Advertorial : Zoggs Design Goggles and Swim Fins

Sponsored by Nuffnang

If you follow me on twitter, you will have noticed that I started swimming lessons last term. Yes, I can’t swim. I never did learn in school as such a subject wasn’t offered. There wasn’t a neighbourhood pool either so our family never went swimming.

But swimming is an important skill. It could potentially be a skill that saves your life! Plus, it’s not as hard on the joints as running can be, so I decided to pick up swimming in an attempt to be more healthy.

So 8 weeks later, I can now swim on my back and am halfway to mastering freestyle. Getting there, tho slowly! I did have two big issues however. My goggles kept fogging up while I was underwater, resulting in me not being able to see. And I couldn’t swim fast enough to maintain enough momentum so I could practice my strokes properly.

That’s where Zoggs came in. And I do realise that this is not food related, but it’s definitely something that’s been a big part of my life in the last couple of months.

Zoggs recently developed two new products to assist swimmers in improving stroke techniques and level of performances in water. They were: the new 4 Flexpoint Predator Flex Goggles and the Four Stroke Positive Drive Training Fin. The first thing I noticed about the goggles were how stylish they were:

That tinting! /swoons.

You have to understand that my previous goggles are more like kids goggles. I did go for the cheapest you could find in Kmart as I didn’t know how long I would stick out with this swimming gig, I don’t have the best track record when it comes to sports! But if I had goggles like this, I’d be at the pool everyday!

So I tried them on during my next pool trip. The first thing I noticed was how well they fit against my face. I did a bit more research and realised that it was because of the 4 Flexpoint technology that was featured in this goggle that allowed the goggle to flex in the nose bridge area. This pretty much meant that the goggles were able to flex and fit against my face to its maximum capacity. Another big point I noticed – how comfortable it was. I was constantly getting dull aches with my previous goggles especially around the eyes, but there were no such pains with this pair of goggles. Huge win!

I did a couple of laps and realised that my previous fogging problem was completely gone. Not to mention that I have to move to swimming in an outdoor pool after my move up into the country, I do think that the tinting will help when the sun comes out to play. Perfect.

So the goggles sold me. How bout the fins? To be honest, when I first saw the fins, I thought they were the funniest looking things ever. Weren’t swimming fins normally long in length and angled? These were rounded and reminded me a litte of being a duck. As it turns out, Zoggs had decided to move away from the traditional fin shape to this new shape to allow for more versatility in stroke/kick capability.

That means fins for all sorts of different strokes including breaststroke! Awesome! I find breast stroke to be quite hard, especially because I can’t get the kick quite right. Which usually results in me sinking instead of floating up to break surface to breath. Not breathing during swimming? Definitely not a good thing!

And did it help me? I was definitely faster, able to control my kicks better and generally helped me a great deal. Though I must admit that because I hadn’t used fins before, it felt rather unnatural but I’m sure it’s something that time and practice will fix.

At the end of the day, I was pretty impressed with the quality of the products and the goggles and fins that were provided to me for review. And if it helps me swim better, I’m not about to say no!

Sigh. One day I’ll get the hang of swimming.

Oh, before I forget : if you’d like own a pair of these goggles, head over to Nuffnang and comment on their blog entry. It’s a 1 in 50 chance to win a pair!