Gloves O’NEILL Psycho & Explore DL

I have tried gloves that allowed me to do little more dextrous than pressing the inflate button on my drysuit, because they have been so thick and warm.
I’ve had gloves that soon tore to ribbons during successive dives in the powerful currents of Cocos, because they were not robust enough when gripping the sharp rocky substrate that was the only option for avoiding being swept away by the flow of water.
I rarely find cause to wear gloves in warm water. In fact divers are usually encouraged not to wear them, as a way of preventing them from touching anything. But when it comes to diving rusty wrecks, things are different.
The guys at O’Neill sent me a couple of different types of glove for my wife to wear during a wreck-diving bonanza week, and when I showed her the first pair she exclaimed that they were “the best lightweight diving gloves I’ve ever seen”.
They were the O’Neill Psycho gloves. My feeling was that, sexy as they looked, they would only be tough enough to withstand some hard use of a knife in a shower (apologies to Alfred Hitchcock).
I took them away from her and replaced them with a pair of Explore DL series gloves. I had already found that the Explore 3mm suit was to my liking and had packed it for the trip.
Her reaction was that these were “the best lightweight gloves I’ve ever seen”. You can’t say she’s not discerning!
She spends a lot of money on manicures and expensive false nails, not to mention her habit of diving while wearing jewellery, including the engagement ring with the whopping great diamond I nearly bankrupted myself to buy all those years ago.
So I was keen that her hands would be safely encased before she went groping about in the dark surrounded by rusty metal.
These O’Neill Explore gloves have strongly reinforced fingertips and suede palms, a fluid foam 1mm-thick neoprene backhand, and an elasticated wrist seal with a Velcro closure.
The anatomical fit is such that although they fitted her girlie hands perfectly, I found that
I could wear them too.
If you’re a fan of the Gimp in Pulp Fiction, the Psycho gloves are very stretchy and are slightly thicker but less suitable for the rough stuff.
They come in either 1.5 or 3mm and are totally seamless, so they fit as if they were sprayed on. They’re like a heavyweight black version of a pair of Marigolds. They are intended for use in places where you need to protect your hands from abrasion, but not from the cold.

SPECS
PRICE Explore 1mm £23; Psycho 1.5mm £25; Psycho 3mm £30
SIZES XXS to XL
CONTACT www.oneill.com
DIVER GUIDE