gloves for cold water diving?

[Diving Dutch]

I dive in a drysuit year-round, and find that in the winter when the water's around 35F, my hands get numb from the cold with 6mm gloves. Now, I wear Deep Sea 3-finger mitts. Like nkw5 writes, they are quite toasty, especially if you squirt a little hot water in them before the dive. Sure you loose a little dexterity, but it's better loosing feeling in all ten fingers.

 

[Dapher]

My friends and I dive in a drysuit all year. Most of my friends and now myself who certified in May use dry gloves. What we do is by the dry cuffs ($100) and then go down to our local hardware store and get vinyl gloves and liners that fit comfortably. (cost $20.00 compared to the $50.00 dry gloves and you can get a combination that fits you best) At first I was hesitant because I did not want to hurt my custom DUI drysuit, but after seeing how the dry system works I see that no harm comes to my suit and the dry gloves make a world of difference.

 

[CNTdiver]

Just noticed that it sounds like you're in a drysuit. You can get a nice dryglove kit for about $150.. add some fleece gloves underneath and you should be all set.

If you hands are getting cold, I second what jonnythan said. I had the same problem and I complained about the cost of the kit, but it was definently worth it in the long run. Hope this helps.

 

[Shadow]

My hands used to get so numb that I couldn't even press the inflator valve on my drysuit - a definite safety issue! Made my own dry glove system for under $20. That was two years ago (and about 100 dives), and it all works great. My wrists are too lean and form channels so wrists seals don't work for me anyhow, but they automatically equalize my dry gloves!

Here is a link to my original post about making your own dry gloves:

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=17469&page=2&pp=10

Another thing people with neoprene seals do, they use sealant/glue to seal all the seams of their mitt/gloves so there are no water leaks through the seams and they usually manage to get a pretty good seal between their neoprene mitt and their neoprene wrist seals to be essentially dry. Good luck.