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The SURF CAP with a chin strap ...ever guessed who invented it? I invented it circa. 2011 at Bondi Beach. I could not find anything like it on line and so I made my own from a cheap baseball cap and two pieces of old neoprene wetsuit material. The only thing that resembled it was the Rip Curl 'Dawn Patrol' but this was a balaclava with a very thin peak to guard against the sun. The motivation was to protect my wife's beatiful face and turned-up pixie nose from the sun, as she also surfs. Stacks of people approached me at Bondi asking where they could buy one ...but at the time I was working as a high-school teacher and didn't have the time to manufacture them. In 2017, we travelled to Hawaii and again, twice during 2018 where we wore our caps in the surf. Since then they have appeared globally everywhere! My guess is Chinese manufacturers ripped my idea off and it has spiralled out of control since then. There are a lot of operators globally, large and small who claim they invented it ...untrue! My patent attorney informed me that I had 'buckleys chance' (even though I have date stamped evidence in the form of photos) of a law-suit since they were being manufactured everywhere by untold large companies. It still burns me up a little when I see some dude ...even though a novice wearing one on the beach or when I search them out online. But, you know ...I've retired to the Gold Coast, a veritable heaven of surf, sun and wallabies and other beautiful wildlife in my bushy back-yard and about 3 minutes from Currumbin Beach! I made enough bread from my other ideas that I never need to work again! (lucky me ...eh?). So guys, gals and kiddies ...the lesson is get your patents in real quick if you have a world shaking idea!

...other inventions include Tasmanian Oak bumper bar with side reversing cameras fro safe reversing into traffic ...

yours truly ...

... my cute wife ...


..my original designs from 2010 posted on Ebay that year ...

Not sure if this is a stitchup. If not, I don't mean to burst your bubble but I think FCS beat you to market by an easy 5-6 years. At least in South Australia.

I had an FCS surfing bucket hat from early to mid 2000's (still have it and still going strong)..

At the surf shop I worked at from about 2004 to 2015, we sold FCS surfing caps with chin straps side by side with their surfing bucket hats. Both styles were on the shelves but neither sold like hotcakes. Surfing hats weren't very popular early on - not trendy and no pros wore them (still the same today, let's face it) - which may explain why you never saw them at cosmopolitan Bondi Beach circa 2011 when you implemented your idea?

The FCS surfing caps came in grey or khaki and had their old oval black, white and red logo. I can't confirm the exact date that the caps were available for purchase but the FCS surfing caps would have been in store by 2008, easy.

It was only later when we started stocking surfing hats (buckets and caps) from the big brands like Rip Curl, Ocean & Earth etc so you may well have beaten them to market. But I think FCS got you, on a boutique scale at least.

I stuck with surfing bucket hats for better sun protection but the surfing caps do their job for the face too.

MC surfboards Byron,we're making custom surf hats ,possibly before the commercial surf brands started to make them I'm struggling to put a year on them but it was very early.Michael's wife came up with the idea when he had trigiums from surfing early mornings at Broken Head, a good product ,I had one and it was brilliant ,and I have been wearing surf hats ever since