Hat
You may want to look at outdoorresearch.com. Nice selection of wide brimmed hats at prices way less than the Tilley’s.
Pendleton
Here’s a waxed cotton Pendleton hat that is deeply discounted right now, looks pretty nice:
http://www.pendleton-usa.com/product/Sale/Mens-Sale/SALE-HATS-AND-CAPS/ADVENTURE-HAT/166805/pc/1817/sc/1908/sc/1908/c/1830.uts
Hah!
I got a chuckle reading the Pendleton ad copy: “XLarge (7 1/2 - 7 5/8)”.
Doesn’t even qualify in the Big Heads Club.
Jim
which?
I have a couple of Akubra, but I haven’t seen anything they have that would work on the water. They are tough as nails, though.
Agreed
Agreed, all those tiny-headed people have too many choices, while us elephant men have too few. The poly fedoras I mentioned above have adjustable hat bands (nylon bands with cam buckles) to allow them to fit the cranially well-endowed. I refuse to stoop to Tilley.
Dew rags
I wear dew rags most of the time until the sun gets the best of me. When I roll or wet them down they stay nice and cool on those hot days. I carry a brimmed hat on the deck for back up.
Gary
you’ll refuse to stoop to a Tilley
until you find a Tilley on sale!
Cheap straw Panamas
Last about three years if you don’t get them wet and then leave a pack on them for too long. In a previous life we called them “tractor hats.” And who better to look to for time-tested cool sun protection than the guys who spend all their summers in the sun on a tractor?
Chick magnets? What chicks? Do you know how long you can sit on a sandbar in the river and not even get a phone number? Years. Decades. I’ve tried in my Panama and had the same luck as my friends next to me in Tillys. It doesn’t matter what hat you wear. Be comfortable while you’re sitting there.
Never!
I alluded to it above - the basis for my anti-Tilley stance is primarily matrimonial. Which is to say that my wife’s father wore a Tilley for many years, and my wife has an understandable aversion to being married to a younger version of ‘daddy’. It’s bad enough that I teach college as he did. So wearing a Tilley would be the quickest route to divorce for me, either that or I could take up pipe smoking.
Any one with a chin-strap
– Last Updated: Mar-09-10 4:29 PM EST –
and whisky corks dangling from the brim!
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_wFNQ2WlmBx8/RX3WxcKOHQI/AAAAAAAAAEQ/zAcmbm5D5wM/s400/Aussie_Hat.jpg
and proud of it string
I believe you have one too…
Awesome! - NM
Wow
I never would have thought a post on head gear would have garnered so much attention!
You people really are a bunch of freaks, aren’t ya? 
My wife brought home a wide brim fedora type hat. No clue where she got it from, but it is comfortable and has the chin strap. We’ll see how long it lasts…
I think I will still get a tilley.
Oh, yeah. We like to beat
this subject several times per year.
One common thread that I see in any discussion is that most of us are aware of the need for a wider brim (as opposed to just a ball cap) for sun protection.
As for myself, I went to wide brims (OR Sombreros, teh now-defunct Sequels, and now Tilleys) after my Dad had several carcinomas removed from his temple and ear. Nothing like that to get one’s attention!
Jim
Dual purpose
Sweet chapeau! Since it’s foam, it can double as a bilge sponge, no?
That’s exactly right Jim
Its the brim that counts in my opinion also.
I don’t recall who told me this or even if it’s true, but I heard it somewhere and it seems plausible. Evidently the carcinoma rate has gone up and become more frequent on ears and necks since implement dealers and agricultural businesses started giving out free baseball caps to promote their products. Guess that would be foreseeable, but who did?
I worked construction in 1970 in
Charleston ,SC. We wore hard hats,but the top of my ears were burned black.
Another reason I go to a dermatologist every 6 months.And wear brimmed hats.
favorite headwear
In the cap department, I believe the Stormy Kromer is a clear winner.
http://www.stormykromer.com/index.php?_a=viewCat&catId=2
Brimmed hats–my litmus test is that cold-weather brimmed hats have ear flaps. I have a black, felt Tilley which is dressy and lacks the standard dorkiness of most Tilleys–I don’t know that it is still available, maybe replaced by the Montana hat which looks ok. I also have a waxed canvas hat from Woolrich which has ear flaps and have long admired Filson hats–with and without ear flaps.
Felt Tilley
The fur felt version of the Tilley is still available and looks pretty nice - even has hidden ear flaps. More people should wear fedoras.
http://www.noggintops.com/page.cfm?p=238