Costa Del Mar Broadbill Polycarbonate Sunglasses

Every fisherman needs a great pair of sunglasses. Not only for style obviously, but for eye protection and as an actual tool in your fishing arsenal. Spending a little more on a good pair of glasses really can be a game changer. There are several companies out there who put out good sunglasses and there are a ton who don’t. Costa Del Mar is a company who has been putting out great sunglasses for many years. My go to lately has been the Costa Del Mar Broadbill sunglasses.

In this article I will walk through the Costa Del Mar Broadbill sunglasses that I own and give you the good and the bad on these glasses.

Specs on the Specs

First Look of the Costa Del Mar Broadbill

Unfortunately I don’t have the packaging for the Costa Del Mar Broadbill sunglasses as I have been fishing them over over a year and it is long gone. The packaging itself is pretty simple as it is a brown cardboard type box with the glasses, case and cleaning cloth inside. Nothing too flashy and it really is what is inside that counts!

Once opening the package you find the Costa case. One you unzip and pull out the glasses you get your first look at the glasses themselves.

The design I chose is the Matte Reef with the Green Polarized Polycarbonate lenses. These frames have a cool muted look to them that pulls in a bunch of different colors. Blues, greens browns, etc.

The frames themselves have a slimmer profile along the sides then some of the other frames Costa offers. They still feature the iconic C-logo in chrome along each side marking them as Costa Del Mar.

The Broadbill frames are very light overall and with the Polycarbonate lenses, they are very light. I do like the crisp view of the glass lenses, but the polycarbonate are so light, that I love them for all day comfort. Especially when in hotter climates.

In the picture below, you can get a first look at the Costa Del Mar nose padding that they use. Feels like a rubber type of material. I’ll get into that later.

Inside of the Frames

Taking a look at the inside of the Costa Del Mar Broadbill frames, you can see the model name and number. These happen to be the Broadbill frames – BRB 253.

In that same picture above, you get a look at the frame connector. I don’t believe these are spring loaded in any way, but they do feel nice, and I have yet to have a failure at the connection area.

Taking a look at the other side, you see the Costa name with some letters and numbers. You can also see the rubber type material that runs along the bottom of the side frame running down to the ear.

Not super clear below, but you can see the end of the frame and the rubber material that will sit right on or behind your years.

The Costa Del Mar Broadbill sunglasses are touted as being “keeper ready.” They are slim at the end making them fit “most” sunglass keepers out there. If you are a sunglass keeper type of person, this is a nice feature. Personally, I am not and roll the dice every time I go out.

Looking through the Lens

As mentioned above, Costa is known for a high quality lens. The 580 are some of the leading in the industry. They offer the 580G (Glass) and the 580P (Polycarbonate). The glasses I am reviewing are the Polycarbonate version.

You can just make out the 580P at the upper left part of the lens below.

The Costa Del Mar Broadbill glasses that I have feature the Green Mirror lenses. These are a copper base lens with the green mirror finish on the outside.

You can pick up the green tint out the outside of the lens as well as the copper color looking in.

From the inside, you get a nice full copper look to them that really pulls in definition when on the water. Be it stream fishing or out in the ocean working kelp lines and structure, these really cut through the glare and let you see down into the water nicely. You get a good feel for the copper tone in the image below.

How the Polycarbonate Lenses are Built.

Costa Del Mar uses a multi-piece sandwiching process to build their lenses. It is similar in both the glass and polycarbonate lenses. Here is a graphic directly from their site on the sandwiching process that they use on the Poly lenses.

The Bad

I have now owned roughly 12 pairs of Costa Del Mar sunglasses in my life. I fish a lot and rely on a great pair of glasses. They aren’t the only glasses that I wear, but they get worn a lot.

The only real issue that I have found with EVERY pair of Costa Del Mar sunglasses that I have owned is the rubber sections coming free from the frames. This is the behind the ear pieces as well as the nose piece. Usually a couple of dabs of superglue and you are good to go.

Here are a couple of shots of this pair and the nose pad area coming loose.

As mentioned, this pair is about a year old and have traveled the country and have seen a lot of salt and freshwater spray. And really that is the only issue I have had.

One cool thing that they did for me a couple of years ago, was that at the Miami Boat Show, they had a Costa repair booth where you could bring in your glasses and they’d repair them right on site. In my case, they popped the lenses out of the frames and inserted them into new frames and I was on my way. Really cool!

Conclusion

Overall, I really like the Costa Del Mar brand. They put out a great quality sunglass with some great features. This particular pair cost me right about $169 a year ago. There are several folks who sell Costa and you’ll probably find them for less or more than that, but check out your favorite retailer for the best deals. You can also head over to Costa Del Mar to check out the full range of Costa Del Mar sunglasses.

Comparison Shopping

Thank you for stopping by Fishing Tackle Insider to check out the Costa Del Mar Broadbill Sunglasses.