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My experience in Glory Hole the past weekend was great but slightly marred by the fact that I got some of that sand in my eye. I scratched my cornea in fact and pretty much couldn't see for a couple of days after.
I have an Ecrin Roc helmet, and I notice that Petzle doesn't make a face shield for that model. I really need something - I am afraid if I wear safety goggles then I'll be struggling with them fogging up and just toting them around. Does anyone know if anyone makes an aftermarket eye shield for the ecrin roc helmet.
Or just any ideas for keeping the crap out of your eyes while caving/climbing etc..

If you add three snaps to the helmet, you can use motorcycle-helmet face shields.


Did you know this would happen, or have you had sand in your eye before?

99% of the time I do not have problems with my eyes in caves, or anywhere. In this case, a tiny fleck of sand flicked up into my eye,... it was almost unavoidable. It scratched my cornea before I could remove it and that was that.
So yes and no. I can get something stuck in my eye walking down the street, so it is always a possibility. But its a risk that old blind guys like me have to take.

hey you're the one calling yourself graveleye, it was only a matter of time!

its no secret where my name comes from I've been wearing contact lenses since before most of y'all we born.

But I am one tough son-of-a-gun though. I can have a mosquito light and suck the juice right out of my eyeball, and not even flinch.

Despite my graveleyes, I would like a more comfortable cave trip.

Muddy caves dont bother me, and I know better than to look up when someone is climbing above me.. in this instance, you are crawling through sand that is almost the consistancy of sandbox sand, and for several hundred yards in tight close quarters. It was just a fluke really, but I want to avoid it in the future.

I know they make anti-fog drops you can rub in your goggles/glasses.

Or I hear spit works too...

... or liquid soap...

but the drops are the only thing I can suggest since I know nothing about face shields :)

anti-fog drops eh? Point me to 'em. My glasses fog up in the cold when I'm playing sports. (sorry graveleye; I hijacked)

bigalpha wrote:anti-fog drops eh? Point me to 'em. My glasses fog up in the cold when I'm playing sports. (sorry graveleye; I hijacked)

Scuba diving store... or a sports store that sells diving gear you'll find them in that section.

AquaSeal Sea Drops are the brand I've seen.

I've used this brand and I've been pretty happy with it.

Isn't there a cave diving section? The divers might be able to recommend another brand :)

bigalpha wrote:anti-fog drops eh? Point me to 'em. My glasses fog up in the cold when I'm playing sports. (sorry graveleye; I hijacked)

I use Sea Gold anti-fog gel in my mask. A small bottle costs about $5 from dive shops, and you don't use much at a time. This gel is good stuff underwater, but I've never taken it caving. Don't see why it wouldn't work, though.

I wear a pair of prescription safety glasses with side shields in the caves now. Since my wife works in blind rehab, she will kill me if I suffer an avoidable eye injury, and I don't want to be deep inside a cave when I need immediate medical attention for my eyes.

Fogging hasn't been a problem. Standard safety glasses are cheap and easy to find and will protect your eyes from most small bits of flying debris.

Probably no need for a full face shield if you have safety glasses.

Kevin,

I've been wearing contacts for over 30 years. At some point I became aware of a little trick that my eye had learned and that I was doing subconciously. When you feel something get into your eye, stop what you're doing immediately, fight the urge to touch your eye or blink uncontrollably, in fact just don't move your eye or blink at all for a second or two. Your eye will tell you where the crud is. Here's the trick: Once your eye "knows" where the crud is, you can move your eye slightly in a direction that allows the bit to be ejected. (The direction to move your eye is learned over time and varies each time depending on where the crud landed.) Most of the time, that's it. Problem solved. BUT, sometimes the tip of a clean finger can be used to get the thingee off of your eyelashes if you feel it just on the edge of getting back into your eye.
Again, it's kind of a subconcious thing but it works. NEVER knee jerk react and touch your eye. Let your eye tell you exactly what's going on and then proceed from there. Maybe 1 time out of 1000 I'll have to remove the contact. Trickey getting it back in and keep caving but that's another trick...

Yea Mike.. I've been wearing mine about 28 years too... you must also have the rigid ones too dont you? My doctor doesn't want me to wear soft lenses because he says my eyesight will deteriorate if I dont have that lens shaping my eye.
On of my problems is, and the doctor has seen it to, is that my eyelid is shaped funny, making it almost impossible to just "pop" them out like the rest of the contact-wearing world does. I have a little suction cup thingy that I have to carry around with me.
I hear you on the whole thing about letting your eye eject the stuff by itself, and usually thats how I handle it too - eyelashes are my worst enemy. But in this case, it happened so fast, and it scratched my cornea before it had a chance to come out. In fact the discomfort I felt in the cave was more from the scratch than the particle itself. It just happened so fast and was too late before anything could happen. That sand is very abrasive - heck its derived from coral and shells!!
I am definitely going to cave with some safety glasses from now on, if it is a dry cave anyway.
What I would love for Petzel to come out with is some sort of face shield that is retractable, sort of like a fighter pilot helmet. I'd buy one like that in a heartbeat if it wasnt too bulky.