Recommendations on diving gloves

[rileymartin]

Hi,

I bought a drysuit with latex seals and needed to get a good pair of gloves. I'll be diving in the dutch springs rock quarry in May and wreck dives off the south coast of Long Island, NY after that. Thanks for any recommendations.

Riley

 

[keithdiver]

Hi,

I bought a drysuit with latex seals and needed to get a good pair of gloves. I'll be diving in the dutch springs rock quarry in May and wreck dives off the south coast of Long Island, NY after that. Thanks for any recommendations.

Riley

Look at the waterproof line of gloves I know a few people who have drysuits and use them, they say they like them better than drysuit gloves and they cost about $50.00 Look for them at Indian valley Scuba:cool2:

 

[Bubbletrubble]

Borrow a dive buddy's drygloves if you get the chance. The system that I use (Viking Bayonet) can be mounted on any wrist latex seal without altering the drysuit permanently in any way.

Before trying them out for myself, I viewed drygloves as a failure point. All it took was one demo dive to change my mind. My hands never felt warmer and more dexterous on a dive.

Prices vary for dryglove systems. Expect to pay $100-$150 for a set that includes the suit rings and glove rings. Several systems allow the use of inexpensive PVC gloves (most commonly used are the Atlas brand -- blue or orange) that sell for $4-$5/pair. I end up replacing the gloves after using them for a little over a year.

 

[a22shady]

I dive there all the time, Last year I used 5mm Akon'a throughout the year. My hands got cold toward end of dive in beigining of the season but later the water warms up they were fine. I Also bought a Pair of Henderson 5finger 7mm Gloves which worked very well for wet gloves. I dove with them 2 weeks ago did a 35min dive and my hands stayed fine untill about 25-28min into dive on way back then they started to feel the cold. Water mp was about 42-44 and overall dexterity with the Hyperstretch gloves was not that much worse then the 5mm Akona's. You can get these glove online for about 25.00. I also just purchased a set of Dry gloves that have not gotten to use yet. But if your hands tend to get cold easily. Henderson Hypertretch gloves are really Nice.

 

[elan]

Hi,

I bought a drysuit with latex seals and needed to get a good pair of gloves. I'll be diving in the dutch springs rock quarry in May and wreck dives off the south coast of Long Island, NY after that. Thanks for any recommendations.

Riley

both DC and Si-Techs are great, and share popularity here. One person I know who had bigger hands and could not fit through them got a Viking set

Si-Techs require more caution when donning especially in winter

If you are ok with having your hands in cold water for long periods of time 5 mil mits or 5 finger wet gloves might work as well I cannot use wet gloves uch as my hands become very dry after the dive in wet gloves so I use dry gloves even in warm water

 

[Wayne at DiveSeekers]

For Dry Gloves, a lot of our dives go with Si-Techs. This design allows for you to take them on and off without effecting the integrity of the seal.

For a really warm wet glove, I prefer Hightide's. We're going to try and add them to our site this week. Hightide uses a great quality neoprene, kevlar fingers and palms and the fingers are prebent. These gloves have outlasted any other glove that I have used. They also have the warmest hood on the market.

 

[ERP]

I'd go with dry gloves, I have both the Si-Tech and DC Dry glove systems, both can be mounted with the seals intact. It's a lot easier to replace the gloves on the Sci-tech rings, I personally prefer the mating system on the DC gloves, but both are good systems. I also know people who dive the Viking rings and like those.
I've never found wet gloves that keep my hands warm, and I find neoprene gloves drastically reduce dexterity, but YMMV.

 

[Wetsuit 4 life]

3 finger mits

 

[Gdon]

I just got the full Si-Tech Quick Clamp System (they have other options and it can be confusing). This includes the rings combination (PN 60940, Appx $113 US) which consists of the rings (Quick Clamps) that mount on the seals at the ends of the sleeves (not permanent) and the Quick Glove Rings that you mount gloves on, and then insert into the clamps to use. I also went with the Si-Tech blue gloves (Appx $62 US) and the Si-Tech 40 g Thinsulate liners (Appx $15 US).

The system works well however if I were to do it again I would save some money and NOT purchase the gloves and liners from Si-Tech. For one thing the $65 Si-Tech outer gloves are not size matched to the rings. The wrist area of the gloves is a good deal larger than the rings so it is hard to mount them without getting a fold, and a fold will cause a leak. For that kind of money I would have thought that Si-Tech would supply gloves that taper in the wrist area to be a better fit to the rings.

In fact I used a pair of 80 g Thinsulate gloves (Size L) I got at WalMart for about $10 and a pair of rubber gloves at a tile store for $2 (Size 12). The rubber gloves are not as thick or strong but they are cheap and in my recreational non-demanding dives they work fine. Again if I tear them it is not a problem for the diving I do, however your situation might be different and worth spending ~$60 more. The tough part for me was finding gloves the right size. The liner has to fit on your hand and then your hand with the liner needs to fit in the outer glove without too much difficulty. The Si-Tech rings work with any gloves that have at least one smooth external surface and I have even seem people using dish washing gloves (again on non-critical dives)

 

[Gdon]

Clarification added 25 April:
While the cheap tile gloves do fit the rings better (in the wrist area) I should caution that theses gloves (being one or two sizes bigger than the liner) have extended fingers, and this gives me a little loose rubber on the finger tips. The $67 Si-Tech gloves are roomy enough for the liner but the length of the fingers is not so long that there is loose material on the finger tips of the rubber glove (past the length of the liner). The trade off is the Si-Tech gloves are thicker so a little less dexterity with better protection against tearing. The Si-Tech is better for pushing buttons on a camera, as long as they are big enough buttons. I guess since I already have them, I will switch back to the Si-Tech outer glove.