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Post by antique diver on Sept 10, 2021 9:25:26 GMT -8
I just pulled out my Hydroglove suits to check the condition, hoping they would still be in good enough condition to enjoy the cooler waters of the upcoming Fall and Winter. I haven't seen either since last diving with them in 2018, and wasn't sure how well the thin rubber had held up. If these aren't well cared for and stored indoors they can turn into a gummy unusable mess in a couple of years. Thanks to a generous dousing with cornstarch, and my sweet wife/mermaid who actually agrees they should be stored in our extra refrigerator, they have remained in diving condition in spite of one being 8 and the other 9 years old. I learned the hard way with an earlier one. Unless you have worn one of these you just can't imaging the flexibility and comfort. With fleece suit underneath they are as comfy as a pair of loose pajamas. Too bad they are no longer available. They were reasonably priced, and definitely go perfectly well with vintage diving. They are not perfect, but neither is my DUI. I added an inflator on the chest of one to allow a little extra air as needed for insulation and a bit of bouyancy control. Suit squeeze isn't really much of an issue due to the soft stretchy material. The hooded jacket version can have air added by exhaling through the mask. The suit will self vent during ascent, either at the neck or wrist, but I find the suit stays drier inside by letting it vent at cuff valves instead of the seals. |
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Post by SeaRat on Sept 10, 2021 10:05:59 GMT -8
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Post by surflung on Sept 10, 2021 10:34:20 GMT -8
HydroGlove is Back- The latest update on their website is August 2021. Hydro Glove Store- The new company name is "The Latex Works, LLC"
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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Sept 10, 2021 12:09:20 GMT -8
Just for the record, Hydroglove drysuits are modelled on the Skooba-"totes" suits made by the So-Lo Marx Rubber Company of Loveland, Ohio, between the late 1950s and the mid-1960s. As well as the couple of full-length Hydroglove suits I used several years ago for sea snorkelling off the North East coast of England, I own an original "new in box" yellow "Golden Tiger" Skooba-"totes" suit that kept me perfectly warm and dry on a couple of occasions in the North Sea: Here is a newspaper cutting from Spring 1957 describing an early trial of the prototype So-Lo Marx suit in the Little Miami River near Cincinnati, Ohio: A few years after So-Lo Marx company president Joe Marx retired to Florida, Skooba-"totes" drysuit production ceased and the firm eventually became known as "Totes Isotoner", which continues to trade in umbrellas and other wet-weather gear to this very day. DRW |
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Post by antique diver on Sept 10, 2021 13:45:09 GMT -8
While the Hydro Glove isn't available, the Aquala dry suit is. Here I'm using mine in the 1970s. I used it both in Yaquina Bay, where I was freezing after long dives, and in Clear Lake, which is 37-40 degrees F year-round. You can find Aquala dry suits here: aquala.comJohn John, thanks for the photos and link to Aquala. Do these suits use a reinforcement material under or in the rubber that impedes the stretch of the suit. I'm sure they must be way more rugged than the Hydrogloves, and I like the zipper entry, but I sure like the stretch and comfort of the latter for light duty use (not to mention the cost). I have also used them in more suit-challenging dives by coveralls over them, but usually preferred my DUI for that. The DUI 200 is really rugged but is a bit heavy and bulky, so I wouldn't mind having something in between. |
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Post by antique diver on Sept 10, 2021 13:48:00 GMT -8
HydroGlove is Back- The latest update on their website is August 2021. Hydro Glove Store- The new company name is "The Latex Works, LLC" That's great news! The price is hard to beat, and they hold up better than I thought they would for such light material. Had 3, used one up, and the other two are doing fine. |
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Post by SeaRat on Sept 10, 2021 16:55:28 GMT -8
While the Hydro Glove isn't available, the Aquala dry suit is. Here I'm using mine in the 1970s. I used it both in Yaquina Bay, where I was freezing after long dives, and in Clear Lake, which is 37-40 degrees F year-round. You can find Aquala dry suits here: aquala.comJohn John, thanks for the photos and link to Aquala. Do these suits use a reinforcement material under or in the rubber that impedes the stretch of the suit. I'm sure they must be way more rugged than the Hydrogloves, and I like the zipper entry, but I sure like the stretch and comfort of the latter for light duty use (not to mention the cost). I have also used them in more suit-challenging dives by coveralls over them, but usually preferred my DUI for that. The DUI 200 is really rugged but is a bit heavy and bulky, so I wouldn't mind having something in between. The Aquala dry suit is made of a double-layer of rubbers.   They are flexible, more flexible than thick neoprene dry suits, and espectially more flexible than the compressed neoprene dry suits. John |
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Post by DavidRitchieWilson on Sept 10, 2021 21:15:18 GMT -8
The built-in feet of the original Hydrogloves were particularly vulnerable to punctures when the suits were worn on rocky shores, which led to newer, dearer versions with thicker material around the foot. Later versions of the So Lo Marx Skooba-"totes" suit also adopted this approach. Back in the day, of course, drysuit wearers would simply have dug out their bicycle tyre inner-tube repair kits and patched the hole, but nowadays light water shoes might prevent the problem from happening in the first place; So Lo Marx made separate optional "shore boots" (see above) to protect the fragile feet of their Skooba-"totes" suits.  As for Aquala suits, they originally came in two versions (above), a one-piece with chest entry and a two-piece with waist entry, during the Bill Barada era when the company was called "Bel-Aqua". Today's Aquala company still produces its "historical" one-piece model, whose chest-entry tunnel is tied up after donning with surgical tubing to achieve a watertight closure. I own one of these valveless suits, which are extremely robust thanks to their two-ply construction and the thickness of their surgical latex feet. Their historical accuracy is also impeccable, including the hood feature details. More information at Aquala Coronado Suit. DRW |
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