The sport of underwater hockey is essentially one where the equipment has had to be either hand made or modifications made to equipment for other sports. The standard issue underwater hockey glove is no exception.
Urethane glove design (old design - not shown):
Over the years, I have been making my own design of gloves and for some reason, they seem to be very popular with our local players. The baseline design of these gloves used a synthetic fabric glove, which holds up well to the chlorine in the pool. Next, padding made of neoprene was cut and fitted to your hand, then inserted into the glove. The neoprene padding offers excellent protection against impact/injury. Once the neoprene is fitted, the outside of the glove was impregnated with either one or two flexible urethane coatings. The urethane would soak through the fabric and secure the neoprene in place, and it would cure in about ½ hour. The end result is a flexible, durable glove that is lightweight, very comfortable to wear and it lasts a long time. It also has low drag to the pool bottom as well as through the water and best of all, it provides excellent hand protection against the pool bottom, as well as other sticks and the puck itself.
I found that the "feel" of the stick is paramount to effective playing, so I also cut out the palm and thumb locations. By doing that, I am essentially holding the stick in my bare hand, without the glove fabric getting in the way. However, this design is essentially a custom fitted shell to your hand. I have custom made these gloves for players over the years, but they can only be done in person, with your hand, hence the major drawback to this design.
Silicone glove design (new design - pictured above):
However, with a certain amount of research and development effort, I discovered a two-part silicone putty material that can be used to make a glove. This material looks and feels like children's silly putty, but is actually a high grade silicone composition that is not available on the retail market. After it is mixed together, it starts to cure within 10 to 15 minutes. It's approximately 90% cured in ½ hour and 100% cured in 24 hours. Some players have taken it into the water, minutes after it had cured, with no detrimental effects, but I still don't recommend it. The material used to come in two colors: Steel gray or Lilac blue. However, the only color available now is "Power Purple". To make a glove, I mix the two components together by kneading and rolling the material until it's a homogenous color. At that point, I apply it to the gloved hand (held in a fist) and press the material deep into the fabric of the glove to firmly imbed the silicone material into the glove. At the same time, I mold the outside contour of the silicone to perfectly fit the gloved hand, and manipulate the material to provide ample coverage primarily on the first and second knuckles as well as the thumb areas. The end result is a perfectly fitted glove, that is flexible, yet provides excellent impact protection and since it is made of silicone, it is very slippery with virtually no frictional drag of the glove on the pool bottom. The first couple of weeks that I started to test these gloves (I still do my own testing and evaluations before I offer it for others to use), I noticed that I was playing much better hockey. I couldn't initially figure out why I was playing better, but the only thing that I did was to change the glove, so, I went back to my old design glove and there was a noticeable difference. Now, I don't even bother with my old glove anymore.
