I thought the fan was a gimic - was I wrong!

By Jeff Ranked #189 - Goggles January 8, 2012

I have been skiing for decades but only got back in to it seriously in the last 6 - 8 years. I have owned a lot of fairly high-end goggles (Oakley, multiple Carreras, Bolle, etc.) but never anything from the deep end of the pool and only one other pair of OTG goggles (Carrera). The Carrera OTG pair that I had previously did not work well, was really uncomfortable (pinching) and fogged up really easy so I went to wearing contacts just to try and limit the fogging (which the Carreras did without glasses too). Thing is that I, like many infrequent contact wearers, can have good and bad days with my contacts with the "okay" days in between not being much more enjoyable than "I don't feel like peeling my cornea out today.". Something needed to be done.

After mucho research on the 'net I came across the Smith Knowledge OTG Turbo Fan Series Goggles. A fan in a pair of goggles? Yeah...I have had a skiing career as diverse and accomplished as Chris Davenport (Dav - I shamelessly take free heli-skiing runs in the Chugash range in return for the plug!). Despite my reservations about the micro-fan and whether or not these goggles would be better than my other pair of OTGs I read/researched on and decided that at worst I would try them and have to resign myself to wearing my contacts with them but at least I would have what I hoped would be a kick-azz pair of goggles.

Was I in for a pleasant surprise!

I have had these goggles for a couple of weeks and you can colour me impressed. I have had them out in the butt-numbing cold of Western Quebec at -20C with a windchilll around -30+ C. I have had them out at around 0 C (about 32 F) and in between (about -10 C). Some times it was snowing other times it was sunny (not quite bluebird though) and one of those (-10 C) was at night. These goggles have failed to disappoint me in all situations.

Putting the goggles on in the chalet or putting them on at the top of the hill the fan is adept at clearing fog away in a jiffy. Just put the fan on max and give it a couple minutes (at most). To help clear fog I have pulled the goggles away from my cheeks (the bottom) and that seems to expedite the process. After the fog is lifted I can leave the fan on the low mode and my prayers are answered. I have eaten it a couple of times and managed to snowjob myself fogging the goggles up in the process but a quick flick of the switch and voila - fog be gone!

I wear these goggles over my Boeri helmet (don't ask me the model - it is a few years old and I can't remember but it is a short-shell design meant for large heads like mine) and they fit nicely. They vent well and don't pinch. My glasses fit perfectly within the goggles and I have a nice range of vision considering I have so many lens going on.

The pair I bought came with the Ignitor lense and while I have ordered a clear for night-skiing it has yet to show up so I have used the Ignitor in all the situations I mentioned before and it has worked quite well. I only found it a little lacking during night-skiing in the shadows but when I say "shadows" I am talking about skiing in blobs of blackness on a run that was kinda open and seemed to have only half its lights on. I imagine that any lense would have had a problem with that situation all things considered.

Looking forward to running the gauntlet with these goggles when I go for some big-mountain (for an Easterner) skiing in a couple of weeks.

View Details: Smith Knowledge OTG Turbo Fan Series Goggles

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