Good Dry Glove options other than Waterproof Ultima?

[Wibble]

I cut my seals back to the suit ring, so essentially I'm diving without seals. It's easier to get the suit on and off, and the only leaks I've had were from a hole in the glove. Fortunately, that's only happened once in the past few years.

Some people do that.


I've had a couple of gloves that have been slashed underwater. Both times I managed to get the string out of the seal by removing the glove. In cold water a flooded drysuit can be life threatening.

I use a pair of Fourth Element Glove Liners which are thin neoprene. These, even with the remnants of a shredded glove keep your hands warm.

 

[Boarderguy]

Thumb loop from my undergarments through the seal. I'm planning to just remove the wrist seal on my kubi since I end up pulling them out when doffing every few dives. My deco maxes out at about 5 minutes so if I grab a handful of broken glass and play pattycake I'll be fine. I have zero problem thumbing a dive because it became a damp dive instead of dry.

 

[Wibble]

BTW with my "strings", I lightly tie them together and store them in the dryglove; so it's slightly idiot proof, yes, not foolproof as they dropped out of the glove whilst kitting up and blew away!

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Some people do that.


I've had a couple of gloves that have been slashed underwater. Both times I managed to get the string out of the seal by removing the glove. In cold water a flooded drysuit can be life threatening.

I use a pair of Fourth Element Glove Liners which are thin neoprene. These, even with the remnants of a shredded glove keep your hands warm.

I don't dive under solid water, so all of my dives have been at 8° or warmer. I've had several suit floods over the years, including a few in 8° water. I still stuck it out for an hour. They were annoying, but not life-threatening dives.

 

[rob.mwpropane]

I cut my seals back to the suit ring, so essentially I'm diving without seals. It's easier to get the suit on and off, and the only leaks I've had were from a hole in the glove. Fortunately, that's only happened once in the past few years.

This is what I do.

In cold water a flooded drysuit can be life threatening.

I disagree. I think it would be annoying / uncomfortable, I think you would end pissed off and cold, but I'm not sure about imminent death.

Do you have any links to cases where someone died in such a way? I've heard "it can" but I've never seen it cited in the real world anywhere.

 

[Brett Hatch]

I have had a few leaks around my Kubi gloves -- all user error. One time the O-ring was way over-lubed and the glove popped slightly out of the ring. Another time, I had left the rubber gloves in the sun for a month or so, and a little crack developed along a crease that I didn't notice in time. Lessons learned.

In both cases, the leaks were slow enough and the water warm enough that they were annoying, but not life-threatening. In both cases, I considered thumbing it, and instead continued the dive as planned, and just ended up doing 1 dive that day. The water here is +/- 10C / 50F. If you had to sit there for an hour of mandatory deco, or if the water was closer to freezing, I could see it being a problem. For my no-deco dives, just a nuisance.

I busted the wrist seal on one of my first dives in the suit, and just dove without wrist seals for a couple years. Both of the leaks I describe above had no wrist seal. Recently I replaced all the O-rings, and decided to put new wrist seals on for the heck of it. I find them to be annoying, and a solution to a problem I don't actually have, so I think I'll trim them back to being useless again. If I ever dive in way colder water, or start doing deco dives, I'll reconsider.

Tip: if you are trimming silicone wrist seals, don't use EMT shears! They will make a ragged cut that is prone to tearing. A razor blade or sharp scissors is much better.

 

[Boarderguy]

@Brett Hatch are you still diving your kubi? If so, why bother cutting the seals at all? Just take them off the inner ring and be done with them until you want to put them back in.

 

[Brett Hatch]

Cuz it's easier to trim them back than it is to take the damn things apart

Also, I had it in my head that the part of wrist seal that gets pinched between the AL ring and an O-ring is necessary for a waterproof seal. If this is not the case, then you're right, I would be better off removing them rather than cutting them way back

 

[Boarderguy]

Cuz it's easier to trim them back than it is to take the damn things apart

Also, I had it in my head that the part of wrist seal that gets pinched between the AL ring and an O-ring is necessary for a waterproof seal. If this is not the case, then you're right, I would be better off removing them rather than cutting them way back

The inner right needs to be there but it doesn't require the wrist seal. Pop the outer o-ring off, remove the seal and put its o-ring back on, put inner ring back in and its retaining o-ring.

 

[Boarderguy]