Buying Gloves For a Galapagos trip

[peterbj7]

Get kneepads sewn on by a suit maker, who will also seal the stitching. You don't want to glue the patches on as they'll stop the knees flexing properly. All my drysuits (3 of them) had kneepads from new.

Polarised sunglasses should actually be called polarising sunglasses, and if you want to understand how they work I suggest you look them up on Wikipedia. What they do for you is that they greatly reduce reflected glare, which when you're looking at the surface of water can often remove the surface reflection and allow you to see the bottom. Very popular used as filters on SLR cameras (and on those rare compacts that have a means of attaching a filter).

I can't believe there's anyone who hasn't heard of polarising sunglasses!

I stick to what I said earlier about suits. If you get cold then take a drysuit (with undersuit), or you'll be miserable after your first dive of the day. If you don't know how cold you get then start comparing yourself with other people in normal life, noting what you wear to feel comfortable compared with other people. If you decide to use a drysuit make SURE it fits you properly, especially that the integral boots are not too big and the legs aren't too long, and of course get good training.

 

[oceancat]

As the previous poster said, have the manufacturer put on knee pads--that way it's not going to void your warranty and it will have been done properly. My suit is a DUI suit and they put on the pads before delivery.

Have you decided if you are flying into Guyaquil or Quito? We are going to Quito, but now I am nervous about missing the boat, so wondering if we should get over to Guyaquil before our trip (we are going out a week before our diving to go to the jungle and stay in the Andes).

 

[gravity]

what are polarized sunglasses?

They are sunglasses that reduce the glare off of the surface of the water and allow you to look better in to the water when on the surface....Cheap polarising sunglasses are available on almost any cheap sunglass rack. Just look for a sticker on the sunglasses that say they are polarising.

 

[tracydr]

The best purchase I made for my trip was a 3mm pair of kevlar gloves. Holding onto those barnacle coated rocks in a rough current can be hard on gloves and mine still look brand new!

 

[tracydr]

I am not a drysuit diver, but I'll toss out my .02. Sure, I can see it puncturing. Many of the dives are grab, hold, kneel and brace with knees while you watch the show. The rocks are covered with barnacles (I mangled my kevlar gloves while I was there). Wolf and Darwin were more than comfortable in a wetsuit (no one in our group of 28 wore a drysuit). I wore a 5/4 Pinnacle and was so hot I only dove with a hood once while there. If I didn't need to hang on to rocks, I wouldn't have worn the gloves. My wife, who is cold at 90 degrees wore a 7 mil henderson hyperstretch and 3 mil hood and was plenty fine on every dive except gordon rocks, which I will agree was cold (but there was essentially nothing to see so I would skip the dive next time anyway). You won't find anything close to low 60's water at wolf and darwin. Lowest temp I recorded was 74 and a couple as warm as 78. Even gordon rocks dropped only to 66 and that was as cold as we saw. Again, I know nothing about dry suit diving, but 12 dives strikes me as not quite enough when dealing with the challenges that the Galapagos can throw at you. Just my .02. In any event, its a trip of a lifetime, so have a great time!

When did you go?* I am going in late June and was told that it is going to be cold season there that time of year.* That is why I bought the suit and am getting certified in it.* My plan is to find out the water temps of the various dive sites and if it is above 70, to wear my 7 mm and if it is below 70 then the drysuit.* So I will have options.* Otherwise I abort dives when I am too cold, and I SURE don't want to do that on this trip of a lifetime!

Just got back. Late June trip. Temps were warmer then normal for this time of year, high 70's. We saw as high as 78 and as low as 74. Average was 76. Wolf and Darwin were 76-78 and they thought we wouldn't see whale sharks because of it. (they only saw one on all the boats the week before) but we got to see 6 on only 2 dives, had to go back because of a diver with DCS, different story)
Dive safe, there is no way to evacuate you out there, no helicopter, nothing and it's a really long boat ride back if you get bent!!!!!

 

[occrider]

Would you all recommend using a reef hook or are the currents so strong that you're just going to have to grab on with both hands and hug the rock?

Also what are the dive profiles like? Is nitrox recommended?

 

[fairybasslet]

There were a couple of people using reef hooks, most notably the guides. They sure would have come in handy for photographing. I brought gardening gloves with leather palms and they worked great. I had read something once about some kevlar gloves that come apart. I couldn't remember the brand. I know some other people I trust said they were great. I guess it depends upon the brand.

Tracy I read your story about the DCS diver on the other thread. The week we were there, one of the guides came down with a sinus infection and couldn't dive. So for 14 divers, we had one guide, and he was the one doing the video too. Good thing we were all pretty experienced. But like you say, even with experience, stuff happens. I remember the guide telling us about someone who had died out at Darwin. Very sad.

 

[ChrisM]

I wouldn't bring a reef hook (well, I take that back, first trip I did bring a reef hook, and it stayed in the dive locker, didn't bring it at all on my second trip). There is plenty of terrain to hold onto, and it's not like Palau where you have to watch out for live coral, you just hunker behind a rock in Galapagos, wedge your feet in, hold on with one hand if you have a camera, two if you don't.

More reasons not to have reef hooks:
- when the DM sees a whale shark he'll bang his tank and if you want to see it, you better be ready to scoot right off the rocks, not mess around with unhooking yourself then swimming hard with loose line, etc.
- for photography reef hooks do nothing. I used them in Palau. The animals you want to see (hammers, galapagos sharks, WS - swim upcurrent. With a reef hook, you are floating in the current and, if set up correctly, looking upcurrent - same direction as the animals. You will have to turn around to see them coming, and then add a little sail with the camera. Way too unwieldy.
-- if you're with other divers, you're gonna piss them off. Reef hooks tend to float you more into the water column. Hammers do not like divers floating in the water column and won't come close. They will only come close (as a general rule) if you are down hidden behind rocks and they can't see you until it's too late.

I can't see a good reason for a guest on a boat to use one. DMs may use them because they are swimming around all the time anyway, and they probably just can't afforc to keep buying new gloves, imagine diving there week after week after week....... Plus they are highly skilled in those water.
My .02, YMMV etc.

 

[cowjazz]

On our trip last year, the owner of the LDS leading our trip suggested everyone purchase reef hooks. Being the good sheep that we are, we complied.

On the last night we had the chef on our boat boil the reef hooks, and serve them to the LDS owner for his dinner. That was his punishment for the lousy advice on the reef hooks.

 

[fairybasslet]

Well, the people using them sure did make it look easy. One was the DM and I still can't figure out who the other one was because the other DM got sick and stopped diving. I can't remember if I saw them after he stopped. But if I'm thinking it was the two of them, then you're right. They are highly skilled in those waters. I felt like a clumsy idiot 80 percent of the time.