Cozumel Gloves/Knife

[ggunn]

[...]
However, I certainly also have to concede that the park people are certainly not the same people who make decisions about cruise ship piers.

Maybe that's a problem.

Without a doubt, the cruise ship biz moves more money around than the dive biz, and those people could give a flying f about what things are like below the water line. Guess who wins.

 

[doole]

Without a doubt, the cruise ship biz moves more money around than the dive biz, and those people could give a flying f about what things are like below the water line. Guess who wins.

True, but archtypical short-term thinking. (On their part I mean, not yours.) :07:

If the underwater environment is gone - can Coz really survive economically without divers?

 

[Fin59]

Without a doubt, the cruise ship biz moves more money around than the dive biz, and those people could give a flying f about what things are like below the water line. Guess who wins.

Yep, the peso usually wins everytime.

 

[ggunn]

True, but archtypical short-term thinking. (On their part I mean, not yours.) :07:

If the underwater environment is gone - can Coz really survive economically without divers?

Unfortunately for divers, probably so. On a typical midday stroll through the streets of Cozumel, what percentage of the folks you encounter do you figure to be divers? I don't know, either, but I'd wager it to be pretty low.

That's not entirely a bad thing; if all those people were out on the reefs every day, then it would be a mess out there. But still, I'm pretty sure that surface tourism economically and numerically is much bigger than the dive community on Cozumel.

 

[RonFrank]

Man what a joke. I wish it wasn't so late and I could rant and think of a good analogy but killing the gloves does nothing. I guess if I grab the reef with my bare hand (painful maybe) then it will do less damage than with the glove? It is about control...hell what about fins? Grrrr.........

Thanks for the heads up - guess I can return my new gloves and BC knife I got especially for this trip and do more research first.

I discovered recently that even in 60F water I did not need gloves. Started with a 5mm pair, switched to a 2mm pair, decided to try none, and no problems, my hands did not get cold.

I guess I might understand why a DM or instructor would want them being in the water many hours a day.. but then again I was in 60F water for several hours, and my hands did not get cold without gloves.

protection from the reef seems to be about the only reason. But if you need protection from the reef that would indicate that you are touching it.

 

[Rondo]

I like gloves on wrecks only,but I always carry my shark knife,it comes in handy for stabbing my buddy in the leg and swimming off really fast.

 

[Coffeyman]

I discovered recently that even in 60F water I did not need gloves. Started with a 5mm pair, switched to a 2mm pair, decided to try none, and no problems, my hands did not get cold.

I guess I might understand why a DM or instructor would want them being in the water many hours a day.. but then again I was in 60F water for several hours, and my hands did not get cold without gloves.

protection from the reef seems to be about the only reason. But if you need protection from the reef that would indicate that you are touching it.

I appreciate your response, but please be aware that each person has his/her tolerances for "cold". I personally am more comfortable on multi-tank dives wearing gloves. I don't think it is fair to say that just because I would like to wear gloves during my dives that I am touching the reef or need protection from the reef.

 

[RP Diver]

The only time I have ever used my knife underwater, it was to sharpen my pencil when I broke the lead. I have never yet gotten entangled, but I rarely dive in an environment where that hazard exists (I realize that there are such places, but I don't think that Cozumel is one such). I have yet to experience the need to draw my knife to defend myself from any sort of marine creature. (that's a joke :azvatar: )

I don't wear gloves on any warm water dives. In fact, I rarely wore them when I was diving extensively here in the Colorado area. My last few trips to the islands I haven't even worn my 3mil shorty, just my swim trunks. I like to be as unencumbered as possible, so such things as gloves in warm water are, IMO entirely unnecessary. Someone said earlier that he uses one glove to put his hand down on the sand??? I guess I don't see the need for a glove for that. I touch sand all the time, even dig in for drag on occasion, bare handed. I don't touch coral, I do tunnels and swim throughs whenever I can. The whole point is to interact passively with the environment, and IMO, gloves just tend to make people feel that they can touch things with impunity (that's not aimed at anyone posting here, just a general tendency that I've observed in less aware divers) . Bare handed, you touch something you shouldn't, you will likely pay for it with varying degrees of pain. Divers learn faster to look, but don't touch when they go bare handed.

I have no problem with either rule for diving in Cozumel, or for that matter, most of the Caribbean diving I've done.

 

[miketsp]

On the gloves issue, I normally feel the cold (maybe not the case in Coz) on long multiple dives so when I dive parks that have a no-gloves rule I have a pair of cycling gloves.
These are neoprene with velcro on the back, very short open fingers and a small leather area on the palm.
The fingers are practically completely exposed so I'm not going to grab any coral or be tempted to pick things up.
The sensation is like diving without gloves so you do take more care.
OTOH by covering the back of the hand they do cut down well on heat loss and a couple of times when I've needed to fend off sharp bits on boats or piers I could do so carefully with the leather on the palm. I never had any objections to these.
To any inspector watching through binoculars (common at many parks) it looks like you're not wearing gloves and the boat doesn't get fined.
The funny thing is that they only cost 1/4 of what a diving glove costs.
Is it production scale?

 

[hogpark7430]

I carry a knife just in case I have to defuse a nuke while on a dive; I can't remember is it the green or red wire you cut? Also James Bond always needs a knife while diving. :54: