Warning: If you don’t wear a helmet when you ski or ride, don’t read this article.
Seriously.
Wearing Revision Military’s Desert Locust Extreme Goggles
Time to backtrack. After my wonderful experience with Revision’s “Sawfly” glasses, I wandered through their catalog and ran across the Desert Locust goggle. Pretty cool looking, optimized for helmet use, and with the usual Revision “to military specs and beyond!” (sorry, Buzz Lightyear) build quality. And the “Extreme” version ($99 with neutral gray lens; extra lenses $28/each) has sealed double lenses to avoid fogging in cold weather…hmm. Definitely a “must-try”, particularly for backcountry and sidecountry skiing!
Now, here’s where the health part comes in. I took them out of the box, put them on, and my sweetheart Susan hurt herself laughing. Honest. This is why you shouldn’t even put these things ON without a helmet. Naked, they’re about as wide as J. Lo’s…sunglasses. And, frankly, they didn’t fit all that well…they gapped around my nose. NOT a promising start. But, the people at Revision are serious detail freaks, so maybe I should put on my helmet and try them that way.
Whoa! WHAT a difference. Goodbye gaps. The angle of the strap changed when the helmet was added into the equation. The goggles were pulled a bit wider, and the fit changed dramatically. These goggles SHOULD NOT be worn without a helmet.
With my trusty old carbon fiber Leedom, they looked a little . . . well . . . menacing. I looked in the mirror and thought “Hey, I look a little badass!” When I pointed this out to Susan, she hurt herself laughing again. Apparently, even with a helmet on, these things can be dangerous to someone else’s health. Also apparently, I’ve got about as much chance of being badass as Elmer Fudd.
But…the military-goggle connection does have some validity. This is serious eye protection, with serious quality. Fit on my helmet is excellent, with minimal gap showing between the helmet and the googles. Clarity of the lenses is spectacular. December and January in the Northeast means “flat light”…the sun is hiding behind the mountain, making it hard to see contours on the slopes. The usual solution is a yellow or vermillion lens, but I personally hate yellow, and at that point the Desert Locust didn’t offer vermillion. So, neutral gray it was. And, wonder of wonders, I was able to see at least as well as my companions on some gray days that had everyone concerned about visibility. Apparently, the clarity of the optics allows for greater contrast than you would expect from neutral gray.
After several months of playing with the neutral gray, though, Revision brought out a vermillion lens for the Desert Locust. True to form, the optical quality was spectacular; so much so that on a backcountry skiing trip in Quebec’s Gaspesie National Park, another writer and REAL backcountry ski expert took one look through them, gave them a “wow!” rating, and immediately asked where he could order a pair. They’re simply that good…and yes, he’s a helmet wearer.
Even on bright days, the vermillion lenses don’t leave my eyes tired after a long day of skiing, as some lenses have done over the years; I used them into April, and even on bluebird days didn’t feel the need to change back to neutral gray (although I like neutral gray on a day like that; color accuracy is greater, allowing you to really enjoy the beauty!). For night skiing, or when you get caught by darkness skinning back to your lodge at the end of a day of backcountry, it’s a matter of seconds to pop in a clear lens and have full vision with eye protection.
Beyond the optical quality, though, is the fogging resistance. On one particularly cold day at Sunday River, I was skiing with a couple of lunatics who thought it was a great idea to ski through the snowguns at speed. They frequently had to stop because they couldn’t see a bloody thing through the fog on their goggles. My goggles, on the other hand, were perfectly clear (other than the ice balls on them from the snowguns). Intrigued, we went in for hot chocolate and put all three sets of goggles on the table next to each other; they all fogged, but mine cleared dramatically faster than the other two. These guys don’t tolerate poor quality in anything they buy, and their goggles were no exception, but they simply couldn’t measure up. Sadly for one of them, though, he doesn’t wear a helmet, so he’s stuck with what he’s got.
There was one problem with my Desert Locusts. On my first pair, the foam that seals them to your face became damaged from putting them up and down on a helmet. An email to Revision got an instantaneous, extremely apologetic reply. They were well aware of the problem, had thought this older design had been cleared from the pipeline. They immediately sent a replacement pair. The new seal has a soft cloth layer over the foam and, after a full season of use, is showing no signs of wear. Good companies make great products; GREAT companies make great products and stand behind them when something goes wrong. Kudos to Revision on this one!
Our only remaining complaint is that the storage bag that comes with the goggles is, um, not user friendly; it works, but it’s a pain in the neck. An extra quarter inch added to all dimensions would make it a lot easier to deal with (hint, hint, Revision…).
Not every product is right for everyone, and the Desert Locust Extreme Goggles are no exception. If you don’t wear a helmet, don’t waste your time; they simply won’t work. And, it’s likely that they won’t fit some helmet/face combinations…but we haven’t found any yet they haven’t worked with. If you’re a backcountry/sidecountry addict, we can’t imagine anything that will make you feel more confident in the trees than a goggle that survives bullet impacts. While that level of protection isn’t necessarily needed on the slopes, we’ve seen enough shattered lenses after crashes to take comfort in the durability of these. Besides…even if the Desert Locusts can’t make you look badass, there’s gotta be some street cred to wearing bulletproof military goggles. Paging Mr. Rambo…