Designed specifically for open water swimming, OnCourse Goggles help triathletes stay on course and by doing so, can boost their performance by 15%. OnCourse Technology’s patent-pending point-and-click design stores a compass heading, whether it’s a buoy or channel marker, with a simple press of a button. By using sensors to alert you when veering off course, the goggles create a virtual swimming lane.
If you’re someone interested in triathlon competition but the only thing preventing you is the dreaded the open water swim portion of the event, these are the goggles for you. OnCourse Goggles, whether it’s during an open water training session or mid-competition, prevents you from zig-zagging which is a huge energy expense. In the free-for-all environment where swimmers are virtually on top of each other, jockeying for position, it’s pretty easy to swim offline or follow the wrong crowd. This is not only bad for your final course times but it’s downright scary, especially for first-time triathletes. The OnCourse Goggles are a swimmers best friend. They help the competitor who just can’t master “sighting” during the swimming portion of the triathlon.
OnCourse Goggles are USAT approved for competition and at the fraction of the cost of other expensive triathlon equipment (SwimSkin, Wetsuit, Aerodynamic Helmet, Aerodynamic Bicycle Wheels), these smart goggles are poised to be the gear of choice for all future triathlons. The OnCourse Goggles have been tested in competitive environments and the results are rather amazing: There’s a 15% performance gain, which is equivalent to 5.7 minutes shaved off a 1500m swim. OnCourse technology creates their goggles for non-elite swimmers. The athletes outside of the top 10% who find it difficult to swim straight in open water.
So how do they work?
To summarize, OnCourse’s website says that their patent-pending point-and-click design, “utilizes an electronic compass to mimic what the birds and sea turtles use naturally to follow the magnetic waves of our beautiful Earth.” To best illustrate how OnCourse Goggles work, here is the step-by-step process taken from the point of view of a triathlete prior to the start of swim portion of their race:
1. Standing on the shore and seeing the channel marker in the distance, the competitor turns on her OnCourse Goggles. The goggle’s green LED’s will blink indicating a bearing must be entered.
2. The swimmer then faces the channel marker target, puts the goggles on, centers the target in her vision, and subsequently registers the heading with a single button press.
3. The goggle’s green LED’s will change from blinking green to solid, indicating a bearing has been entered and stored. It’s showtime!
4. As the gun goes off and the triathlete enters the water, the LED’s in both eyepieces will illuminate green letting the swimmer knows she’s on course.
5. If she veers off course to the right, both green LED’s will extinguish and the left eyepiece will illuminate to notify the swimmer that she’s way too left and needs to make an adjustment to the right to be back OnCourse.
6. If she goes way left, a red LED will illuminate letting her know that she’s way off course and needs to make a major correction.
7. Once the adjustment is made, red turns to yellow, yellow turns to green once the swimmer is back OnCourse; i.e., the heading has been reestablished.
One of the coolest features of OnCourse’s Goggle technology: the built-in LED sensors aren’t fooled when you turn your head to take a breath or if after watching a SharkWeek marathon, you take a quick gander for Great Whites mid-race. The smart technology knows to keep its bearing without being distracted by small adjustments.
Outside of OnCourse’s innovative compass technology, the goggles themselves perform extremely well. With the option of an Inner Orbit Fit or a Mid Orbit Fit, swimmers can choice from two available sizes. The goggles are rated high with regard to comfort, especially after wearing them for longer periods of time. This is mostly due to their soft silicone gaskets and comfortable strap design. The lenses are polarized, have an anti-fog coating, and are UV protected.
Backed by a one-year manufacturer’s warranty, OnCourse Goggles comes with a rechargeable Lithium Polymer battery lasting approximately 4 hours fully charged.
OnCourse Technology, in its quest to help swimmers stay on course, plans on adding a feature that allows users the freedom to program multiple race targets instead of just one. As it stands now, if there are multiple checkpoints during a competitive swim, the racer needs to reset the course heading after reaching each target. Without the distraction of resetting headings, athletes will be able to swim continuously and stay on course no matter the number of checkpoints.
I have no idea when this blog started, but the price ($199) is out of date for a product which is more promise than reality. After years of waiting for the product, I placed an order ($250) 18 May with a promise of 1 month delivery – still waiting more than 2 months later. Does it exist? Is it a scam? I am pretty sure it isn’t but the business model is bazaar.
I have no idea when this blog started, but the price ($199) is out of date for a product which is more promise than reality. After years of waiting for the product, I placed an order ($250) 18 May with a promise of 1 month delivery – still wa
I paid $257.30 on 17 November, 2018 (#2132) for this item. As of this writing I have heard nothing as to the backorder status of the Oncourse Goggles.