Accessories Reviews

Goggle Review: Airblaster Air

Intended Purpose: The Airblaster Air goggles are venitilated goggles that snowboarders can afford without losing the style on the mountain. The mirrored lens gives you unlimited staring opportunities and with a widescreen vision on the mountain, you’ll be able to see lines you never saw before.

Color: I picked out the Air Goggles in ocean blue which is a favorite color of mine. Can’t go wrong with a solid color on goggles. The straps are black with the airblaster logo on both sides.

Location: I started riding these goggles at Loveland during the early season and have continued to take them out in various times at Steamboat.

Conditions: I’ve worn the goggles on bluebird days and overcast days.

Fit: I really enjoy the Air Goggles but the fit around my nose isn’t ideal for me. That’s the one complaint I have because air comes up when I’m riding and I’ll have teary eyes because of air coming into the goggles through some extra space by my nose. Even though I enjoy riding in them for me to make them work I’d have to wear a facemask so the fit wouldn’t bother me when riding. Again this is all for me, they just aren’t ideal for my nose shape.

Visibility: The wide rang of vision helps when riding giving you full views of everything and being able to see people on the sides of you better. The lens impressed me with it’s handling of a variety of conditions on the mountain, on the flat light and overcast I didn’t have any problems with seeing the snow and varying conditions when riding. On Bluebird days, the mirrored help block out the sunlight.

Features: The Air goggles have a really big widescreen vision which for any snowboarder it’s good to have that much peripheral view on the mountain. They feature a ventilation and MILF technology (I laughed too). One of the things I noticed when I was riding with them is usually you don’t touch lens and with the air goggles I accidentally touched them one day but they cleared up within seconds. I haven’t done any hiking or really sweaty days to test the ventilation but so far on the days I have ridden them I haven’t dealt with fog. This isn’t considered a feature, but I really liked when goggles unclip in the back for easy on and off without having to go over the head.

Durability: The air goggles got a good test of durability since I crammed them in my backpack for the last month, no scrapes and nothing wrong with the lens which really surprised me on how well they have lasted so far.

Thoughts: I’ve been meaning to get my hands on the air goggles to try them out because I’ve heard good things about them and haven’t tried an Airblaster product yet. I was definitely impressed with the vision and lens quality on the air goggles, the fact that I could pack them up and no scratches was a ringer for me. Usually I have to pack goggles in a goggle case like my Smith or Ashbury goggles to make sure they don’t get scratched up.

On the lens, I really liked that I didn’t have to worry about what the sky was doing. Usually on overcast days I wear my smith goggles and on sunny days I wear Ashbury’s because those are the best light conditions for the goggle lens I have but with the air goggles I didn’t have to worry about that on the mountain. I had good visibility and no complaints through overcast to sunny days.

I wanted to compare against Ashbury which I’m currently riding in on bluebird days. The air goggles have the ventiliation, better lens that I could ride anywhere and I like the strap better but the Ashbury’s still fit me better which to me makes a good difference on the mountain. Tough call between the two however.

I was kind of bummed the nose fit wasn’t there but that hasn’t stopped me from wearing a goggle before, just means wearing a facemask to help fit better.

airgoggle

Review Disclosure: I got this goggle from Solstice Supply.

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  • Andrew
    January 10, 2010 at 6:55 pm

    How much foam do they these have? Cause I really hate goggles with a lot of foam in them. And I’m either going to get these or Ashbury goggles so what has less foam in them?

  • Shay
    January 10, 2010 at 8:07 pm

    Good question Andrew. The Ashbury’s have a 1/2 inch of foam and the Airblasters have 1/4 of an inch of foam. So the Airblasters have less foam on the goggle.

  • Pete
    May 11, 2010 at 9:29 am

    I’ve the “Jonas Carlson” Proam…I love it! I just can confirm everythin you wrote! They are comfortable (no probs with my nose 😉 ), no fog and I just could jump up and down while shredding with em cause of the widescreen…they rock!!!! Everyone should have an Airblaster! B-)
    regards

  • chicken
    November 17, 2010 at 12:06 pm

    Shay..
    you should try out the Airblaster ninja suit… best thing ever!!!!

  • iggs
    December 22, 2010 at 11:58 am

    if im wearing glasses underneath, will the foam be too thin and my glasses just hit the lens?