Drygloves

[FishDiver]

My BARE drusuit came with a dryglove kit which I have never used. The water temp where I dive rarely gets below 14 degrees and I have been warm enough with the cheap cotton fishing gloves I normally. wear.

Do Monterey drysuit divers commonly wear drygloves or thick neoprene?

 

[fobturbo]

Fishdiver,

I just got my DS recently, and am still using my wet neoprene gloves from before. I plan to get DS gloves soon. I've noticed a lot of DS divers using DS gloves. From what I've heard, few people use DS neoprene gloves, the preference is the latex ones.

 

[astrofunk]

Do Monterey drysuit divers commonly wear drygloves or thick neoprene?

Yup, dry gloves are common among drysuit divers in Monterey -- though certainly not a necessity. Wet gloves are probably slightly more common. I only recently made the switch to dry gloves myself; most of my buddies dive dry, but with wet gloves.

 

[Gombessa]

If I go drygloves it will be because:

1) my wrist seals leak a bit when I try to reach valves or bolt snaps on my harness.

2) the rings seem like they would do a decent job protecting the seals, which seem to suffer more abrasion/abuse than most other parts of the suit

I dive with 5mm neoprene gloves, and my hands have rarely felt cold.

 

[Peter_C]

I dive with dry gloves and can not imagine going back to wet gloves in sub 55 degree water. I also have arthritis and keeping the hands warm makes for a much more enjoyable dive.

By the time you are at 5mm wet gloves the dexterity is about the same as a properly fitting dry glove.

 

[Gombessa]

By the time you are at 5mm wet gloves the dexterity is about the same as a properly fitting dry glove.

Ah, that probably explains why many of the regular divers I know choose 3mm wet gloves (and complain about the cold) over dry. It's significantly more difficult to do anything requiring finger dexterity in 5-6mm gloves.

 

[Peter_C]

Ryan loves his XS Scuba neoprene dry gloves, but they feel like they have less dexterity than my dry gloves.

When I used to wear 3mm gloves, I put latex gloves under them which helped keep the water exchange down, and my hands would only get freezing cold, not numb cold.

 

[Hinalo]

I'm thinking of switching to drygloves because, like Gombessa, I get some leakage from my right hand wrist seal, probably from fumbling with valves. It's not a lot, but I find I'm wringing out my forearm undergarment after dives. My TLS 350 has zip seals so I could easily attach zip gloves. I haven't found that my current 4mm wet gloves impair my dexterity.

My concern, aside from dexterity issues, is that a glove puncture (like from an urchin) could flood the suit. I see that DUI has a wrist dam feature option in their orange and blue zip gloves which is supposed to protect the rest of the suit.

Does anyone here have experinece with either of these gloves? If so how do you like them? I do spend a lot of time taking pictures, and the DUI rep I talked to said the orange gloves would probably be better for me because of this. Any advice will be gratefully appreciated.
Thanks, Jeff

 

[fobturbo]

Hinalo,

Just throwing out another option--some of the DS divers I know use Diving Concepts drygloves with rings. They can be used in conjunction of DUI's zipseals. Price is ~$150 from Anywater Sports installed, in Saratoga. They come in orange, smurf blue and I think there's even a neoprene option. I have not got these installed yet, but I plan to at some point.

Dry Glove and Wrist System

matt

 

[Peter_C]

Jeff, Dara tried a pair of the zip gloves and hated them because they are permanently attached to the drysuit. Hard to do things like zip yourself up with gloves already on. The most common way to add dry gloves is ringed systems. SI Tech, Diving Concepts, and Viking along with some rebranded ring sets are the top players. Bob3 on this board is a Viking dealer and comes well respected.

Bob3's dry glove webpage: Viking Bayonet Dry Glove Ring Kits

"Stripped" Viking Bayonet Ring Kit: $85 then you simply buy a couple of pairs of gloves from Seattle Marine. The 495 blue smurf gloves are commonly used, along with even less expensive gloves and liners.
495 GLOVE PVC BL REMOV LIN - Gloves - Seattle Marine