And now I’ve been to the gym. I bought a nice pair of swim goggles at Park Sportsman on the way to Gold’s. I haven’t had a pair fit me since I was 12 years old, mostly because every time I shopped for them I bought cheap goggles. Well, I spent $12.99 and tried them on in the store. They worked great. I scowled at the $8.99 pair, realizing that saving $4.00 for goggles that don’t fit right or that slowly leak would be a waste of $8.99 rather than a savings of $4.00.
I’d forgotten what it’s like to see clearly while freestyling up and down the lane. Or what it’s like to come home pleasantly tired and NOT with burning eyes. I could get used to this.
–Howard
Amen to that. Goggles that work are a must for any kind of regular swimming routine for me. If I don’t have them, I swim 50 yards and spend the rest of the day kicking myself and holding a washcloth to my eyes to leach the chlorine out. Not fun at all.
It’s not chlorine.
I spent three years lifeguarding, and doing pool maintenance. It’s not the chlorine that makes your eyes burn in an average swimming pool.
It’s the pH balance.
Most people had no ‘burning eyes’ problems in the pools I was maintaining precisely because I was careful to check the pH levels at the same time I checked chlorine. In Houston, you frequently have to keep the chlorine levels double that needed further north. (bleach-out problems, due to the heat).
Mind you, I tested the water coming out of the water treatment plant, and it had a higher chlorine concentration than the swimming pool.
So, what I’ve found is two things that cause eye burning.
1) dilution of the salts/tears in the eye. (already sensitive eyes having the lubricant washed away)
2) pH balance really far off. Usually too far basic (this is where you pour in two gallons of muriatic acid. (basically hydrochloric acid, like is in the stomach).
1) can only be fixed by goggles. This person usually has problems in the shower, ocean, and everywhere else.
2) is a person that can often swim in the ocean with no goggles without a problem, and it’s fixable by adjusting pH
Re: It’s not chlorine.
I can vouch for this. My eyes are very sensitive, and for the longest time I thought I could tell chlorine levels in water by just dipping my head. Turns out I was wrong, it was off balance Ph I could tell, which I noticed when swimming for hours in an extremely chlorined (?) pool in Spain – where the Ph was good.