*Floater*
Contributor
I often see comments about how ringless dry gloves are a hard to don, so I asked my dive buddy to take some pics and video of the process last weekend.
Equipment: Deepsee Dry Comfort 4mm neoprene gloves (with protective wrist covers cut off) + KY-jelly + a piece of neoprene (the wrist cover):
The first glove goes on easily:
The second isn't a problem for me, though I do need to do it with the other glove already on. I peel the seal surface back, push my hand in, and the roll the seal over my Xerotherm Arctic sleeve (+ Carol Davis base layer). Then I smooth it out as much as possible:
Next I spread the lube on my seals using a piece of neoprene (the covers I cut off from the gloves). KY is water soluable, so if I get any on the gloves, it washes off after I jump in the water. It may be a good idea not to lube the very end of the seal surfaces so that your drysuit seals don't get pulled too far to easily (by accident):
The rest is simple: I just push my gloved hands through the drysuit latex wrist seals, and because of the lube they go through smoothly (+ my seals are a little loose, which is why I'm using these gloves anyway instead of wet gloves):
I have a neoprene neck seal on this suit, but after some practice I can now easily don it even with the gloves on (see video) - the key for me is to fold it in before I push my head through.
Donning my rig, hood, mask, etc is naturally harder than without the gloves, but for me at least it has not been a significant inconvenience. However, if something comes up that requires taking the gloves off, say at the surface just before a dive, I would be screwed.
Doffing the gloves is simple (no special technique - I just pull my hand out carefully). I do worry about damaging the soft sealing surface since I cut the protective neoprene layers off. I'm considering cutting off the sleeve ends from an old warm water wetsuit that doesn't fit anymore, and to use those over the glove and drysuit seals for protection.
These are the only dry gloves I've tried (yes, they stay dry), so no comparisons. I'm actually using these to put off replacing loose wrist seals on my dry suits. Just wanted to add my data point to the general dry glove conversation.
Equipment: Deepsee Dry Comfort 4mm neoprene gloves (with protective wrist covers cut off) + KY-jelly + a piece of neoprene (the wrist cover):
The first glove goes on easily:
The second isn't a problem for me, though I do need to do it with the other glove already on. I peel the seal surface back, push my hand in, and the roll the seal over my Xerotherm Arctic sleeve (+ Carol Davis base layer). Then I smooth it out as much as possible:
Next I spread the lube on my seals using a piece of neoprene (the covers I cut off from the gloves). KY is water soluable, so if I get any on the gloves, it washes off after I jump in the water. It may be a good idea not to lube the very end of the seal surfaces so that your drysuit seals don't get pulled too far to easily (by accident):
The rest is simple: I just push my gloved hands through the drysuit latex wrist seals, and because of the lube they go through smoothly (+ my seals are a little loose, which is why I'm using these gloves anyway instead of wet gloves):
I have a neoprene neck seal on this suit, but after some practice I can now easily don it even with the gloves on (see video) - the key for me is to fold it in before I push my head through.
Donning my rig, hood, mask, etc is naturally harder than without the gloves, but for me at least it has not been a significant inconvenience. However, if something comes up that requires taking the gloves off, say at the surface just before a dive, I would be screwed.
Doffing the gloves is simple (no special technique - I just pull my hand out carefully). I do worry about damaging the soft sealing surface since I cut the protective neoprene layers off. I'm considering cutting off the sleeve ends from an old warm water wetsuit that doesn't fit anymore, and to use those over the glove and drysuit seals for protection.
These are the only dry gloves I've tried (yes, they stay dry), so no comparisons. I'm actually using these to put off replacing loose wrist seals on my dry suits. Just wanted to add my data point to the general dry glove conversation.
