ll bean!
LL Bean now has a great wide-brimmed hat for kayaking. It’s supplex or something lightweight, it breathes well, it has a neck strap for wind, some mesh for breezes, and you can cinch down the headband so it stays on while rolling. It has floatation in the brim, so if it ends up in the water, it floats.
It comes in hi-vis lime (they say yellow, but it’s lime), which is the main reason I bought it–my pfd and drysuit are both blue, which were really dumb colors to choose. The brim is the widest I’ve seen. You can also get it in the cap model (with a neck cloth).
Best of all, it’s $19, and worth every penny.
Columbia "Duck Key"
It has a general boonie hat shape, not dorky like a tilley, which is helped by the brim not being quite as wide.
The slightly narrower brim also helps in keeping the hat from being as floppy and getting in the way like a surplus boonie can. Also allows for better visibility. Sun shading protection is still good.
Nylon fabric is very light, breathable, and dries in an instant
Terrycloth sweat band keeps sweat from running down into your eyes.
The light colored fabric makes it cooler to wear, but the underside of the brim is dark colored, which reduces glare and eyestrain.
It has an adjustable elastic band in the hat so you can make it fit your head perfectly. Also has a neck strap for added security.
I paid about 12 bucks for mine at an REI sidewalk sale.
http://columbia.com/Product.aspx?top=6&p=4224&cat=61030&viewAll=False
Tilley’s are dorky!!!
Perhaps some people don’t recognize class when they see it.Ducky hats are simply not the ticket to attend partys on yachts.
You get what you pay for
I bought the same hat at Outdoors World and used it twice before ordering a new one.
The brim is not wide enough to protect my neck from the Florida’s sun and it falls in front of my eyes when it gets wet.
IMO it’s a good hat to walk around the block with my dog, not for kayaking.
I don’t think
– Last Updated: Aug-01-07 1:02 PM EST –
any hat is going to stop a complete dork from looking like.. well .. a complete dork.
I don't know why I am so mean today, but I crack me up.
But I do have one suggestion. Those boating caps with the huge front brim, kind of rounded on the skull cap part and then those long flaps that hang down your neck.. got the picture?? You are going to have to look pretty darn good to begin with to pull off that stupid look. So, bag that type of hat straight off.
Well…
I wear a Marmot Pre-Cip safari hat. It’s waterproof, floats, has a strong brim, has never blown off even in a gale, and packs flat. It is bright yellow, though…VERY bright yellow.
Most of the places I regularly paddle, visibility is a big issue. A friend had a bright yellow Kokatat hat on when we circumnavigated Fishers Island on a rough day, and I could see his hat clearly from a mile or more away. I immediately decided that dorky or not, it was a great color to have in busy waters.
Neon red or international orange work, too (Any bright color that doesn’t exist in nature on the water does). Might not make you a fashionplate, but it might save your butt sometime, and you’ll never know it did.
Wayne
Yep. Tilleys are dorky.
So are the big-billed hats with nape capes.
So are the other wide-brimmed hats mentioned.
OTOH, skin cancer is apparently fashionable.
Jim
57, paddling since 13, wears a Tilley and doesn’t give a rats ass about fashion.
Sunday Afternoons Adventure Hat
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I got my first one 10 years ago, I currently have 3 working for me.
Neck strap, folds tiny, weighs nothing, dries in minutes, floats, variety of colors, less dorky than others, what more could I want in a hat?
http://www.tiny.cc/LcLAA
Thanks for all the input
Sorry for stirring up all the controversy with the “won’t look like a total dork” criterion.
Well…I have to say that that Kavu hat looks pretty darn practical. I saw someone wear one at a symposiun recently.
I thought it was one of the most ridiculous looking things I had ever seen…but as I looked closer I realized that ridiculous looking or not it appeared to be super practical for paddling.
So…I may sacrifice on the non-dork criterion for this one. Can’t imagine a hat more practical…or one more dork-like.
I guess I will have to do like the one poster above said, and make sure I really look good to start with.
matt
Dorky
Dorky and functional often coexist.
I like my…
hat from The North Face…Breeze Brimmer Hat from Blue Ridge Mountain Sports ($30-ish). Available in green or tan. Full brim, neck cord, adjustable size by bungee, 100% nylon, super lightweight.
That’s what my wife says about me.
The Kavu works
I haven’t chimed in because it didn’t meet the “non-dorky” criteria. I’m also not sure how it would do in a roll. The thing I like the most about it is that I need a lot of ventilation around my head, especially here in the hot, sultry south. The Chilba has the best ventilation of any hat I’ve ever seen or tried.
dorky is cool
(that’s what the price tag says)
blowing off…
Nice shade, but they blow off in the slightest wind!
aha!
the emperor (dork) has no clothes!
Red - White & Blue
I wear and American Flag baseball cap. It’s my trade mark.
Kavu???
“Nice shade, but they blow off in the slightest wind!”
Were you referring to the Kavu? I couldn’t tell for sure.
Its design appears that it would stay put in high winds. Perhaps not though.
Can anyone clarify for me? How is this hat in wind and for rolling?
If it doesn’t stay on my head doing these then it’s not for me.
thanks
Matt
Kavu
Sorry, don’t know about rolling. In strong gusts I cinch down (up??) the chin strap. The structure of the Kavu is firmer than a hat with a floppy brim. On the other hand, in mild breezes, the wind comes up under the hat and improves ventilation. Feels great to have it swirling around your head.
Are you sure it is the same hat?
I had one of these, loved it for kayaking and field work. Then I used it to carry some sample bottles (for groundwater) for dissolved metals analysis. The nitric acid preservative in the bottles leaked out, ended up ruining the hat. I ordered another from Columbia, looked same on website, but was an entirely different hat - thicker material, floppy brim, no sweatband, no contrasting underbrim, not nearly as a good a hat.
I think our Southeast Texas sun is just as intense as your Florida sun, though I am olive-complexion, so YMMV.
Heck, though, if soldiers can wear boonie hats, which are really floppy, while they do what they do, I think either of these hats should be serviceable for a kayaker.