WillAbbott
Guest
This is a review I wrote for our dive club e-mail list server as I was asked by nemerous people to review my new gloves, there was an amazing amount of interest from my fellow club members on the boat of theese new beautifull gloves.
I don't recall ever seeing a review of the gloves here on our board so I thought I'd share mine.
In short, they were AWESOME!!!!
----------Attached Review Bellow----------
This last Friday prior to our club dive I bought some dry gloves for my suit. I had been looking at gloves for a little while and had wanted some but planned them for the future sometime, mainly due to the cost, no local dealer, and at the time had no real need for them other than desire.
Recently on dives my hands had been getting much colder than they had gotten previously, as well as coming out of the water with my hands looking terrible due to too much time in the water. (just like if you stay in the shower or tub too long).
I had pretty much decided I wanted the Diving Concepts system a little while back, but had decided on the blue rubber (smurf) gloves for a couple of reasons, mainly because I had never seen the new crushed neo's nor had I seen any reviews from anyone who had actually used the new gloves. This Friday when I went up to get rental gear from a local shop, when I walked in the door I saw some interesting looking gloves sitting on top of some boxes of BC's in the middle of the display floor. I walked over to look at them and discovered they were neoprene dry gloves. I was even more amazed to discover they were Diving Concepts new Crushed Neoprene dry glove system. So I talked to the owner a little about them, got price info ($160, installed), etc. After some short deliberation I decided I had to have a pair, so after watching him fight with my suit for easily a good 30mins (glad I let him install it after all, I was going to do it myself), I had dry gloves on my suit. I should mention the install itself is a snap, other than getting the arm back through the suit.
For this system, you pull the arm of your suit inside out, insert the inner ring into the arm, until just a little of the wrist seal is left covering the ring, place 2 O-rings over the seal against the ring, and pull the arm back through (the hard part), after that the suit is ready to go. This of course is one of about 2-3 install methods, leaving you with an intact wrist seal which still seals on your wrist, you can also remove the wrist seal completely, or somehow install it on the outside of the ring, leaving it intact, but not sealing against your wrist (or so he said, I've not seen confirmation of this 3rd install from Diving Concepts, only the first 2).
Saturday I arrived on the boat for the club dive, and we began gearing up, etc. Anxious to get to the dive site and try my new toys, I found a large interest in my new gloves from my fellow divers. After a short ride on the boat we found ourselves at the first dive site. For the first dive I chose to not leave any way for air/water to get through the wrist seal should the gloves leak. All of you are aware of the importance of leak testing equipment no matter how good it is, or how unlikely it is to leak. I was surprised by the gloves as soon as I began gearing up. Though the overall thickness of the glove, including liner is about the same as a 5mill glove, I had more than twice the dexterity. I was able to do things I would never dream of doing with my wet gloves, or even want to try being as it would be much more difficult.
Upon hitting the water I already could feel the advantages. When I hit the water I immediately got a cold chill throughout my body, even with the dry suit and thick insulation, but my hands felt completely toasty. Also on the surface the gloves seemed to be a little lose fitting, upon descent, of course due to compression they fit absolutely beautiful, even more dexterous at depth than the surface due to the compression. I found on the first dive (approx 40mins) that my hands did get cold. Though they did get cold, my body was at least 2 times colder, and my hands were still no where near as cold as with wet gloves. I was very happy with the performance even though my hands got chilled, due to the fact it was a major improvement over wet gloves.
After hitting the boat, I decided not to pull my gloves off right away, and was amazed that I could completely DOFF my gear, change out a tank, and do other small tasks on the surface without removing my gloves. After a longer boat ride, we hopped back in the water for dive 2. This time having thoroughly leak tested the gloves, I pulled a little bit of my undergarment through the wrist seal to create an area for air to flow (I was going to use surgical tubing, but forgot the pieces I cut for this purpose, and didn't feel like cutting off more from my spare tubing) During the dive, I reached up, allowing air to get to my wrists, and simply pumped my hands to get air into the gloves. I could instantly feel the air flow into the gloves, as they felt less restrictive, yet just as flexible, and a little warmer. On this dive (again approx 35-40mins) I got less chilled on my body, due to an extra layer of insulation, and only felt a slight chill in my fingertips towards the end of the dive, allowing the air in seemed to make a big difference in warmth, though the compression effects seem to not be bad no mater how you dive the gloves, without being able to add air, I could never feel any squeeze in them, though after adding air I could feel them loosen up, mainly adding fluff back to the fleece liner.
In summary, you all should avoid these gloves, because I want to be the only one with the COOL dry gloves <g>... Ok no seriously, they are very nice gloves, I would highly recommend them, or any of the Diving Concepts systems. Never having used other gloves I can't directly compare them, but I've talked to other people with the same system (only rubber gloves) and none have EVER experienced a leak, unless of course puncturing a glove. I also like that the gloves seem more resilient to abrasion being neoprene, though I still would avoid grabbing rocks and such, as we all know, neoprene, rubber, etc, all will wear out with time when subjected to those kinds of abrasions. The system was very easy to use, I found the gloves easier to don and doff than when trying them at the shop, simply snap on, snap off, I can't tell it any easier than that.
The only thing I can say I didn't like about the gloves, is there is a flap of neoprene for you to cover the ring connection with, when you have the glove on. I never was able to pull it over the glove, however, there really is no point to it other than to protect the ring system a little bit (or the rubber part of the glove attached at the ring). I would not turn in the gloves or buy something else due to this fact though, it is just one of those little things, which serves no real, or important purpose.
I don't recall ever seeing a review of the gloves here on our board so I thought I'd share mine.
In short, they were AWESOME!!!!
----------Attached Review Bellow----------
This last Friday prior to our club dive I bought some dry gloves for my suit. I had been looking at gloves for a little while and had wanted some but planned them for the future sometime, mainly due to the cost, no local dealer, and at the time had no real need for them other than desire.
Recently on dives my hands had been getting much colder than they had gotten previously, as well as coming out of the water with my hands looking terrible due to too much time in the water. (just like if you stay in the shower or tub too long).
I had pretty much decided I wanted the Diving Concepts system a little while back, but had decided on the blue rubber (smurf) gloves for a couple of reasons, mainly because I had never seen the new crushed neo's nor had I seen any reviews from anyone who had actually used the new gloves. This Friday when I went up to get rental gear from a local shop, when I walked in the door I saw some interesting looking gloves sitting on top of some boxes of BC's in the middle of the display floor. I walked over to look at them and discovered they were neoprene dry gloves. I was even more amazed to discover they were Diving Concepts new Crushed Neoprene dry glove system. So I talked to the owner a little about them, got price info ($160, installed), etc. After some short deliberation I decided I had to have a pair, so after watching him fight with my suit for easily a good 30mins (glad I let him install it after all, I was going to do it myself), I had dry gloves on my suit. I should mention the install itself is a snap, other than getting the arm back through the suit.
For this system, you pull the arm of your suit inside out, insert the inner ring into the arm, until just a little of the wrist seal is left covering the ring, place 2 O-rings over the seal against the ring, and pull the arm back through (the hard part), after that the suit is ready to go. This of course is one of about 2-3 install methods, leaving you with an intact wrist seal which still seals on your wrist, you can also remove the wrist seal completely, or somehow install it on the outside of the ring, leaving it intact, but not sealing against your wrist (or so he said, I've not seen confirmation of this 3rd install from Diving Concepts, only the first 2).
Saturday I arrived on the boat for the club dive, and we began gearing up, etc. Anxious to get to the dive site and try my new toys, I found a large interest in my new gloves from my fellow divers. After a short ride on the boat we found ourselves at the first dive site. For the first dive I chose to not leave any way for air/water to get through the wrist seal should the gloves leak. All of you are aware of the importance of leak testing equipment no matter how good it is, or how unlikely it is to leak. I was surprised by the gloves as soon as I began gearing up. Though the overall thickness of the glove, including liner is about the same as a 5mill glove, I had more than twice the dexterity. I was able to do things I would never dream of doing with my wet gloves, or even want to try being as it would be much more difficult.
Upon hitting the water I already could feel the advantages. When I hit the water I immediately got a cold chill throughout my body, even with the dry suit and thick insulation, but my hands felt completely toasty. Also on the surface the gloves seemed to be a little lose fitting, upon descent, of course due to compression they fit absolutely beautiful, even more dexterous at depth than the surface due to the compression. I found on the first dive (approx 40mins) that my hands did get cold. Though they did get cold, my body was at least 2 times colder, and my hands were still no where near as cold as with wet gloves. I was very happy with the performance even though my hands got chilled, due to the fact it was a major improvement over wet gloves.
After hitting the boat, I decided not to pull my gloves off right away, and was amazed that I could completely DOFF my gear, change out a tank, and do other small tasks on the surface without removing my gloves. After a longer boat ride, we hopped back in the water for dive 2. This time having thoroughly leak tested the gloves, I pulled a little bit of my undergarment through the wrist seal to create an area for air to flow (I was going to use surgical tubing, but forgot the pieces I cut for this purpose, and didn't feel like cutting off more from my spare tubing) During the dive, I reached up, allowing air to get to my wrists, and simply pumped my hands to get air into the gloves. I could instantly feel the air flow into the gloves, as they felt less restrictive, yet just as flexible, and a little warmer. On this dive (again approx 35-40mins) I got less chilled on my body, due to an extra layer of insulation, and only felt a slight chill in my fingertips towards the end of the dive, allowing the air in seemed to make a big difference in warmth, though the compression effects seem to not be bad no mater how you dive the gloves, without being able to add air, I could never feel any squeeze in them, though after adding air I could feel them loosen up, mainly adding fluff back to the fleece liner.
In summary, you all should avoid these gloves, because I want to be the only one with the COOL dry gloves <g>... Ok no seriously, they are very nice gloves, I would highly recommend them, or any of the Diving Concepts systems. Never having used other gloves I can't directly compare them, but I've talked to other people with the same system (only rubber gloves) and none have EVER experienced a leak, unless of course puncturing a glove. I also like that the gloves seem more resilient to abrasion being neoprene, though I still would avoid grabbing rocks and such, as we all know, neoprene, rubber, etc, all will wear out with time when subjected to those kinds of abrasions. The system was very easy to use, I found the gloves easier to don and doff than when trying them at the shop, simply snap on, snap off, I can't tell it any easier than that.
The only thing I can say I didn't like about the gloves, is there is a flap of neoprene for you to cover the ring connection with, when you have the glove on. I never was able to pull it over the glove, however, there really is no point to it other than to protect the ring system a little bit (or the rubber part of the glove attached at the ring). I would not turn in the gloves or buy something else due to this fact though, it is just one of those little things, which serves no real, or important purpose.
