Thinner gloves for cold water diving?

[aquaregia]

I dive 50F water. I traded down from 5mm to 3mm for the dexterity and haven't noticed a difference in the thermal comfort. Some of my friends dive 1mm or canvas gloves, just to take the sting off, and a few of them don't wear gloves at all. 5mm with a chopped index finger and thumb is common around here as well.

 

[scubadiveilat]

That's the downfall in cold water diving sometimes. Unless you have access to a better product. If product limitation is limited that's the only option.


Have fun diving!!!

 

[aquaregia]

There's a set of 5mm semidry gloves or something from Piranha or somewhere that somebody said something good about. Unfortunately, I've forgotten pretty much all the details.

 

[Lenaxia]

One thing to consider is that some gloves come with pre-curved fingers. I.e. they're stitched so that the fingers aren't straight. My aqua lung gloves do that (though I cant remember what kind they are). They are 5mm and I have great dexterity with them. I have no problems clipping and unclipping things from my drings.

 

[blue steal]

I have been using a 3mm Aqualung/Thermocline for a couple of years. They finally fell apart and now am using a 3mm Tilos glove. Keeps my hands from getting to cold in the winter waters at 53-55.

 

[CuNanoTube]

Diving in the great lakes in the winter (0-4C) I have found the best solution is to use three finger mitts. I dive with a pair of 5mm mitts and have never had a problem with cold hands. If you don't practice a bit with them you will feel some dexterity loss, but they are so much warmer.

 

[Dr Wu]

The deeper you go the colder it will get. And the gloves will compress with depth.

Its a self-correcting problem.

 

[randini]

If you have a good suit that's keeping you warm enough then your blood circulation should take care of your hands so that they shouldn't get too cold no matter what gloves you wear. I currently use a custom 7mm farmer john suit that keeps me very warm in our low 50s waters here in Chile. For gloves I usually use reef type gloves that have imitation leather palms and thin (maybe 1-2mm) neoprene on the top and haven't had any problems feeling cold, even with all the holes my current pair has.