When kitting up, at what point of the process do you put your gloves on?
Why do I ask this? Well back when I had just started diving I was sitting on a beach preparing for my first dive past 30 metres. It was to be on the stern of the Lucy, a nice little wreck to the north of Skomer Island in Pembrokeshire.
My kit included a sharkskin “Couesteau Classic” wetsuit, a Snark demand valve and an orange Fenzy ABLJ. So far all I had worn on my hands was a pair of medium pink Marigolds.
Other recently trained divers were telling me it would be colder than previous dives. For some unfathomable reason I got concerned about this, despite having made several dives between 25 and 30 metres. One even offered me a loan of his extra warm 5mm neoprene gloves. For some stupid reason I accepted.
Out above the wreck we kited up and rolled into the water. I left the gloves until last because they were incredibly cumbersome and I needed my fingers free to sort everything out. I needed help from the boat handler to pull the gloves onto my hands and do them up.
As with most new divers I flapped and fumbled my way down the shot line. My experienced buddy kept a close eye on me.
With no direct feed I didn't even attempt to adjust my buoyancy until we were kneeling on the deck at the back of the superstructure. Take a deep breath. Demand valve out. ABLJ valve in. Exhale most of it, but keep enough back to clear the demand valve before taking my next breath.
Now nicely neutrally buoyant we started to explore the wreck and I started to have a problem. Held almost upright in the water by the ABLJ round my neck and 6mm of sharkskin neoprene squashed down to nothing my weight belt slipped past my hips.
Many years on as an instructor this is something I have now seen many times, but back then it was new to me and a bit of a problem.
With the thick gloves on I couldn't adjust it. I couldn't feel what I was doing and with all the buoyancy round my neck and a poorly adjusted ABLJ I couldn't even see what I was trying to adjust. In the heat of the moment it didn't occur to me to dump buoyancy and lie flat. I just wrapped my arms and legs round a convenient railing and held on tight.
Fortunately my buddy soon noticed and got me sorted out. He dumped my buoyancy, laid me face down on the deck, slid my weight belt up to my waist and tightened it up. He wasn't wearing gloves. After the dive we went through the procedure for adjusting a weight belt and I have not had any problems since.
Which brings me back to the question I originally asked. When kitting up, at what point of the process do you put your gloves on?
When I wear gloves, which is not that often, I put them on before anything else, excluding my diving suit of course. Sometimes I even put my gloves on before strapping my watch and dive computer round my wrist seals.
My reasoning is that if I am to safely wear gloves I need to be able to make any adjustments to my kit whilst wearing them. I need to be able to adjust my harness and weight belt whilst wearing gloves. I need to be able to put my mask on while wearing gloves. I need to be able to put my fins on whilst wearing gloves. I need to be able to use my knife to cut line whilst wearing gloves. As a photographer I need to be able to use my camera whilst wearing gloves. For the wreck tours, I need to be able to make sketches whilst wearing gloves. If working with lines I need to be able to tie and untie knots whilst wearing gloves.
If I can't even put the rest of my kit on in the boat whilst wearing gloves, what chance have I of sorting out any of these things once I am underwater? So I make a point of putting my gloves on first. It keeps me in practice.
If someone in the boat asks me to help them sort out their mask because they have gloves on I usually refuse. Instead I guide them through doing it for themselves, and if that doesn't work I ask them what they would do if they had to sort their mask out underwater.
If they explain that they would take their gloves off underwater as and when necessary, I suggest a dry run in the boat.
If they make excuses that for training exercises they leave their gloves behind, I suggest they should do so for every dive.
If you have to wear gloves, either for warmth or physical protection of your hands, then make sure it is not at the expense of your capability to look after yourself in the water. From my point of view, the easiest way to practice this is to make a habit of kitting up “gloves first”.