I first saw these in action in Bali at Adam Stern’s deep week. Italian champion Davide Carrera was wearing them and dived to an impressive 107m. I tried on a pair and found my eyelids being pushed shut by 20m, Davide explained that my eyes were too far apart. As charming as it sounded- I think he just meant that I needed to have a pair that were correctly adjusted to fit my face. 

I have been wanting to make the switch over from wearing a mask for deep free diving to nose clip, but find that the water running over my eyes was bothering me. I have had a concerted effort this season at moving over to flooded goggles and a nose clip, but feeling increasingly frustrated. In warm water , I am still not a comfortable as wearing a mask, in the cold Cornish seas it becomes an impossible, gulpy exercise in discomfort. While some may argue that this presents a perfect training opportunity- I find myself looking for a better solution. 

The hectometres have been perfect! They are a dry goggle that have a silicon membrane inside that fills as the diver descends. There is a slight bit of pressure around the edge of the eye if you have them correctly adjusted but this is easy to get used to. No feelings of rushing cold water across the eyes or a build up of snot as soon as the eyes are wet. So far testing them in Cornwall has been fantastic! It makes a huge difference to the mechanics of mouthful equalisation, not to have to wear a mask.

They sell themselves as having the clarity of a mask with the performance of fluid goggles. Im not sure that I would wear them for shallower freediving, exploring reefs and looking at wild life, but they certainly are brilliant for the deeper free diving. Or perhaps will be something useful for photographers who have spent years learning to ‘hands free’ equalise to hold a steady camera? You do not have as wide a field of vision as a mask, but with the application of a tiny drop of anti-fog to stop them steaming up they are good.  

If you are interested in buying hektometer goggles, they have a good face book page and the inventor Klaus Schuwerk is a very clever chap- Thanks so much- they are just brilliant!