Oakley Airbrake Snow Goggle

Frame Materials

Moving to other aspects of the goggle: as I mentioned, the front of the frame upon which the lens sits is comprised of a fairly rigid material. Moving closer to the face, there is a much more pliable sub-frame made of a material Oakley calls O-Matter, then three layers of polar fleece foam. This combination of material contributes to a number of things. Most importantly, I have found there is zero lens distortion regardless of the shape of your face or helmet, and the goggle is very comfortable sitting on my face for the entire day.

Jason Hutchins, Oakley Airbrake, Blister Gear Review
Jason Hutchins in the Oakley Airbrake Goggle, Las Leñas Ski Resort.

Fit

Oakley does claim that the Airbrake is optimized to fit medium to large faces. I personally have a pretty small and narrow face and have not had any issues with fit. I do always wear a helmet, however, and if you don’t and have a narrow face, the goggle might look a little wide on your head. This is more about aesthetics, though, not function.

The strap outriggers attach to the rigid front frame and offer exceptional clearance for all types of helmets, including my Bern Watts. The strap itself does have three bands of silicon running the entire length, for those concerned with their goggles flying off their slippery helmets in double flips or tomahawk sessions. I’ve personally tested the latter and can vouch they stay in place.

Optics

I have to admit, after years of using Scott and Smith goggles, I was immediately impressed by both of the lenses that came with my Seth Morrison edition Airbrakes. My goggle included the Hi Intensity (H.I.) Yellow lens for flat / low light conditions, and the Dark Grey lens for sunny / high visibility conditions.

The Dark Grey lens offered exceptional visual acuity in high-to-medium light, and with only 17% visible light transmittance, even the brightest days on snow are no strain to my eyes.

The true workhorse in this combination of lenses, however, is the H.I. Yellow lens. As any skier or boarder will acknowledge, the hardest conditions to ski in are not those due to poor snow conditions, but rather poor light conditions, most specifically low, flat light conditions. The Oakley H.I. Yellow lens is the best extreme flat light lens I have used to date.

Over the past several seasons I have used many lenses from Scott (including the Natural Light 45, Amplifier, and Illuminator), and from Smith Optics (including the Blue Sensor Mirror, and RC36). While many of those lenses are great, the Hi Intensity Yellow is superior in my eyes for delivering the highest level of definition in incredibly flat light. The lens does permit 81% of visible light through and does not provide harmful light protection, so be sure to use the Dark Grey lens on those bright sunny days.

Oakley Airbrake, Blister Gear Review
Jason Hutchins, Las Leñas Ski Resort.

My only words of caution (and perhaps another small complaint), is the lenses do appear a little easy to scratch compared to other lenses I have used. This has been more of a concern with the Dark Grey lens than the H.I. Yellow, but regardless, my advice is to be careful with each. At $75 a piece to replace, you’ll want to get the most out of them as possible. Oakley does send a very nice padded case and micro fiber lens bag with the Airbrake, which does help keep the lenses protected while not in use.

Fogging?

Fogging has not been an issue whatsoever, including while wearing the goggle for several warm/hot hikes while exploring Las Leñas. The frame itself even offers two large vents to channel air immediately behind the frame to enhance airflow to the space between the face and lens. I haven’t been able to put them through the most difficult test of touring or hiking while it is snowing, but I hope to do so soon.

Bottom Line

With almost 30 days under my belt with the Airbrake, I couldn’t be much happier with a goggle. On ski tours, I throw the spare lens in my pack’s lens pocket and routinely switch out lenses according to current light conditions. At the resort, where I am less likely to be carrying a pack, I’ll always keep the spare lens in my car, at the base area, or in a jacket pocket (depending on the likelihood of weather changes), where it is available for a quick swap should conditions drastically change.

The Airbrake is very comfortable, and, like I’ve said, each lens is incredible to look through. I highly recommend this goggle to anyone looking for easy lens-changing ability and superior optics.

10 comments on “Oakley Airbrake Snow Goggle”

  1. This might be a dumb comment, but are the optics the same across the Oakley line, regardless of the frame? Obviously, the lens shape differs, but the H.I. Yellow should be the same in my crowbar as the Airbrake, right? For someone who does not change lenses often is it worth upgrading from other Oakley goggles to the airbrake? The second part to that question is this: I just carry spare goggles because if I take a huge crash, I’ll need a new pair anyway. If I took a huge digger and got snow all up in the Airbrake, would I be able to switch lenses without the new ones fogging up? That’s the chief reason I carry spare goggles — I can’t keep them from fogging when the inside gets wet after “McGoverning,” regardless of how hard I try to dry them afterwards.

    And yeah, I agree, the H.I. Yellow rocks for flat light.

    • Zak,
      Yes, the optics are the same regardless of the frame you have. The H.I. Yellow for the Airbrake is the same as an other Oakley goggle.

      As for the second part of your question, from what I can tell (and I haven’t had any big pow crashes yet to test this out) the Airbrake would function well in the scenario you painted out. My process to eliminate fogging concerns would be to first remove the snow covered lens. Then with the frame empty of a lens, I would blow out any snow blocking the vents or packed into any tight spots. Next, insert the new dry (2nd) lens and get back to skiing.

  2. I am deciding on buying new goggles and am not sure between these oakley airbreak goggles or the smith i-ox’s and am unsure which offers better fog protection and fit. Which goggles do you think are better?

  3. I just spent 3 days riding waste deep pow in storm conditions with my new airbrakes (fully customized at O Store in NYC!). I was constantly getting face shots and covered with snow and can comment on fogging. In a nutshell, yes they will fog if you’re not to keep the vents clear. Specifically I think the two long vents in the lens is a poor design relative to the multi holes in my old crobars simply because once they get covered and ice up they are hard to clean out and you have no vents, in comparison to clearing out at least a few lens vent holes in the crobars. Overall my impression is that they fog a little easier than my crobars. The advantage is if they get wet on the inside you can easily switch to a dry lens (unlike the crobars). In all fairness, they were pretty extreme conditions and I’m not sure how well the crobars would have held up.

    In the durability side I did take one header, on a groomer no less, and landed on my upper left cheek – so right on the bottom left of the goggle. After that I noticed the point at the nose of the lens was chipped and that same section was bent ever so slightly (you can see the line in certain light. I’m not sure the crobars would have done this given the edges are tucked into the frame and this protected.

    Check the link below for one gopro footage to see what I’m talking about snow wise, I’m wearing the airbrakes

    https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5723841/My%20First%20Project%201.m4v

  4. Hi guys,

    So I am looking to buy a new pair of goggles. I’ve seen a lot of hype over the crowbars and had in my mind to buy them. Then I’ve stumbled upon the airbrakes. The question is are they a lot better in general use and worth the extra £50?

  5. I bought the Airbrakes and they fog up loads I had a few days boarding when I could hardly see anything because of this. The temperature was about -3 so it wasn’t even very cold I tried taking them off to let the air clear them up but within a few mins of putting them back on it was all fogged up again very annoying. I don’t think much of the F3 anti fog technology. When you can see it’s got very nice clear optics from the two included lenses and you can see a lot more than with no goggles at all. The lense change is very quick and easy.

  6. Hi there. So I bought a pair of the Airbrakes last year, and LOVE them. However, I don’t love the fit with my Giro G9 helmet. The large frame size pushes my helmet back a bit on my head, which causes the adjustable wheel (not sure what else to call the piece that adjusts the helmet size/fit) to dig into my neck a little. I have a huge head, so my helmet choices are somewhat limited. An XL in some brands doesn’t even fit. Do you have any suggestions for a helmet that will fit a huge noggin like mine, and be a good fit with the Airbrakes? Thanks, Ben

  7. Possibly the worst oakley goggle made. The frame has gaps in it which allows snow to get inside the google. The actual lense allows snow to build up in between itself and the frame. After an hour or so of a weather event (anything other than mild bluebird) The lenses fog up and these $270 goggles are useless. I live in and ski every day in Utah and need products that perform in the elements, these goggles DO NOT. I have been using oakley optics my entire life and this is the only time I have had a problem with a product. It seems like the production of this model was rushed and not tested properly.

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