Viper, Nimesis and Cobra are r-evolutionary goggles made by Arena. The first two come from the training range and the third from the racing range. Although they are all different and distinctive in their own way, what they have in common is their unmistakable Arena style.
I asked if I could try them out for myself during a training session when I aimed to test out their technical features and qualities.
I gave them a score from 6-10, assessing their design, lenses, fit, visibility and comfort.
After a short warmup, I swam 200 m at my own pace and 6 x 50 m kick/drill/scull with 20” rest. My session consisted of three main sets:
1. 6x400m freestyle at aerobic pace with 30” rest and 100m recovery
2. 8x50m fast freestyle with 20” rest and 100m recovery
3. 3x200m freestyle swimming 25 with my head held high + 75m pulling as hard as I could without pushing off at the turns to simulate open-water swimming (see also “Learn all about open water”)
At this point, depending on the set I was doing, I decided to wear a different pair of goggles each time chosen based on their technical features.
For the first set I wore the Viper Mirror. Goggles designed for the triathlon and open water swimming; they were perfect for the session I was about to…
