II am headed to the Galapagos in May..
I've been to Galapagos and you are 100% CORRECT, that most gloves won't even last 3 days in the swirling currents and underwater back & forth swells gripping rocks to hang on. The gloves that all of us took on the trip are Hexamor 9016. The three key features of this glove we love are:
* Indestructable palm and finger tips made of NEEDLE proof superfabric kevlar. (these are actually hospital waste gloves)
* The palm coating is not slippery nor knitted. It's nitrile so it has the perfect amount of 'grippy-ness' for camera buttons
* The price is just $19 and after you get home, you'll swear you would have paid double for them, no problem.
- Only bad thing is zero insulation if that matters to you.
I get about 250 dives and then the coating starts to wear thin and I change them out cause they are so cheap. I've never worn a hole in the finger tips nor been able to rip them. The knitted fabric kevlar type finger tips, I can't use to press my tiny camera button adjustments and turn the ISO wheelie thing on my housing.
To break them in and loosen them up......{don't laugh}...Take 2 showers with them in the morning well before your trip. Then take a red hot common nail and burn/melt a hole where the inside of your wrist is on the glove. Use this to attach to a double ender clip on your BCD 'D' ring and you'll never lose them on the boat.
HexAmor's almost exact PDF sizing chart is here:
https://cdn.hexarmor.com/pdf/78cca40c-b4e3-4e02-b7c6-3a548a9b8e82.pdf
Make sure they are #9016. They are sold all over the internet, but I get mine from Safety Company cause they ship the same day so you'll have them in plenty of time.
HexArmor 9016 9000 Series L5 Cut and Abrasion Resistant Gloves
I'm diving Jupiter again tomorrow reaching in rocks to go lobster hunting. These gloves in this picture below are on my rig and have about 125 dives on them. You can probably tell, but we all love these gloves down here. You're gonna love Galapagos, write up a trip report and post it here !!