Eqp Review -- DUI Crushed Neoprene Gloves with kevlar

When it comes to cold water diving, gloves are definitely one of the weak points in a drysuit. It's just so hard to keep your hands warm.

Ok, time for the full-disclosure disclaimer: I’m not a fan of DUI.  I think the quality of their products has declined over the years, while their prices have climbed and their customer service sunk to new lows.  Not a good combination.

Nevertheless, I want my hands to be as warm as possible in cold water, and so I tried these gloves with high hopes.  To test them, I wore them on four separate dives, all in 36-/37-degree water, and all with dive times in the 60-minute range. On several of the dives, I wore a crushed neoprene glove on one hand, and a heavy duty (blue) DUI dry glove on the other to better compare.

The results were not great – mixed at best. On all of the dives that I wore the two different gloves, the the crushed neoprene glove was warmer for the first 30 minutes or so.  Over the last 30 minutes of the dives, however, the difference between them was negligible.  Both hands were pretty cold.

As for durability, there's no doubt that the crushed neoprene is a tough glove.  At the same time, though, it takes away an awful lot of dexterity and tactile sense. Initially, part of the problem was sizing. The first pair that I tried were size large -- I always wear large gloves. When they arrived and I tried them on, they seemed to fit. It was only at the dive site that I noticed a problem. Normally simple tasks, such as putting on my wrist computer and compass, or attaching my drysuit inflator hose, were no longer simple. And the problems continued underwater.

It turned out that the glove fingers were all about a half-inch longer than my fingers. Because of this, and the stiffness of the material, I had a hard time grabbing anything. DUI has apparently made the fingers of the large-size glove intentionally longer than usual after getting feedback from test divers. That wasn’t the case with me. After a couple of dives, I switched to a pair of mediums. I found those to be a little tight and my dexterity and tactile sense was still terrible.

Would I recommend these gloves for cold-water diving?  Nope.  You just lose too much sense of feeling without the benefit of being significantly warmer.  There are better options out there.

These gloves sell for approximately $200.