George Irvine wrote:
>> Reinhold, if you use dry gloves with a tube, and carry real gloves in the 
pocket, will this work? I have to do a cold dive and do not want to deal with 
cold hands. - G<<

George,
let me start at  the beginning.
to be comfortable in cold water around 4 deg C the diver should maintain the
body core temperature to avoid shutoff of the blood flow to the periphery. Using
only the C4 Thinsulate is not enough. I use different layers of underwear. On
the upper body I start with a t-shirt, then a Patagonia lightweight shirt, then
on dives with longer deco a shirt with heating wires, then a Patagonia
expeditionweight shirt. On the lower body I only use expeditonweight trousers.
Above this all  the DUI C4 Thinsulate. On the feet are normal socks, then fleece
socks from Helly Hansen, then the DUI Thinsulate booties. Before the dive I
purge the suit three times with argon. According to a DUI information, the argon
concentration gets up to 90 percent with this procedure. On the opposite this
concentration will not be reached before 10 bar outside pressure  without
purging. 

The dry gloves do not provide any insulation. Normally some liners are coming
with the dry glove. I have found them far from adequate and tried different
materials. Despite the fact that the patagonia material worked well on the body,
I was not satisfied with their gloves( wearing two sets at the same time). The
best protection was from using a Thinsulate glove. Having a small  pinhole in
the dry glove, the thinsulate did even maintain some insulation when wet, so it
was even not necessary to take any further actions. I bought the thinsulate
glove in a normal shop, these gloves are here easy to find during the
wintertime. It was necessary to shorten them at the wrist, because they are not
built for this use. I did not like using a tube, because I found it disturbing.
Pulling the strap from the DUI thinsulate under the wrist seal and flexing the
wrist , lifting the hands will get enough gas into the glove.

In the real world the latex dry gloves are not bulletproof. Using a protection
glove above the latex, destroys any dexterity.  I tried dry gloves, originally
manufactured for construction workers, but there were other problems.  People
love them as long as they work, but nearly everybody has also a story about a
leak. I stopped using them for serious dives, where I do not want the risk of
workload coming with a leaking glove,  where parts of the dive are time
critical, or where the cave environment does not allow fragile gloves.
 Neoprene three-finger gloves will give adequate insulation, if choosen right.
It is extremely important that the wrist seal is fitting perfectly. This means
it is really hard work putting the glove on without some precautions. But with
wetting the inner part of the glove and using liquid soap, it is possible to get
in without somebody's help. Scubapro used to make such a glove with a double
wrist seal, which was just perfect. But they changed the width of the seal,
maybe they are selling now  better because people trying these gloves in the
shop, are getting easier in and out.  
I feel good with tight neopren gloves up to two hours. Having a support team on
deco offers some other help. On longer decompressions I had my wife come with a
drinking bag, filled with hot water and make injections into the neopren glove.
Being four hours in 4 deg C, it felt  like in the Red Sea. 

Sorry for the bandwith, but because Rich is not talking about cold water diving,
I used his length. :)

Regards, Reinhard
_________________________________________________

Dr. Reinhard Buchaly
Huenxer Str. 339
D-46537 Dinslaken
Germany

Tel. +49-2858-1576 home
Tel. +49-2064-37500 office
Fax +49-2064-35286
E-mail 100420.252@co*

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