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

There are two main dry glove systems on the market right now: the Diving Concepts system, and DUI's zip system. For years I've used the DUI zips but have to say the Diving Concepts system is far superior -- you can attach them yourself at any time. The DUI zips can only be attached before the suit is put on.

As a lifelong DUI guy, I was very happy to hear about their new crushed neoprene with kevlar gloves. My hope was that they'd be warmer and more durable than the DUI blue heavy duty gloves I currently wear.

To test them, I wore the gloves on four separate dives, all in 36-degree and 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 glove on the other to better compare them.

The results were mixed at best. On all of the dives that I wore two different gloves, the hand in the crushed neoprene glove was significantly warmer for the first 30 minutes or so. This was true even when I layered up and wore two liner gloves under the heavy duty glove and only one under the crushed neoprene. Over the last 30 minutes of the dives, however, the difference between them was negligible, although the crushed neoprene hand was still more comfortable.

As for durability, there's no doubt that the crushed neoprene is a seriously tough glove. I've always considered the heavy duty glove to be fairly durable but this is a significant upgrade. On all of my dives with them, I felt no concern about scraping my hands over urchins, barnacles or metal pipes. That's a first.

At the same time, though, there's no doubt that I had far less dexterity and tactile sense while wearing the crushed neoprene. Initially, part of the problem was sizing. The first pair of the crushed neoprene gloves that I tried were size large -- I always wear large gloves. When they first arrived and I tried them on, they seemed to fit. It was only later 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 was not the case with me. After a couple of dives, though, I switched to a pair of mediums. I found those to be a little tight and my dexterity and tactile sense was still terrible.

So would I recommend these gloves for New England diving? No way. They just cut down too much on tactile sense and manual dexterity.

These gloves sell for approximately $200.

Jerry Shine