Question for tropical divers: Gloves or no gloves

[TMHeimer]

Personally, I skip the gloves in summer in Rhode Island (and the hood for that matter) unless I am expecting a exit/entry over rocks. On holiday, I’ll respect the house rules. Unfortunately, it is usually the guy that thinks the rules don’t apply to him that the rules were written for.

Just think of every instant expert you’ve ever met on a dive boat, if you think that’s not you and you should be exempted, you are him.

Agree. There is also of course that it's the owner's (or country's?) right to ban gloves. You just don't patronize them.

 

[miked]

I wear gloves but don't touch. I wear the gloves because, as others have said, (I have seen) people get "splinters" from old mooring lines, get cut from ??? on lines and chains, and get stung by "man o war" tentacles that somehow got caught on a line (I didn't know that they could still sting.)
BTW in each case this occurred either during descent, ascent, or safety stop, where the dive op told us to hold onto the line due to currents.

 

[EastEndDiver]

Most of my diving is in Cayman where gloves are forbidden by the Country and the dive ops I dive with ....I keep a Ziplock plastic bag in my BC pocket so if I need to hang onto an ascent line I slip it over my hand to protect my hand from anything that might be on the line I then throw the bag away after I am on the boat in the trash.

 

[Fastmarc]

Most of my diving is in Cayman where gloves are forbidden by the Country and the dive ops I dive with ....I keep a Ziplock plastic bag in my BC pocket so if I need to hang onto an ascent line I slip it over my hand to protect my hand from anything that might be on the line I then throw the bag away after I am on the boat.

You wouldn't be allowed to take gloves out of your BC and put it on to hold the line?

 

[divinh]

Most of my diving is in Cayman where gloves are forbidden by the Country and the dive ops I dive with ....I keep a Ziplock plastic bag in my BC pocket so if I need to hang onto an ascent line I slip it over my hand to protect my hand from anything that might be on the line I then throw the bag away after I am on the boat.

Um... seems wasteful with the Ziplock bag? Can't you reuse it several times?

 

[Lorenzoid]

Um... seems wasteful with the Ziplock bag? Can't you reuse it several times?

Nah. Turtles love them.

 

[CT-Rich]

Um... seems wasteful with the Ziplock bag? Can't you reuse it several times?

Having a single glove for holding a line in your BCD pocket does not seem unreasonable. I doubt anyone would say anything the one time you need it.

I did 16 dives in GC and never felt deprived without any gloves.

 

[dmaziuk]

There has been some interesting research on this, for example http://faculty.wwu.edu/~shulld/ESCI 432/BarkerRoberts2004.pdf.
The bottom line is there is more reef touching/coral breakage/environmental damage done by men than women, by photographers than by non-photographers ...

My next purchase is a reef stick. Precisely so I can anchor my camera without touching stuff, gloves or no gloves. It turns out when you try to catch cleaner shrimp on supermacro, just pressing the button creates enough motion blur to ruin most of the shots.

We once got hit with a surge and had to grab on to the wall in Costa Rica, that was the one dive where I wished I was wearing gloves.

 

[tursiops]

My next purchase is a reef stick. Precisely so I can anchor my camera without touching stuff, gloves or no gloves. It turns out when you try to catch cleaner shrimp on supermacro, just pressing the button creates enough motion blur to ruin most of the shots.

We once got hit with a surge and had to grab on to the wall in Costa Rica, that was the one dive where I wished I was wearing gloves.

Use a strobe. No motion blur. Focus problem, maybe, but not motion.

 

[dmaziuk]

Use a strobe. No motion blur. Focus problem, maybe, but not motion.

Nah, that's too much considering how much I photograph and what.