The hot debate this week in the inter-office mail concerns a touchy subject – do surf products unfairly give you an edge over other surfers out in the line up? It is already an accepted fact that thicker and “floatier“ surfboards give a surfer added buoyancy that allows them to paddle into waves faster and easier than their slimmer counterparts, but what about additional products?

Take for example the hot new item from Black Lagoon Products called DarkFin Gloves, a durable latex rubber webbed glove marketed towards partakers of scuba diving, snorkeling, swimming, sky diving, and of course surfing.

The higher volume resistance that a webbed glove provides a paddling surfer places them into a wave faster and with less effort … allowing for more fluid entry into a wave, and because it takes less effort to catch waves, it provides prolonged surf sessions. “Yeah!” says every surfer out there … easier to catch waves, and you don’t get tired as fast! Cool right?

Not so, says some surfers who consider themselves as purists and soul surfers. “Using such devices just is flat out cheating!” Same with “fins that let you ride the nose longer (turbo tunnel fins), boards that are floaty and require less paddling muscles (epoxy boards), plus all the other surf gloves out in the market.” Like we said, it is a touchy subject.

It is a clash of beliefs and ideologies … some view modern day and technologically driven surf products as soulless and bastardized idols designed to rob the sport of kings of its soul, while others praise it with such welcomed glee, hailing them as modern day tools that allow those who would be kings to enjoy the sport as well. Some keepers of the cool dismiss any and all surf products not associated with the retro style or the heyday of surfing as kook wear …

We wanted to know how people really feel about this, so we contacted Black Lagoon Products and asked them for some sample gloves. Waiting in the wings are our fearless testers, ready to paddle out into Oahu’s Punishing North Shore line up, as well as the South Shore’s fashion mavens of surf to see just how the gloves stack up … both technologically and socially.

Yeah, technologically – does it do what it says it does … and socially – will we get the snot clobbered out of us? Stay tuned as we report back in the following weeks about our water tests  … in the meantime, check out the gloves at the official website.