Not going by feel - how, then? Tips? Tricks?

[Storker]

Around here, it's been thick glove season for quite a while now, and handling the gear and finding parts is by view only. It's difficult enough with my 5mm 5-finger summer gloves, but with my 6.5mm 3-finger winter wetgloves, it's practically impossible to find anything by fumbling for it. And "winter glove" season is at least half of the year. Re-clipping my AI PDC - which I have clipped to my left hip D-ring SPG style - is difficult enough, requiring me to turn my head so far down and to the left that I usually have water leaking into my mask, and finding the dump valve is a big pain in the butt (*fumble, fumble* "Crap! Where's the sonofab*tch?" *fumble, fumble* "Ah, screw it!"). I usually don't bother to search for it and dump whatever little air I might have in my wing through the inflator valve. I can see that valve, and besides, it's bungeed to the front of my harness...

Are there any neat tricks that I don't know about, or is the only solution to practice so that everything can be reached just from muscle memory?

And no, I haven't tried drygloves (yet). According to my mates who use drygloves, you don't gain much in terms of sensitivity, and I've seen enough leaking drygloves to think that I prefer gloves which are deliberately wet. At least until I change my mind sometime in the future...

 

[SillyQuestions]

Dry gloves.

The other main thing is muscle memory! An excuse to dive more.


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---------- Post added November 4th, 2014 at 03:25 PM ----------

And bigger boltsnaps


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[tbone1004]

drygloves help....

SPG you can put on a longer hose and clip to your right shoulder so you can look down at it. Bigger clips tend to help for the winter.

As far as the dump valve, you should be able to feel it, I dive regularly with 7mm 5 fingers and have no problems finding my stuff, it's a bit more difficult in sidemount, but that's why winter diving is primarily in twinsets. If you can't feel it, put a bigger knob on it. I think the ScubaPro ones are the big honking ones that are about impossible to miss....

 

[SillyQuestions]

Floaty knob on dump valve can help actually now I think as you sweep your hand across the approximate area and it gets caught


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[lowviz]

Oversize all your D-rings and make sure that they are fixed. Upgrade all your boltsnaps to the oversized ones.

Then it will be absolutely no problem with coldwater gloves and feel alone. I'm still trying to get my machinist to make a few more of those tail pieces for several interested parties.

 

[thefeve]

Dry gloves don't add much for sensitivity, but once you're used to em, i think they're better than the thick neo gloves. I had the same issue, but once i found the atlas gloves with the outer texture (the orange ones, i can't remember which model they are) it made a HUGE difference.

 

[Imla]

I feel your pain... However... I do not share it Practice! Personally I'll keep my 5 finger gloves for a while longer (And usually our waters are colder than yours you warm water wuss )

A pair of PROPERLY fitting dry gloves with appropriate thermal protection under will function almost as good as my wet gloves for those extra cold days of negativity!

 

[Diver0001]

Are there any neat tricks that I don't know about, or is the only solution to practice so that everything can be reached just from muscle memory?

And no, I haven't tried drygloves (yet). According to my mates who use drygloves, you don't gain much in terms of sensitivity, and I've seen enough leaking drygloves to think that I prefer gloves which are deliberately wet. At least until I change my mind sometime in the future...

What the glove is made of makes a difference. In the picture I linked I'm actually wearing 2 pairs of gloves, both 2mm, layered. The outer layer has a leather palm and it makes handling clips very easy. I find the 2x2mm combination ok to about 8C and I'll wear them under a thermocline to about 5C if I'm not there for more than about 25 min.

I've dived extensively in 3 finger gloves as well and I'll only use them in conditions where there is no reasonable expectation of needing to handle metal clips. They're hopeless.

Other than that I use dry gloves. Two tips I have for you:

1) use a toothpick to put "dots" of aquasure on the palm side of the fingers up to the 2nd knuckle. That will give you grip. You may need to repeat that every season.
2) use clips that have a large ring on the bottom of it so you can get your pink into the ring and hold the damned clip still. Then 'wrap' your index finger over the top of the clip as you hold it open. That way, when you drag the clip over the D-ring you'll feel the D ring with your finger. Even though you won't feel the clip with your finger with dry gloves on, you'll know when it's hooked. It's all about a combination of the pink hooked under and the index finger hooked over to make it not rotate.

R..

 

[decompression]

Ya practice, but also drygloves or my favorite 3mm Whites heat gloves. Work for me in 45 deg F water.

 

[Diver0001]

drygloves help....

SPG you can put on a longer hose and clip to your right shoulder so you can look down at it.

This works fine if you're not carrying stages. When I'm not carrying a stage I also clip the spg off on the shoulder.

However, as soon as you have a stage on the left then the spg is "in the way" on the shoulder. Also, if you are carrying stages you've probably planned the dive ahead of time and have no particular reason to look at the spg more than once during the dive. Finally, if you're carrying a stage then the spg is a LOT easier to get clipped and unclipped from the hip than it would be if you had to fiddle around trying to find the D ring.

R..