Safety Equipment

[isoaker]

The most commonly thought of potential or even presently used piece of safety equipment for water warfare would be eye protection in the form of glasses, goggles, or even full face shields. Other things like padding or specialized protective wear are rare. Would you or do you already use any sort of safety equipment when holding/participating in a water war? Should safety equipment even ever be needed? When, if ever, would you consider using safety equipment during a water fight?

Thoughts and discussions on this topic most welcome.

[Jim likes SS's]

Good old sunglasses will do for me for any unofficial water wars, if i ever got into tournament play (which is less common over here in the UK) i would wear appropriate safety wear.

-Jim

[WaterWolf]

Dido with Jimmy here.
Myself and some others on my team use sunglasses at our water-warfare meetings, but I would be happy to oblige with goggles at a Tournament.

[SSCBen]

Sunglasses are all you will ever need. Get some impact rated ones and you'll have more than enough protection. Impact rated sunglasses are as strong as impact rated goggles and they often are harder to fog. So I suppose impact rated, anti-fog sunglasses are what you want.

I was a little confused by the variety of options here, so I voted for "I already use safety equipment." I wear sunglasses sometimes during wars. I don't wear them every time, but I haven't had a war in a while.

If you want to use something with more than 100X of water output, any eye protection likely would be blasted off, so there's not much you can do to protect your eyes. I don't think a riot blast would cause any more "damage" than a wave at the beach, but I would be worried about something like Supercannon II where it has a 1/2 inch stream with over 100X water output. Firing that in someone's face will cause discomfort at the least (it's exactly like firing a fire hose in someone's face). If anyone wants to use that though, they'd lose bad because of the water usage, so I'd say let them use it.

[isoaker]

Just made the choices a little clearer, I hope.

Sunglasses definitely provide some level of protection and are what I predominantly use during water fights. They do count as a form of light safety equipment, but such a definition likely works only amongst small groups and wouldn't pass by a formal safety inspection board. I've edited the choices so the phrase now reads "certified safety equipment" to suggest that equipment used needs to be tested by some safety board for its intended use (i.e. how workshop goggles are certified to protect against most common construction dangers to the eye).

For the current general level of stock, modded, and homemade water blasters out there, sunglasses offer a good amount of protection. That said, they aren't always optional, particularly during fights in darker environment (i.e. deeper woods) or during night battles.

What I wonder is whether members would be open to wearing things along the lines of swimming or squash/racquetball goggles (i.e. goggles with a strap) that are less likely to be knocked off one's face if hit by a more potent stream. For water fight eye protection, I'd want something that could breathe to avoid fogging, of course. While I prefer to be able to have a water fight without the need for eye protection, if given the option of potentially having more potent blasters at the cost of needing to use some sensible protection, I think I'd be willing to strap on a pair of goggles and wield a CPS20000 around.

I'm primarily curious whether others also feel similarly.

[Jim likes SS's]

Adding on to what I said yesterday, sunglasses with an adjustable strap would work well, so they are harder to be pushed off your head by powerful jets of water.

-Jim

[Adrian]

Voted for don't need 'em if used responsibly. We used the biggest, heaviest, most powerful soakers for roughly 3 years, and never needed goggles or other safety equipment. I can't imagine that running around a waterfight with workshop goggles on your head would be much fun at all.

Adrian

[HBWW]

The only time I would use goggles and such is for tactical reasons; they reduce or completely remove the temporary "blinding" effect when a stream goes into your face, reducing the effect by at least 2-3 seconds, at least for me, which is very important when you need to retaliate in a soakfest. However, even in 1HK, they're still nice to have, and considering I can't see anything distant at all without my glasses, I at least wear those, which still reduce the blinding effect.

On the other hand, such equiptment, whether used for "safety" or not, can backfire when a water balloon smacks someone in the face, whether accidently or intentionally, which is part of the reason I'm not so big on "eye protection", and even high pressure blasters as well as modded and homemades can knock the goggles around, or knock them off at close range. The only completely safe option I could think of is the paintball mask, but who the hell wants to wear those in a water war?

Now, it's been said many times, but responsibility and common sense should completely prevent any actual safety issues, no one should be CPS-blasting anyone's eye at such close ranges. If they hit someone with no eye protection at that range, it'll cause a longer period of "blindness" than the usual group of droplets to the face, but if they hit them with goggles on, the goggles will press into their face and get very uncomfortable, if not worse. Now, just imagine this with a water balloon.

[isoaker]

I completely agree with a preference to reduce the need or, if possible, completely eliminate the need for any particular safety equipment beyond common sense. However, for a theoretical tournament, to get around certain liability issues, it may be better to have some safety equipment such as an appropriate pair of goggles. I don't agree with the idea of goggles being a problem is hit by a balloon or hard stream. Good goggles should be resting on the bony parts around the eye socket, not on one's eyeballs, thus if something impacts them at a great force, it may lead to bruising, but should protect one's eyes better than if one weren't wearing any pair. Even if goggles were knocked off by a direct hard hit, it'd still be better than if there were no goggles in the first place. The main problem would be if the goggles used could not physically withstand the impact and break, but then that's where testing before use would come in.

Presently, there's no general need for any specific safety equipment when battling with the majority of water blasters available, stock or built. However, the feedback and thoughts above are good discussions on things to consider if/whenever someone does manage to get a larger tournament together.

[HBWW]

Yeah, I'm probably wrong with the goggles, but the thought came to me that, with a water balloon smacking the face, the force causing the bruise would be worse than just getting water in your eyes. Basically, my idea was that the goggles concentrate the force of the impact which would otherwise be allowed to spread if they weren't there. But the next issue is that most of those goggles would likely fog up during play, and I'm not sure how effective anti-fog is... (plus it adds to the hassle)

[DX]

Personally, I'd only use goggles/shades in a tournament, if necessary. They'd have to contain my prescription, too. I wear glasses normally, and so far they have protected my eyes from basketballs, tennis balls, soccer balls, a training javelin, and flying clay. A balloon being thrown into your face is not a big deal when you've been pummeled by soccer balls in the face while playing defense, therefore I am more lax than most. Ridgewood wars have seen powerful stuff used on the field, yet the only injuries we have ever seen were related to falling.

[cobralex297]

I wouldn't wear equipment even if blasters were way more powerful. I'm confident in my ability to be safe, despite the situation. There are so many greater potential dangers in life that wearing protective equipment while soaking seems silly. To me. Glasses would make sense during the daytime to deal with glare, but for no other purpose.

I guess I'm not a very safety conscious person, but thus far in my life I've been fine vis a vis the logic: "Nothing's happened so far, so nothing will."

I've dealt with the streets of New York city, stormy ocean waters, firearms, all without hazard. Getting worked up over soakers being unsafe, it just doesn't make sense to me. For others though, if some people wish to be extra careful, I would completely respect anyone's devotion to their personal safety by means of extra gear. It's just not something I'm interested in.