I am a right handed person but when I first picked up the sticks, hitting the hi-hats with my right hand in a cross-over fashion just wasn't compfortable. I've been now playing 7 months using the open handed style and keeping time with my left hand. Should I continue this way? It feels the most compfortable. And I feel if I try to play the conventional way, I'll have to learn ALL over again. Any open-handers in here? What are the advantages? disadvantages?
I assume you also have your ride on the left, close to the hats? If you do, then we are exactly the same. I have been playing open-handed for 23 years and I believe it is the most comfortable, ergonomic and sensible way to play. No one crosses their hands to eat, drive, type, open doors, use tools or play any other instruments. Even crossed players play open handed when they get a chance - notice how the ride cymbal is always to their right.
The disadvantages that I see are picking up after some fills. If I end the fill with the left hand, it is tricky to bring the right hand around to hit a crash.
The advantages are that your right hand is free to wander around the set while you left hand holds down patterns with ride, hats, snare, etc. If you're right-handed, as I am, it's good to have your dominant hand on the snare, as the snare is the heart of the drum set and the dominant hand more readily executes complex hand motions. Some people will say that leading with the non-dominant hand works the non-dominant hand harder and you may have trouble keeping up with driving rhythms, but I don't buy it. Indeed, working the weaker non-dominant side of the body seems like a good idea.
Another approach to open playing is putting the ride on the right and the hats on the left. This promotes ambidexterity, which is another level of advacement. I haven't explored ambidexterity at all. Plus, I like having the hats close to the ride - it seem logical to me the same hand should play them both.