Swimming gloves are neoprene or silicone gloves that increase the surface area of your hands to help you to swim faster. They are inexpensive and add an extra bit of fun to all kinds of swimming activities at the lake, and bring new life to all those other water toys sitting around at your cottage
I am a lifelong lakefront cottager and avid lake swimmer. I grew up swimming at my family’s cottage at Lake of the Woods near Kenora Ontario. Back then my favorite water toy was a huge inner tube my Dad got for us. These days as a parent, I have bought my family every water activity there is. We have everything from paddle boats to innertubes to snorkelling gear and the things that get used most often are the webbed swimming gloves because they make the other things more fun.
What you will learn
If you are interested in learning more about swim gloves and how they can be a great addition to your beach toy shed, read on.
What are Swimming Gloves?
Swimming gloves are webbed silicone or neoprene gloves that are used for a variety of reasons when swimming in pools or open water.
What are Swimming Gloves used for?
Originally swim gloves were created as a training tool for swimmers and athletes.
They are often found in aquatic fitness classes to provide resistance for upper body muscles.
Surfers and body-boarders sometimes use them to help paddle and to help grip their boards.
Types of Swimming Gloves
There are several types of swimming gloves
- Neoprene webbed swim gloves, are often the easiest to take on and off and feature cut-out fingertips so that you still have a reasonable amount of dexterity when wearing them.
- Silicone webbed swim gloves have a surface area that extends beyond your fingertips and provides more surface area for pull when swimming.
- silicone webbed swim gloves that have cut out fingertips much like the neoprene version.
- silicone webbed swim gloves that only cover part of your fingers and create a webbed effect without being a full glove.
Our #1 Swimming Gloves
Around our place, the most popular swimming gloves are the ones that only go on your fingers. This is simply because they are the easiest to take on and off even though the full glove silicone ones that provide a greater surface area did do a better job of helping you swim faster.
Why Swim Gloves belong at the lake
Even though swim gloves were originally intended for more athletic pursuits, I think they have no better use than at the lake and definitely deserve to take up some space in your water toys shed.
- They make swimming fun and give you an extra umph so you can swim faster
- Younger kids love them for making them feel like real mermaids/Aquaman.
- They are great to help you paddle around on your floaty of choice
- They add some added speed to your snorkeling explorations
What to do next
At the lake, new water toys like paddle boards and inflatable floaties are a lot of fun, but after a while, everyone gets bored of them. Simply adding some webbed swimming gloves suddenly adds new life to plain old swimming, floaties, and snorkeling gear. For more ideas about fun in the water check out more of our Water’s Edge articles.
Sienna Kaur
Writer
Sienna is a freelance writer who writes about the outdoors, family, and fun all at the same time. When she is not writing about life at the cottage, she is doing deep research at her family's place at Lake of the Woods.