Question for tropical divers: Gloves or no gloves

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Fastmarc

Just drifting along...
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I just retweeted a tweet from NAUI with a poster recommending good diving practices to protect our reef. It had the usual good practices such as better fining (even recommending the frog kick and back kick) as well as no touching. However, it also recommends 'No Gloves' (separately) as it is felt it promotes a false sense of security which leads to touching.

Though I always practice no touching I also usually have on gloves, mostly because it does seem to make me feel a bit warmer (psychological only?) and in the very very rare chance I have to touch something (not living of course). Even if that happens, I usually get away with only needing one finger.

I'm curious, how many tropical divers are like me and prefer to dive with a glove?
Years ago when on a dive trip in Cayman, I remember one dive when it was stated 'No Gloves' allowed. This not the case in Jamaica though.
 
There's other reasons to wear gloves, other than to empower bad environmental practices.

Dive centres should address the cause, not the symptoms. The cause lays in inadequate training.

For what it's worth, I always use gloves. My preference is for 3M Comfort Grip work gloves. Very thin, excellent dexterity, very 'grippy' on wet metal and skin tight.

These give an excellent grip on metal boltsnaps (I dive tech and sidemount),when climbing boat ladders etc... They also protect from skin abrasion, cuts and stings... all of which can happen without going anywhere near coral. When fingers get water-soaked and wrinkled they easily get damaged... and that can lead to infections etc.
 
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From my experience, there is a "No Gloves" policy in Cozumel as well. I do normally wear gloves but they are really unnecessary in tropical waters.
 
It's been my experience, for certain types of divers, gloves encourage touching, for whatever reason.

When I worked on Koh Tao the general rule was "no touching and no gloves." Although I did sometimes wear 2mm gloves during the winter months. 4 dives a day gets cold.

Out of hundreds of dives, just a small handful of fun divers had their own gloves and I only had to warn one person to stop touching things.
 
Part of the reason I like tropical diving is that I don't like to wear gloves, along with all the other exposure protection required up north. I'll allow there are sometimes reasons it is a good idea, such as needing to hang onto a nasty anchor line (tucking gloves in a pocket in case of something like this seems like a good compromise) or maybe the rare person that has some medical reason to need them. Other than special cases I don't get even wanting to wear them. Touching down is certainly helpful sometimes, especially in current areas, but I think a properly used reef stick or hook is a better solution.

It would be nice if all divers could be trusted to not grab the reef, gloves or not. But we all know that is not the case, and I understand why some places think the rule is a good idea. Maybe the rule makes careful divers even more careful. I'm not sure how much it helps in other cases, as the same people that really shouldn't wear gloves are probably leaving a trail of destruction with their fins or other ways.
 
I'll admit, though I swear it makes me feel warmer I know it probably doesn't do a thing to keep me warm. It more likely linked to the fact that I do like wearing gloves. If I could get away with it I would wear one all the time, but that's my OCD talking.
 
The only reason I can see for gloves is if the site requires you to pull down or up a line due to current. After they've been in the water for a while they can have things growing on them which will cut or sting you.
 
I always wear gloves (of 3 different varieties) and won't ever dive anywhere that prohibits them. A few ago summers my brother and I were diving in Long I. Sound where he was using his knife to dig clams. He said man I wish I had your reef gloves on.
 

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