Buying Gloves For a Galapagos trip

[ChrisM]

We stayed at the Dann Carlton in Quito both on the way in and the way out. invoice says it was $650 for 2 people for 4 nights (not consecutive), including breakfast and transfers. We booked our trip through an agent so don't know if that's the going rate.

Left some luggage there when we went to the Galapagos and our dive stuff when we went to the jungle.

Previously, we stayed at the Alta, but the dive company changed to a "safer" part of town. oth were pretty close to shopping, eating, etc.

 

[becky_scuba]

3 weeks ago. 70-75 in June in the northern islands.

Do you know what the june temp is for the rest of the islands?

 

[becky_scuba]

No problem with the gloves, gallery here: Underwater Planet Galleries :: Galapagos Islands, Ecuador 2005

I wouldn't bring a drysuit. A friend did the first year and regretted it, blew a neck seal. Not to mention the barnacles present a very real danger fo ripping it up; very hard to swim after a whale shark with the drysuit drag, and frankly, it's only cold at the southern islands, where on most itineraries you'll likely do 6 or so dives (at Mosquera, Cousin's, and Gordon's) Wolf /Darwin are in the mid 70s.

WOW! I just looked at your pics and they are AWESOME! I have been working on my photograhy & trying to improve it before this big trip. I have taken a class & it really helped a lot of my recent trip to Belize. Are you a photographer for a living or is this just for fun for you?

 

[peterbj7]

I've not been to Galapagos so I can only speak from other people's reports. For the sort of abrasive conditions you'll experience I'd think there's a considerable risk of puncturing the suit. Nylon/trilaminate suits are quite fragile. The ideal is crushed neoprene, but it's heavy and bulky to fly with. I have a suit that's 3mm thick after compression and has a kevlar shell bonded to the outside. I would say it's unpuncturable. But it's VERY heavy so I never fly with it.

If you know you have a tendency towards feeling cold I'd take the drysuit with a decent Thinsulate undersuit. But do make sure you've had thorough training with it first. And take a tube of Aquaseal for running repairs if necessary. Don't bother about wrist and neck seals - if they fail you won't be able to replace them. But if the suit is new and well fitted to you they should last a long long time if you don't abuse them. I've tried all sorts (I have over 1500 drysuit dives and several drysuits) and I favour neoprene wrist and neck seals over latex - they're much more comfortable and last longer. They also don't suddenly fail as latex can.

 

[oceancat]

Hi. I don't know if you have tried this, but i have friends that dive just about year round in New England in wetsuits and they wear wool long johns underneath their 7mm wetsuits. They even wear thin wool socks. Wool is warm when wet, so it could help you with not having to abort dives because you are cold.

 

[peterbj7]

I used to dive a lot off the coast of (old) England, and like most divers I used a drysuit year-round. There was a handful of divers who used semi-drys, and at the start of a diving day they were always chipper and bullish. The pattern of the day was a morning dive typically followed by a 2+ hour interval back on the boat when we'd relocate, first to quiet water for lunch, then to the second dive site. I cannot recall a single instance when someone who had done the first dive wet went in for the second. They'd just lost too much heat during the dive and the surface interval.

If the OP knows she has a tendency towards feeling cold then I think on this particular trip diving wet is not for her, however thick and well fitted the suit may be.

 

[ChrisM]

WOW! I just looked at your pics and they are AWESOME! I have been working on my photograhy & trying to improve it before this big trip. I have taken a class & it really helped a lot of my recent trip to Belize. Are you a photographer for a living or is this just for fun for you?

Thanks. Just an expensive hobby

Just keep taking pics, you'll get better

 

[gravity]

Hi,
I get cold very quickly when I dive, so I almost took my dry suit. But I took a 7mm instead and I was fine the whole time with my hood on. The currents can be challenging, but I think the swimming kept me warm. I wore 5mm gloves that lasted the whole trip. Take polarized sunglasses, too!

 

[becky_scuba]

Hi. If you don't have kneepads on your suit, you may want to get them for protection for the suit. I find that diving dry at depth (80+ feet) takes getting used to and practice (since your buoyance is controlled differently than wet). It is different than diving shallow with a drysuit. When I switched to dry, it took a good 10-12 dives to really get comfortable (and that was without the current). I find diving dry in current to be a little more challenging than wet because you aren't as streamlined. It can be done but it is harder. If you don't have zip seals, make sure you are comfortable replacing the seals before you go. It will take a couple of days to replace the seals (by the time the adhesives dry properly). I think having your wetsuit is a good backup.

How do you get kneepads? I was told that If I glue anything on the suit then it voids the warranty. Also, when I spoke to my dive instructor about my concerns of tearing my suit, he suggested that I consider getting one of those suits that men wear outside in the cold to work in....(Can't think of the name of it.....) but I think that would be too bulky......what do you think of that?

 

[becky_scuba]

Hi,
I get cold very quickly when I dive, so I almost took my dry suit. But I took a 7mm instead and I was fine the whole time with my hood on. The currents can be challenging, but I think the swimming kept me warm. I wore 5mm gloves that lasted the whole trip. Take polarized sunglasses, too!

what are polarized sunglasses?