Finding an excellent Dry Glove system can sometimes be challenging. Divers will look for different characteristics in their dry glove system. For example, some divers will need something indestructible for rugged environments. Others will want a dry glove system that is easy to install on their drysuit, and others will want a system that offers different options for gloves.
With so many options and characters the dry glove ring system can offer, I thought we should look at the Viking Dry Glove Cuff system.
The Viking Dry Glove Cuff system is a tried and true system that has been available for several years. Commercial divers regularly use them because one can trust that they are rugged and dependable.
Features
Inexpensive
Easy to install on most suits
Various gloves to pick from
Durable construction
The Viking Cuff system can be easily installed on any drysuit. The Viking Cuffs can be installed in two ways; if you have a permanent wrist seal on your drysuit, the cuff can be attached with the appropriate adhesive to the permanent seals. In this case, the cuffs would be permanently attached to the suit. The Viking cuffs can also be secured in a non-permanent way if you would like to interchange them between drysuits or if you have replaceable seals on your drysuit. This is a real advantage over other cuffs. Viking cuffs are easy to install, remove, and put on any other suit. In addition, the Cuff sandwiches the seal between itself, one cuff on the inside of the suit and one on the outside. This makes it very versatile, allowing it will work on almost any drysuit. Also more straightforward than most to remove from the suit.
Construction
The Cuffs are constructed of solid and durable plastic, very abrasion-resistant plastic. I used these cuffs on over 300 dives. They have been bounced around the decking of several metal tugs boats on the way to shipwrecks, they have been dragged over countless rocky shore entries and bounced around the bottom of many caverns in the Florida panhandle and never did any of that compromise the integrity of the seal or the functions of the cuffs. They may not be the most durable cuffs as I don’t think they would survive a car driving over them as I have seen another brand experience, but their construction has a tremendous amount of value.
Gloves
Another great feature of the Viking Dry glove cuff rings is the selection of gloves that they will pair with and the cost. They have textured gloves usually used by commercial divers when handling tools. Along with several options for the thickness of gloves, I have a lot of zebra muscles in my area, so using the Heavy Duty gloves they offer do well against the sharp shells on the wecks we explore.
I can give you a personal experience on why I feel any diver should strongly consider the Viking dry glove system. I was on a remote dive site one weekend, and I Ripped one of the latex gloves used in the cuff system. The gloves were well used and bound to fail sooner or later. I made the mistake of not packing a backup pair I usually have in stock. I was in a real jam. I was diving the Northwind wreck on the north channel passage of Manitoulin Island in Ontario, Canada. There isn’t a dive shop in over 100 miles. Because of how these cuffs work, I went to a local grocery store, got the XXL Yellow dishwashing glove, and stretched them over the cuffs, and I didn’t miss a dive that whole weekend. I know you couldn’t do that with most brands with their proprietary gloves and o’ring systems.
That also brings me to one of the only drawbacks to this cuff system that I could find. I find these gloves very hard to put on independently because the glove needs to be stretched around the cuff to form the seal. I found it hard to pull the rubber glove over the cuff by myself if I had liner gloves on when it’s a cold dive or, worse yet, if my hands were already frigid from gearing up. Several divers had shown me a bit of a trick to putting the gloves on yourself, but I could only get the hang of it if I were using gloves one size bigger. If the glove was right-sized, I needed my buddy to help me put them on. I found this very impractical. However, I typically like to be an independent diver, which was the only thing that let me keep looking for other gloves/cuff systems.
Overall, I would give this glove system a 4 out of 5-star rating with way more pros than cons as to why one should consider the Viking cuff system.
