Dry suit Gloves

[Jaksonbrown]

I just purchased my first set of drygloves... They are the Vikings with the rings that go inside of your latex wrist seals....
Im curious about what method you all use to facilitate moving air into and out of your gloves to prevent squeezes and to vent air.
I have heard two methods.... One is the tube method using surgical tubing or straws, the other is the garment method using your undergarment to prevent the wrist seal from sealing all the way.

Which is the most widely used? Any other suggestions??

Thanks!

Cory-

[Nwbrewer]

My undergarment has little elastic thumb loops that get pulled through the seal. These seem to be enough to keep the air moving. If you don't pull them through, you get to about 70fsw before you can no longer close your hands.

The advantage of the bungee or straw is that if you DO have a total glove flood you could remove the glove, and then remove the bungee or straw to stop the suit infiltration. I dove once with wet gloves and accidentally had 1 elastic band pulled through, got wet up to about my bicep, but it wasn't that bad, so I don't worry about it happening due to glove flood.

Jake

[gracefulc]

I just got a set of dry gloves and have about 6 dives in with them; First time out I used a 4" length of string and just tucked it into each wrist seal with enough poking out that I could pull it if the glove flooded. Of note: 1. It allowed air into the glove well although I did not go very deep on that dive, 2. The right glove flooded due to not connecting it right and I only got a tiny trickle of water into that wrist (didn't remove the string and the dive was 40 min with the flood occuring as soon as I got under the water).

I did a dive to 100' yesterday and forgot to put the string in - could still use my hand but the glove was tight enough that my hand was uncomfortable (not painful, but definitely uncomfortable) and I think if I had been at that depth for more than a couple of minutes it could have prevented use of my hand for most of the ascent. (I only had one dry glove on due to issues with the other glove) Of note - my gloves are 1/2 a size too big for my hands, so that is probably why I made it beyond 70' and still had function in my hand...

My biggest appeal with the string is that it's cheap so if I lose it....

[fmerkel]

I tried both open and closed methods. Hands are pretty bony-they don't squeeze all that well. So I just dive with intact wrist seal to any recreational depth and it's been fine.
When I did try using an open wrist I noticed when I put my hand up, air moved in to it. But mostly we dive with our hands down so the air just moved out and I was squeezed anyway. Didn't seem a big improvement.

Fritz

[lurch]

Lose 60lbs. Then you can simply flex your wrist and the tendons pop out enough to create a nice little channel between your skin and the latex seal.

[LCF]

I used tubes a few times, but it turns out I don't need them. My wrists have prominent enough tendons that, the few times I've had a bit of "Michelin Man" hands at the end of the dive, flexing my wrist sharply is enough to decompress them.