I bought a pair of Costa Blackfin Pro glasses last year with the Green Glass lenses -high contrast lenses, I’m very happy with them. At that time the second pair was 50% off and I wish I had bought another pair with the blue lenses -very bright conditions. The lenses are made by luxotica, who makes a lot of the markets lenses. The lenses are glass, and I’m pretty sure the mirrorized is behind the glass so it won’t scratch.
The Blackfin pro glasses have a rubber nose perch and rubber pads at the end of the arms. They really grip my head behind the ears so I do not feel the need to use one sort of strap.
I used to buy nothing but Revos back in the day. Then switched to the Amazon Torge brand of safety glasses, luxotica makes these lenses as well but are not the same quality as the costas. The costas make images so sharp, it’s pretty incredible actually, and the side arms are wide, and the frames snug up to your face leaving very little room for light leaks. Light getting around the frames onto the backside of the lenses is exceptionally bad as your iris is dilated, which allows the UV rays to enter unimpeded.
The most important investment you can make is in your eyes, wearing eyeware that is not the best quality, especially while on the water will lead to bad things in the coming years. I was outside a lot when I was a kid, spent a fair amount of time on the water and managed to burn my eyes a couple of times, if you’ve never had your eyes get sunburned I’m glad for you. I was also around arc welding as a kid and was a ASME certified welder for several years. All of these things resulted in the onset of cataracts in my late 40’s. By the time I was 55 I had to get cataract surgery on both my eyes, not a terrible experience, not a great experience either, and it brought my vision back to the 20/10 of my youth. My point of sharing this with all of you is to implore you to wear the best eye protection you can get. If you don’t think it’s worth it, try taking a clear pair of safety glasses, fog the lenses and see what it’s like to have cataracts. It’s like looking through a foggy bathroom window, and the only solution is surgery. Granted the surgery is nothing short of amazing these days and they now use corrected acrylic lenses instead of cadaver lenses. Yes I said corrected lenses, they measure your eyes and put the correct lens in your eye. And the surgery is not cheap! Roughly $7000 per eye, so roughly $20,000 for both eyes by the time it’s all said and done. That buys a lot of high quality sunglasses.
Do I wear my costas when I’m cutting wood, and working on things outdoors? No, but I do wear good safety glasses with good lenses that are rated for UV A & B, as well as infrared. And I do wear my costas the rest of the time.