If have you been rocking the Oakley Crowbar for the last couple years like I have, you most likely have had some issues with changing out the lenses. Its like you need an engineering degree from Berkley, or even from a good school like Stanford, to figure out how to replace your old scratched up lens with a shiny new one in a reasonable amount of time. Enter the new Oakley Airbreak. I got to try them out at the Snowbasin Demo last week and here is the dirt on them.
As you can see in the above photo the overall shape of the Airbreak is not too different from the Crowbar. It does have Oakley’s updated rigid nose piece for better nasal breathing. This feature has been around for a little while in the Splice goggle and seemed to actually help a little for me. The optics also seemed really similar to the Crowbar, which is a good thing since they were just about perfect and messing with perfection is a stupid thing to do.
The big change is the new lever based lens switching system. It is about as easy as you could possibly dream of to change a lens in with this new system. All you do is grab the little tab that can be seen on the right side of the right hand goggle in the image above and lift it up, then you can pop the lens out in about 1.25 seconds. Next you grab your new lens and slide it in, pop it down and pull the tab back to the closed/ locked position. Bam, it was so easy an idiot business major like myself got it after just two tries.
I hate paying for gear as much as the next guy, especially for ridiculously overpriced goggles. But you need to wear something to protect those pretty eyes of yours and I am still partial to the Oakley steeze. So when they come out this summer (August 2011), it is time to buck up and buy a pair of Airbreaks sucka. If they can make Shaun White look cool with all that tight leather, they will make you look good in your tall tee and hoodie.