The Costa Del Mar Corbina PRO sunglasses have become my new favorite frame of all time. In the interest of full disclosure, Costa sent me this pair to test. And, in the interest of integrity, I put them through the absolute wringer the last 3 months.
The Corbina PROs have been my daily wear shades, keeping them in the car and putting them on to start most every day, whether that day’s activities involved driving, working in the yard, a date night or out on the water with a rod in my hand, doing what they were truly designed to do. I have been very pleased with this pair of Costas in particular, and here’s why.
LARGER FRAME
If you read my review a little while back on the Costa Reefton PROs, those shades garnered pretty high praise from me as well. The main reason for my fondness of both those frames and these is their size. The Corbina PROs (like the Reefton PROs) carry the designation of X-Large in regards to the frame. This is extremely important to me, as I have a big head that most sunglasses, and hats for that matter, do not fit.
Costa has a more scientific way on their site of measuring your head to determine the size frame you’ll need, but for quick math, most snapback hats fit my head using just the last one, or maybe two pegs to secure them. The Corbina PROs fit my head nicely, without putting any pressure on my ears or pinching my head. Glasses that are too tight do this, and give me a pretty bad headache if I wear them for long.
ROUND DESIGN WORKS FOR MOST
It’s important to note that even though these frames fit my big head well, it doesn’t mean they’ll be too big for someone less blessed in the cranium department. These frames actually fit a slightly smaller (normal) size head well too. Costa pulled this off by incorporating flex hinges into these frames, as well as the others in their PRO Series.
These flexible hinges create kind of a one-size-fits-many feel to them. Now, if you have a particularly small head, you’ll want to look for a different frame size. But, these aren’t just for big headed individuals like myself, and I believe they’ll fit some smaller heads and then flex out to fit the larger ones. One thing to note, the hinges do click when they flex. Don’t let this alarm you. We bought my dad some (at a discount through a retailer I work with), and they also click when they flex. So this is normal. Note two, dad’s head is a little smaller than mine and he’s a big fan of this size frame as well.
UPGRADES WORK ON PROS
It’s good that dad came up in writing this, because I want to circle back to the Reefton PROs for a minute, the ones I reviewed a while back. Those were sent to me by Costa for free as well, and then dad ended up buying some too. We both really liked those frames as well, but we both found that we like the Corbina PROs even better. Here’s why.
The Reeftons were great, with a lot of the same new features as the Corbina PROs. And they were a far cry better than the half dozen pairs of 10 dollar sunglasses I had worn the previous several years prior to getting the Reeftons. But it wasn’t until the Corbina PROs came in and I put them on that I realized, the Reeftons were a little larger and heavier.
If you like a taller lens and frame, you may like the Reeftons better. But for me, they slid down my nose a bit and I found myself needing to push them back up regularly. Again, this wasn’t even something I noticed until I put the Corbina PROs on and they just stayed in place.
The lens being a little shorter on the Corbina PROs (37.4 mm, as compared to the 44.9 mm Reeftons) also allows the top of the glasses to sit just in line with my eyebrows, where the Reeftons topped out above my eyebrows. When swapping back and forth between the two, I can tell a difference in the amount of light that gets in, and the Corbina PROs win out here, as they kind of sit up in the pocket of my eyes better than the Reeftons.
Now, this will no doubt vary from one person to the next based on the structure of your cheekbones. But for me, this is one of the main reasons the Corbina PROs beat out the Reefton PROs, this and their overall weight being lighter.
SPECS ON CORBINA PROS
The lenses are made from 580G polarized glass. The frame fit is “regular” and the size is again XL. These shades, as well as the others in the PRO Series, come with fully customizable nose pads that can be bent to fit most noses. Costa also built these shades with Hydrolite grips, which keep the Corbina PROs securely in place. And the grips have metal reinforced holes at the tips so these sunglasses can accommodate various types of cable, cloth or rope sunglass straps.
The lens curve is “Base 8 Decentered”, which (per Costa) basically means, “Frames with maximum-coverage and wrap that help reduce light leak.” This is what I was talking about earlier with how the glasses wrap around my eyes well and fit the shape of my face to prevent light from leaking in.
There are two frame colors available in the Corbina Pros, Matte Black and Metallic Silver, with 5 lens color options in the black and 3 in the silver frames. I went with a Matte Black frame and Copper Silver Mirror Polarized Glass lenses, since I would be mostly using these for bass fishing and driving, and they work the best in the widest range of conditions in my opinion.
It was apparent from the onset of this review that I was going to give the Costa Corbina PROs a big thumbs up. But hopefully I did a good job of explaining why that is. These are an investment if you decide to buy a pair, at around $270. But, throughout daily use of more than 95 days by a generally accident prone individual, the Corbina PROs have garnered barely a scuff and are still flexing, fitting and functioning like new.
