Q: I am a goalie and sometimes it is really hard to see in the sun even if you are
wearing eye black so I was looking and the Oakley football visors fit the CPX
helmet so I was wondering if it is legal to have a tinted visor on you helmet...
some people say that they have to be able to see your eyes in case of a
concussion so, let me know.
Jonathan writes: Zac buddy that's an awesome question.
I've got a saying that I live by, "Don't ask for permission. Ask for fogiveness."
With that being said you just want to check with your league. I'd assume that if football guys can wear them that lacrosse players can but no one is right now so you're going to be a bit of a pioneer in that regard.
As far as the concussion thing that's a great point and I don't really know the answer to that one. It makes sense but again, football guys can usually wear them and they're getting a heck of a lot more concussions than a lacrosse player does. Again, check with your league.
Couple of things to consider.
First, can you wear a different helmet. I wear a Brine Triad. I also own a CPX. I find that with the CPX I have to wear it a bit higher on my face and that raises the visor up and more sun gets to my face. With the Brine I can wear it lower so the visor cuts out more sun and I have better visibility. I also like the Brine because of the center bar. The top part of the center bar is really close to my eyes and I have better visibility there too. So if you can go with the Brine I highly recommend it.
Ok, but if you're stuck with the CPX and you still want to go with the visor here is something you may not have thought about: The visor may change your optics and it may make the ball more difficult to save. Meaning you'll see the ball but the view of it may be warped as you look through the visor.
Quick story: The guy that invented the first really good visor had a son who was a punt returner at Deerfield in Massachusetts. His son kept missing balls in games and it was really costing his team. But he noticed that when his son just caught balls for fun with no helmet on he caught everything. So he looked at his sons helmet and he was wearing the first generation of visors and they were flat. They followed the contour of the face mask but they just came flat down and because of that if you looked out the top, bottom of side of the visor it really changed how the ball looked. (Think about the "Objects In Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear" sort of thing)
So this guy whose son was the punt returner was an optician. He made eye glasses for a living so he designed a much better shield and started a company called Excel. He sold it to Oakley for millions and now you see every visor is made by Oakley.
Now the vision is vastly improved through the visors but as a goalie you may find that things look a little screwed up and you're missing balls you used to save. I'd try wearing it in practice a bunch and see how it goes. If it goes well then go for it. If it doesn't you'll know why...the optics are weird and that's causing you to miss balls.
Let me know how it goes Zac. Shoot me an email at jone94@shaw.ca If you've got any more questions don't hesitate to email me. And check out my goalie blog at www.lacrossegoaltending.blogspot.com
