Advise for Dealing With Extremely Cold Hands

[TSandM]

The Viking bayonet ring system mounts on the suit seals, so it would be usable on a rental suit, as long as the shop didn't mind having them put on. When I demoed the Fusion, I put rings on it for the day, and took them off to return it.

I have Reynaud's, too, and no wet glove combination keeps my hands from being painful in the winter in the Sound.

 

[PinkPADIgal]

I would consider the Whites heat glove. They seal pretty good, and for a wet glove, they work great in Puget Sound. They are a bit difficult to get into, but once hands are in, hands will stay warmer than regular 5mm wet gloves.

http://www.whitesdiving.com/index.php?site=4&id=118&cid=285

 

[weaserm99]

I recently did some ice diving, water temp about 35 degrees, i went with a drysuit but was wearing henderson gold core 7mm gloves, i was really worried about my hands being cold and not being able to dive the maximum amount allowed, by the end of the dive they were pulling us out of the water. On my second dive of the day i used some older style sherwood 7mm mitts, my hands were much colder than the first dive. I would definity reccomend the gold core gloves for that temperature if someones hands get really cold.

 

[Lursxt]

The OP stated that she would be going for her OW cert. Dealing with doing your drills, combined with using a drysuit, combined with dealing with the drygloves sounds like too much task loading for a newbie. I recently started using the si-tech gloves. They're great, but they take some tweaking. The worry is that she'll be too focused on the drygloves and not on completing the drills. I would recommend a 7 mil glove also. Try the henderson gold core 7mill 5 fingered glove. They're expensive at around $60-75, but they're excellent. I use them diving wet and have gone down to 41deg with them. At that temp I lasted about 35-40minutes before numbness set in. Above 50deg I never get cold. I'm going to use them diving dry when water temps get above 50 deg.

 

[Rick Inman]

I have the same problem, even with dry gloves. But here are some things I do.

Start with warm hands. Letting your hands get cold before you put them into the gloves cuts the time down in the water before they go numb. I wear a warm ski-type glove out of the water before suiting up and keep them on until the last second before I put on the diving gloves and get right into the water.

Pre-warm the gloves. I keep a tub of HOT water, and pre-soak my hands in the hot water right before getting in.

Good circulation. With dry gloves, I make sure there is good air flow to the hands. With wet gloves, I'd make sure the gloves are a good fit so the water isn't being exchanges, but not too tight that the blood flow is cut off.

Limit your dive time. With Reynaud's, for me it's like a switch goes off at about 47 mins in water temps below 40 degrees, so I plan my dive times to be shorter in the winter.

And most important, keep the core warm. With Reynaud's, when the core gets cold, the flow of warm blood to the hands and feet shuts down. Start with a warm body before the dive and have good core insulation.

I do all this (dry diving) and still have dives in the winter where my entire body is nice and toasty, but my hands hurt. It's what I live with to dive in the cold. But doing the things listed above have helped me a lot.

 

[shurite7]

My hands are very susceptable to the cold even in nice 5 or 7mm gold core gloves.

Last summer I made a dive in Yellowstone Lake to about 50' for 35 minutes. Water temp was 39 or 41 (depending on who's computer you looked at) and my hands froze. I was miserable and I couldn't even push the inflator button on my drysuit nor get out of my gear by myself.

Initially I did not want to go on the next dive but someone offered my a set of Scuba XS dry gloves. What a difference they made. We went to 112' and the entire dive was 46 minutes. I would say the gloves are actually semi-dry unless you have a perfect seal, nonetheless, my hands survived.

A couple of weeks ago I made 3 dives in Possession Sound and the gloves kept my hands fairly warm. Personally, I don't think there is a glove that will keep your (at least mine) hands perfectly warm, even hiking in the mountains during the winter my hands get cold.

Good luck.

Chris

 

[Josh818]

A buddy of mine has a pair of heated gloves that are ran by a battery pack that he just tucks in the pocket of his thermo suit.. he never complains of cold hands... he uses dry gloves also..of course...

Josh

 

[Bill_PNW_Diver]

Update...

Thanks everybody for the great advice!

My girlfriend did the first two open wather dives today and did really well. I took the advise from the board and brought a cooler of warm water to soak the neoprine gloves & hood in and she was fine. No white hands!


Bill

 

[spectrum]

Awesome!

If she goes forward with wet gloves be sure she gets gauntlet style. The extended coverage lessens the water exchange and provides more protection over the wrist blood vessels. They seem to work best on a neoprene sealed dry suit. Get them a tad big so there is a little water volume in the palm that will warm. Flexing the fingers will circulate that outward.

Pete

 

[potablewater]

White's Heat Glove!

All the best,
Geoff