Is This Cheating?
There has been some opposition form marathon swimmers about the IOLITE and other navigation-assisting goggles. Obviously, these types of goggles are against marathon swimming rules, which typically limit you to a pair of (regular) goggles, a cap, and a suit (non-buoyant and not heat-retaining). We would definitely put them in the "assisted" category of our three local open water races. But I don't think you'll see any of these companies suggesting you swim across the English Channel with them. The fact is they are designed for, and marketed to, triathletes and not marathon swimmers. Both the IOLITE and OnCourse goggles are USAT approved. So the question of whether it is cheating or not depends on what kind of swimming you are doing.
Cost
Both the IOLITE and the OnCourse goggles are pretty expensive ($199 for the IOLITE and a suggested retail price of $199 for the OnCourse goggles). That's a lot of money to sink into a pair of goggles. Granted, the IOLITE also includes GPS for tracking your swims, but most triathletes I see already wear a GPS watch.
I think you are much better off spending your money on a good coach who can teach you how to correct and balance your stroke and help you with open water skills like sighting. That is an investment that will last much longer than a pair of goggles, and will also help you to get faster by getting to the root of the problem and not just putting a bandaid on it.
Reliability
This is one thing that I kept thinking about. I'm afraid that some of the people who buy these type of goggles will become dependent on them and use them as a crutch and not learn to adapt to changing conditions. What would happen if you are in the middle of a swim and the goggles malfunction or the battery dies? If you haven't learned to sight and swim straight, what are you going to do? I could see this causing some swimmers to panic.
This is another reason why I think you are much better off spending your money on a good coach and putting in the effort to learn to swim straight and sight. Doing so will allow you to adapt to changing conditions and be more confident in the water.
This is another reason why I think you are much better off spending your money on a good coach and putting in the effort to learn to swim straight and sight. Doing so will allow you to adapt to changing conditions and be more confident in the water.
Conclusion
I actually think the technology is pretty cool and it's awesome to see some innovation in the swimming world. But is it really needed? I assume these companies have done their research and they see a market for them with triathletes. As I mentioned several times above, I think you are much better off getting to the root of the problem of why you aren't swimming straight and working on correcting the problems with a coach. There are a lot of good coaches around, many of them can be found on the Utah Masters website.
These are just my thoughts. What do you think about these types of goggles?
These are just my thoughts. What do you think about these types of goggles?