Greetings All! I'm calling on the collective wisdom of the group for this one. I'm working with Ramon at the marine park and Monique from Toucan Diving to get an exemption for the no dive glove rule (allergies). They have been great with assisting me! I just found out that I will not be permitted to wear skins, but rather latex gloves. I did a quick search on the net for latex gloves and found out there are a number of varieties out there. Any BTers have to wear latex to avoid jelly fish stings? If so, what do you wear? Does the latex work? How does it hold up to the pressure diving (should I by smaller than normal due to compression)? Any advice on this is greatly appreciated because I have never used latex gloves for diving nor heard of this. 12 days to go until I land on Bonaire and desperately want to have all of this worked out so I can dive.

Thanks for any assistance you can lend and sorry to clog up the board with my problems.

Hi, Jeanine!
You are not clogging up the board. This is what the board is for!
I don't follow your question about buying smaller than usual. Maybe you mean larger than usual? Anyhow, I assume you just buy whatever size fits.
Latex is a common allergen. Try on a pair and keep it on a bit to ensure that you don't have a latex allergy.
Latex gloves are available in boxes in drug stores. These are disposable gloves. Take care that they don't blow into the water when you finish with them since they would kill the critters trying to swallow them.
I've never heard of divers wearing them, but doctors of course use them.
Hope they work for you!!
Tish

I know that you can get hypo-allergenic gloves which may be an idea given your reaction! A pharmacist or medical supplier should be able to help you. Knowing how they fit you might want to have a couple of wrist bands or tape as they can be a loose around the wrist.

Having an allergy to Latex, I use vinyl gloves for food prep & handling... also for any hair dye needs. You can pick them up at any beauty supply places suchs as a Sally's. They come in boxes of 50's or 100's... and are relatively inexpensive. As far as size is concerned what ever fits comfortably..

Everyone is so kind on this list. Believe it or not, I do not react to latex and I do use latex gloves when working with wildlife injuries. My allergy is to jelly fish and the marine park will not let me wear dive gloves. They stated I must wear latex gloves instead of actual dive gloves. Odd because they are disposable and not ecologically sound, but I understand that the less protection I have the less fear they have of me touching something I shouldn't. I had never heard of latex being used to protect against jelly fish and cannot seem to find anything in print to support this. As you can imagine, I don't want to dive if I am not protected. If anyone has heard of using latex gloves against jelly fish stings, or know of where I can find this in print to read up on, I would really appreciate the information.

Jeanine,
I will ask scientist Bud Gillan for a response on this. He should know the answer.
Tish

JC,

Many Australian lifeguards have stopped using latex gloves because some species of jellies have nematocysts that are sharp, pointed, barbed enough to penetrate latex. They still use them for blood and tissue injuries though.

For clear nematocyst pics go to:
www.denniskunkel.com
and Search on nematocyst. Look at #98608C
Nematocyst release from box jellyfish (Carybdea alata

You will get the picture. You might try them doubled, or use the vinyl (or Si) ones Jan suggested.

Bud

Thanks Bud! You're the best! I searched, saw, and will be emailing the marine park to see if vinyl instead of latex is permitted. Jeepers - nothing in life can be simple any more!

Cheers! JC

Jeanine, How about winter golf gloves? They are heavy enough and made of different materials.. Ron

Jeanine,

Did you send the Park Bud's link? They may need a bit of education about nematocysts and latex gloves.

Greetings Glen! Yes, I did send the link to the Park with an entire list of questions regarding diver rescue services, liability, etc. Hopefully I will receive a response today.

Greetings all of you wonderful BTers! The marine park and Toucan diving came through for me. I am going to receive an exemption to allow for neoprene. I'm guessing it is because of the severity of my reaction, but in any case I am very please with how willing the marine park and Toucan diving have been in assisting me. I really feared a long drawn out process, but all it took was a couple of emails and a fax from my doctor and all is well. We will be diving Bonaire, happily, come August 7!

Jeanine,
What do you do for the exposed parts of your face...

Greetings Jan! I wear a neoprene hood that has the chin covering. That with the mask only leaves a very small portion exposed around my reg. Thankfully, I have never been stung in that area. I did get hit once on the chin before I started wearing a hood, but that was when I only swelled and bruised from the allergic reaction. Now, I wear the hood always.

Jeanine,
If you find neoprene is just too "clunky" in the warm water, you may want to try rubber "dishwashing" gloves. I love them for cool water when dexterity is nice and neoprene is too thick. long gauntlets too!