The Course, without the turn

See the water behind you without breaking your stroke

A semi-transparent mirrored lens carries the water behind you alongside the water ahead, set into a Waterhaul frame built from gear recovered out of the sea. The optics are passive, and the whole instrument is the glass in front of your eyes.

  • 50 Numbered units per shape

  • 4 Granted patents, 6 more pending

  • UK Designed & hand-fitted by HINDSIGHT

  • 100% Frame recovered from the UK Coast

  • 50 Numbered units per shape

  • 4 Granted patents, 6 more pending

  • UK Designed & hand-fitted by HINDSIGHT

  • 100% Frame recovered from the UK Coast

  • 50 Numbered units per shape

  • 4 Granted patents, 6 more pending

  • UK Designed & hand-fitted by HINDSIGHT

  • 100% Frame recovered from the UK Coast

  • 50 Numbered units per shape

  • 4 Granted patents, 6 more pending

  • UK Designed & hand-fitted by HINDSIGHT

  • 100% Frame recovered from the UK Coast

  • 50 Numbered units per shape

  • 4 Granted patents, 6 more pending

  • UK Designed & hand-fitted by HINDSIGHT

  • 100% Frame recovered from the UK Coast

  • 50 Numbered units per shape

  • 4 Granted patents, 6 more pending

  • UK Designed & hand-fitted by HINDSIGHT

  • 100% Frame recovered from the UK Coast

  • 50 Numbered units per shape

  • 4 Granted patents, 6 more pending

  • UK Designed & hand-fitted by HINDSIGHT

  • 100% Frame recovered from the UK Coast

  • 50 Numbered units per shape

  • 4 Granted patents, 6 more pending

  • UK Designed & hand-fitted by HINDSIGHT

  • 100% Frame recovered from the UK Coast

  • 50 Numbered units per shape

  • 4 Granted patents, 6 more pending

  • UK Designed & hand-fitted by HINDSIGHT

  • 100% Frame recovered from the UK Coast

  • 50 Numbered units per shape

  • 4 Granted patents, 6 more pending

  • UK Designed & hand-fitted by HINDSIGHT

  • 100% Frame recovered from the UK Coast

  • 50 Numbered units per shape

  • 4 Granted patents, 6 more pending

  • UK Designed & hand-fitted by HINDSIGHT

  • 100% Frame recovered from the UK Coast

  • 50 Numbered units per shape

  • 4 Granted patents, 6 more pending

  • UK Designed & hand-fitted by HINDSIGHT

  • 100% Frame recovered from the UK Coast

The request came from the athletes before it ever came from us

Rowers spend their races facing backwards down a course they cannot see, turning their heads to find a buoy, a bank or a boat and losing rhythm every time they do.

Over the past year a number of them found their way to Hindsight asking whether the lens built for road cyclists could be made to work on the water.

01

They came to Hindsight

World champions, Olympians, athletes racing for Ivy League programmes and the coaches who decide what their squads train in, all asking the same question about the same problem.

02

We looked for the right partner

A lens on its own is only half a product, and HIndsight spent months working through the eyewear brands who could carry it, judging them on how they build, what they build from and whether the people in this sport would believe them.

03

Waterhaul was the answer

Frames recovered from discarded fishing gear and remade in Cornwall, built by and for people who spend their lives on the water. The fit was obvious enough that HIndsight opened the conversation the week they finished looking.

The lens carries both directions at once

The lens is semi-transparent and mirrored, divided at a proportion derived from the golden ratio, with the forward view dominant and the rear view sitting where the eye reaches it deliberately. The optics are passive throughout, which is to say that the whole instrument is the glass itself.

HINDSIGHT designs the lens and fits it by hand in the UK, and the technology is protected by four granted patents with six more pending.

Everything behind you arrives without you turning to find it

A glance costs a rower more than it costs anybody else, because the boat runs straight only while the head stays still.

Rear vision inside the lens delivers the same information for none of the movement, and the stroke survives intact.

What the rear panel actually shows you

The outer quarter of each lens reflects the water astern, and it sits at the edge of vision where a driver finds a wing mirror.

The inner three quarters carry the course ahead at full strength.

A Waterhaul frame carrying HINDSIGHT's patented lens

The frame is built to the standard Waterhaul applies across its range. The lens is HINDSIGHT's own, and it exists in this collection first.

01

A patented optic

Four granted patents with six pending, designed by HINDSIGHT and fitted by hand in the UK.

02

A frame with a history

Recovered fishing gear remade in Cornwall, carrying the durability Waterhaul builds into everything under its name.

03

A run that closes

Fifty numbered units of each shape, built once the window shuts and recorded against the run.

ยฃ249

Including VAT ยท UK delivery included

โœ“ The HINDSIGHT patented lens, fitted and optically tested.

โœ“ Waterhaul frame with behind-the-head retention.

โœ“ Numbered and recorded against the run.

โœ“ Lifetime Frame Guarantee and aftercare handled by Waterhaul.

Orders shipped outside the United Kingdom may attract import duty, customs charges and local sales tax when they arrive. Those are set by the destination country and are payable by the recipient, and they sit outside the price shown here.

The specification in full

Lens
Detail
Semi-transparent mirrored optic delivering simultaneous forward and rearward vision, divided at a proportion derived from the golden ratio.
Optics
Detail
Passive throughout, with the whole instrument contained in the lens.
UV Protection
Detail
UV 400. UVA and UVB blocked to 400 nanometres. Category 3 daylight tint. As with any Category 3 lens, not for driving at night or in low-light conditions.
Frame
Detail
Built by Waterhaul from 100% recycled fishing gear from the UK coast.
Warranty
Detail
Frames covered by Waterhaul's Circular Lifetime Warranty.
Fit
Detail
One size, designed for use in training and on the water.
Run
Detail
Fifty units of each shape, one hundred in all.

Questions we are asked most

The forward view stays dominant and the rear image occupies the smaller portion of the lens, where the eye reaches it deliberately. 

Most people describe the experience as reading a rear-view mirror in a car, which sits quietly in the field of view until the moment it is wanted.

The run is built once the window closes, so every unit is made to a confirmed order rather than sitting in a warehouse.

The shipping date is published before the window opens and you will have it in writing at the point you order.

The lens was built first for road cycling and works wherever what is behind you matters, which takes in running, riding and open water.

Rowing is where the demand arrived loudest.

Waterhaul does, on this product exactly as on the rest of its range.

Orders, questions, guarantees and anything that needs putting right all go to Waterhaul, and the process is the one their customers already know.

The first run is non-prescription.

Prescription compatibility is work we have underway with Waterhaul for a later release, and everybody on the list hears about it first.

One hundred units, and then the window closes

The run is built to the orders placed inside the window, and every unit is recorded against it.