People who know me realize that I’m not an average size person. Normally, I have great trouble getting the right size when I order items of clothing.
Within two minutes of placing and re-placing version 2 on my head I noticed that the prototype OzSTOC hat was a very good fit for my head at 61cm. Not only a good fit but also very comfortable.
I agreed to take the hat home and give it a trial in real life situations. Regrettably I haven’t been fishing, caravanning or gardening to give the hat a proper trial. Usually, I only pack one hat when I’m on a motorcycle trip to identify myself as one of the group. I already have the OzSTOC ‘baseball’ style cap and one from the other pub.
I had “Lionel” engraved on one of these caps to make it easier for other riders to know who I was and also to help identify which of a collection of caps was mine. I’m not sure if I’ll do the same on the new style of hat but I probably will.
The version 2 hat is very similar to my Army issue hat though the OzSTOC hat is slightly larger as seen in the photo below.
Some people have made comments about the floppy shape and the chin lanyard. I prefer the soft, floppy style. I also much prefer a decent brim for keeping the sun off my ears and back of my neck. The version 1 hat may fit the bill though I think the baseball caps are next to useless for this purpose. In this photo taken at Government House in Canberra you can see the sun burning the left side of my face.
As for the chin lanyard, I’ve been in situations where I’ve needed both hands to land a fish in blustery conditions. I can’t show you the blustery conditions but here is one such huge fighting fish.
As an aside, my fishing return on investment is somewhere north of $7,500 per kilogram. So when I’m in Brisbane I generally catch my fish at Morgan’s Reef in the Redcliffe area. I never fail to catch fish in this location so as a favour to my OzSTOC mates here is the LatLong, -27.195276, 153.107764
In summary, I believe the version 2 hat is a better proposition than version 1 and certainly better than the existing cap. I’ll probably order two, one to keep in pristine condition for OzSTOC group photos and one for fishing, etc. I certainly recommend version 2 of the new style of hat to others.
