming with the DC. Take spares and glasses, remove as soon as I'm home.
Dailies and sunglasses with a tight fitting glasses strap for water sports and wear a spectacularly uncool buoyancy aid so I don't go fully under if I fall in (mostly works).

DO NOT wear contact lenses in the sea (or showers/swimming pool etc.) you risk getting Acanthamoeba Keratitis which is a very serious eye infection.

Outdoor pool or beach with the kids I just wear cheap prescription sunglasses. It’s never been an issue really.

Proper swimming I would either wear my contacts and goggles (bad I know, but my eyes don’t get wet) or I’ve just taken my glasses off by the pool as I don’t really need to see much to swim lengths. I’m definitely going to investigate prescription googles though!

-10.00 here! I'm a liability without glasses or contacts. I use daily disposable contacts to swim or beach. I try to keep water out my eyes as much as possible with goggles etc and change them if I have got water in my eyes. I know you shouldn't but I do.

So much this, I heard of someone who needed corneal transplants and nearly lost their sight completely. It's rare but not worth the risk.

daily disposables with Goggles over the top, thrown away immediately on getting out I fail to see how wearing dailies for 30-60 minutes with goggles increases the infection risk very much at all.

I have daily disposable contact lenses. I know the advice is not to swim in them etc but I usually have goggles on if i am swimming as well.

I used daily contact lenses for swimming and removed them immediately when coming out. But I find them irritating.

I now swim in prescription sunglasses. Spent 2 weeks in Rhodes and saw lots of people with sunglasses in the pool or sea.

I need to get some adult swim lessons so it will undoubtedly result in me going under water for a substantial amount of time in the beginning
Oh blimey OP, well done! I really should do the same but I don’t have the confidence atm - best of luck hope it all goes well and you sort out your eye wear!