Spot on review! 💯 The open palm mittens are especially developed for windsurfing. Good to see you like them. The precurved Claw Gloves instead are are more popular amongst kiter as in kiting the bar is thinner and individual fingers are very handy when dealing with the lines. Some time has passed since your review. By now we're stoked to offer two additional gloves for windsurfing. Check out our new Hybrid Gloves suitable for shoulder season featuring a thin palm. For the frosty months, the new Artic Gloves have thick 5mm neoprene on the outside but a very thin palm on the inside. We highly recommend trying these 🌊

I believe boom manufacturers have arrived at the comfortable max diameter grip for the majority of folk to use without gloves. This allows hands to be in a relaxed but strong claw shape which requires minimal input from forearm muscles, rather like carrying heavy bags with fairly narrow handles eg suitcase. Wearing full 2mm gloves effectively adds 4mm to the diameter of the boom arms and for most people this is enough to prevent them forming the claw shape mentioned above. If you're lucky to have a big.... pair of hands😂 you may find that full gloves are comfortable for you. Personally I favour narrower booms, open palm mitts and if extreme cold add thin nitrile/latex gloves or washing up gloves under open palms. Last thing, I had a pair of Atan mitts that were only neoprene construction and contact friction wore them out in half a season, so I'd recommend mitts with amara reinforced bits.

After 20 something years of windsurfing I concur that the open mitt glove by Ion and at least one other maker is great for the cold weather. I have small hands, use small diameter booms, and have also tried numerous glove types over the years. These are great and I had not really thought about letting them “flap” around and will give that a try. I find this video an accurate and honest review 🤙

Good review Paul, like you I find the open palm ION mitts the only comfortable option and I've tried gloves of different styles before but they make it difficult to grip the boom

That has been my experience too Paul. Also if it's super cold I double up the palmless mittens.

I cut the wrists out of the claw and open the palm and they got a lot better can do a hour with them but still prefer the mittens as no limit with them. They are a bit warmer but doesn’t worth it

Thanks for review, I have been thinking about palmless and will probably go for some now......... ION good gear too . Had Neil Pryde before useless.

Great review man,thank you very much!Please try open palm mitts but with just the pinky fingers out (or the last two fingers out) and let me know what you think.

Interesting video, thanks. I sail all year round across in NI and have tried the Palm “claw” type gloves, but find the forearm pressure too great. Recently I’ve started using a pair of 0.5mm Rooster Hot gloves under either my fingerless Gill sailing gloves or the new thin rubbery types they do (like gardening gloves). This allows adequate movement, they’re not too thick and I haven’t had cold fingers (yet)!

100% agree with the open palm mitt flopped over the back of the hands. I do but they fingers in it times if they get cold. I cut the palm out of my claw fingered gloves and the forearm pump was much better. Just harder to get fingers in and out of they get cold.

Gloves are awful. Try the Mystic 5mm lobster claw mitts, individual fingers are terrible for windsurfing