Light when you need it from 2C Solar Light Caps
Australian adventurers Geoff Wilson and Garth Freeman and New Zealanders Craig Hansen and world multisport champion Steve Gurney have just achieved two new World Records - the MadWaySouth team completed the first trans-Saharan crossing by wind-power alone and the longest kite buggy over 2100km.
All four men and their eight support and film crew wore 2C Solar Light Caps in an extreme test of their robustness and effectiveness while travelling further than ever before by wind buggy - 2500km from Morocco to Senegal. It’s one hell of a way to test drive a product. But what better way to ensure they’re ready for Australian conditions?
The 2C Solar Light Cap consists of a stylish, solar panel and charging electronics system in the brim, sealed against water and dust. By day, this charges while also protecting the user from the sun’s rays. By night, it becomes a state-of the-art headlight, providing ultra-bright warm white LED light for more than three hours operation on full beam and 36 hours on dim.
“I am sure that any test we could put them through, they would triumph,” says Australian team leader Geoff Wilson. “With no shortage of sunlight for recharging, each night the bright lights on the caps made late arrivals and digging around camp for gear, easy and painless. The sun protection during the day was exceptional. I certainly would not expedition again without a 2C Cap.”
The caps were a huge hit with the whole team,” agrees Steve Gurney. “They all put their names on and were guarding them with their life. They’re one of five essential pieces of equipment to take if we ever did the Sahara or somewhere like it again. We used them every night!”
The two discreet lights underneath the unique, flexible solar panel peak provide a carefully calculated beam angle that ensures it doesn’t shine into people's eyes, while an alert flashing option allows the user to signal their location in case of trouble.
“The bright flashing setting was really useful for pointing backwards to protect us from other traffic running into our rear,” says Wilson’s teammate Garth Freeman. “They were very visible.”
They could even save a life, which was on the mind of New Zealand inventor Simon Dyer when he found himself lost on a precipitous edge in the dark on Tioman Island. “It’s taken more than three years of product development, dozens of design prototypes and a host of scientific tests, but now, our unique Solar Light Cap uses superior, sophisticated 2CTechnology to give unequalled performance and reliability, in an award-winning, world class ergonomic design.”
“These hats are serious adventure gear,” says Craig Hansen. “They replace at least three items in your pack - head torch, batteries and hat (if you’re using rechargeable batteries then the charger as well) - with one practical item. That’s a significant saving to the amount of stuff you have to carry. We found them to be exceptionally robust. We brutalised them for a month in the desert and they were always bright enough and never ran out of light.”
The Solar Light Caps have a multitude of uses, including outdoor adventuring, camping, fishing, boating, tramping, around the home or workplace. The long-life batteries are made from nickel metal hydride. No cadmium means minimal environmental impact and life expectancy of more than 5000 hours. No more heavy and expensive batteries and an endless source of hands-free, environmentally-friendly light.
“The hats turned out to be one of the finds of the trip,” says Hugo Fitzsimmons, one of the crew filming MadWaySouth. “Not only did we find them invaluable, but most of the locals wanted to get their hands on one as well!”
“They just worked, which made life so much easier,” adds Hansen. “We’d pick up the hat, go hard through the day, travelling for 18 hours. Then, when night came, they were fully charged up, so we never needed to worry about having light. And the hands-free operation of the lights was very, very useful.”
One possibly unique use for the caps was a reluctant bribe to get across a border, as Steve Gurney explains, “The police officer saw our 2C hats on our heads and the others lined up on the car’s dashboard, charging, and wanted one or several hundred dollars as a bribe to get through the police stop!”
For more information on 2C Solar Light Caps, visit www.ajmanagement.com.au or www.solarlightcap.com.au
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