What A Skin Cancer Survivor Wants You To Know About This Sun Protection Fishing Shirt.
- By: Joseph Simonds
- on
- Found In: Best Fishing Stories, Product Reviews, Salt Strong Products
8 SPF Sunscreen…
That was my go-to sunscreen while growing up as a teenager in Florida.
8 SPF!
Seems downright dumb today knowing what we know about the damage the sun can cause, doesn’t it?
Here’s the quick backstory on my battle with skin cancer and why this could affect you…
I grew up my entire life in Florida, and I spent most of my waking hours outside (when I wasn’t in a classroom).
From bass fishing after school in our central Florida lake, to spending summers at Daytona Beach fishing the Ponce Inlet and Port Orange areas, to playing baseball, to just hanging out on the water with friends, I was a guy that loved being out in the sun.
And I am proud to say that I was really good about always putting some sort of sunscreen on my face, arms, hands, legs, and any exposed part of my body while outdoors.
But I am also a bit embarrassed (but lucky to be alive) that I used a very low SPF sunscreen when I knew I should have used something stronger…
Now in all fairness, I was born in the late 1970’s, and back then these super high 50, 70, and 100 SPF sunscreens did not exist like they did today.
However, SPF 15 did exist.
And shortly after, SPF 30 was introduced…
But I chose not to use the higher sun protection that was available so that “I could get a better tan”…
That poor choice almost cost me my life at the young age of 28.
Today, it pains me to see kids, parents, and fellow anglers make the same mistake that I made with the sun…
Even worse, I cringe when I hear anglers tell me they don’t use sunscreen “because they don’t burn… they tan”
That is just asking for skin cancer, not to mention, guaranteed serious skin damage.
Here are three sun protection tips that I wish someone had drilled into my head back when I thought I was “invisible” to ever being diagnosed with skin cancer:
- Just because you have sunscreen on doesn’t mean you aren’t getting skin damage (in some cases, even serious skin damage if using the wrong sunscreen or a weak UPF clothing)
- Skin cancer can attack anyone (white, black, Irish pale, or tan as heck), and it always seems to show up when you least expect it (years after the skin damage has been done)
- The only way to truly protect yourself from skin damage is to block BOTH the UVB and UVA rays by using either a physical sunscreen with some sort of zinc or titanium oxide or by wearing a high UPF rated fabric.
Note: The rest of this blog will only cover UPF rated fishing shirts. If you want to know more about the best sunscreens and other ways to avoid skin cancer, check out this popular blog post: “5 Things Angler Can Do To Avoid Dying From Skin Cancer [VIDEO]”
The Truth About Performance Fishing Shirts & Sun Protection
The truth regarding sun protection with today’s “microfiber performance fishing shirts” is this…
NOT ALL FISHING SHIRTS ARE CREATED EQUAL
For instance, I recently had someone send me over a really cool looking “Bamboo” performance fishing shirt that they were thinking about purchasing.
But after a quick investigation of the “bamboo” fishing shirt material that this apparel company was using, I discovered the shirt only had a UPF rating of 15!
15 UPF!
That’s like me putting on 8 SPF sunscreen today when I know there exists 50 SPF sunscreen that my skin really needs.
So don’t be mislead into thinking all of these new “performance fishing shirts” are going to protect you from the sun the same way.
Nothing could be further from the truth!
Notice below that a 15 UPF rating barely made the “Good” category.
And just one rating lower at 14 UPF it isn’t even recognized!
Now this is not a knock on the bamboo fishing shirt company… I am sure the shirts are good quality, but they certainly won’t protect you from the sun like a 50+ UPF shirt would.
Not even close.
Check out how the UPF ratings (found in all performance fishing shirts) stack up:
And although a 2-7% change in UV protection might not seem like much on the surface, that’s could be all it takes to be the difference between skin cancer and cancer-free skin.
Trust me, I know from experience!
It’s not worth taking any chances on.
Cover up, and cover up with the best sun protection clothing you can find!
Note: You can see more on this blog called “Everything You Could Ever Need To Know About Performance Fishing Shirts”
The Ideal UPF Sun Protection Fishing Shirt
So you might be wondering what is the ideal UPF rating for your fishing shirts?
I don’t know about you, but if someone offered me the following four bottles of sunscreen…
- 8 SPF
- 15 SPF
- 35 SPF
- 50 SPF
I’m reaching for the 50 SPF bottle!
Why?
Because from what I know about skin cancer, you would be crazy to take the 8 SPF bottle when you know a much better sun protection SPF exists.
And just like SPF ratings with sunscreen, I recommend all of my loved ones to use the highest UPF rating shirt they can find (the highest is 50+ UPF by the way).
Likewise, I would NEVER recommend anyone use any fishing shirt that is less than a 30 UPF rating.
It’s just not worth the skin damage exposure no matter how lightweight or comfortable the shirt is.
So do yourself a favor and only use sun protection fishing shirts with anywhere from 30 t0 50+ UPF ratings (and I highly recommend a 50+ UPF for all-day fishing trips).
Here is what I know:
- Skin damage (and skin cancer) builds up over long periods of time due to not using the correct sunscreen or sun protection clothing. And skin cancer can happen as the result of using a weaker SPF sunscreen or wearing a weaker UPF rated clothing over extended periods of time.
- And there is nothing sexy about waking up one day with this on your arm…
Don’t let the sun take advantage of you and leave you with scars like I have!
Don’t wake up one day freaking out about a new dark spot that showed up…
Protect yourself with long-sleeve, high UPF rated sun protection clothing!
The Ultimate Sun Protection Fishing Shirt
(from the perspective of a skin cancer survivor)
All of my friends and family know about my bout with melanoma skin cancer.
And all of them know that I still love to spend time out in the sun fishing.
So as you can imagine, a question I get frequently (especially from my mom) is what clothing am I using to protect my skin from further sun damage (and ultimately, from avoiding another skin cancer scare)?
Well, the truth is I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted in a sun protection fishing shirt many years ago.
Back then, the shirts with the highest UPF ratings were overly expensive or too hot to fish in. And if I found a lightweight shirt, it always seemed to be either void of any design or logo (a black shirt), or it had some obnoxious fishing design that just wasn’t my style.
So my brother Luke and I set out to make our own sun protection fishing shirts that would be the absolute best in all respects:
- Highest UPF rating we could find (50+ UPF)
- Highest quality of fabric we could find at the 50+ UPF level
- Simple, yet Strong designs
- Lowest price to the consumer as we intended to sell direct and cut out the retailer middleman so that all anglers could afford to have the best sun protection apparel out there
And we accomplished all of this and named the shirt the “Strong Angler” Performance Fishing Shirt.
Late last year we lowered the price on our most popular shirt when right before we released the blog “5 Things Angler Can Do To Avoid Dying From Skin Cancer” (you can see it here) in order to make sure we had a high-quality sun protection shirt that anyone could afford.
Our intention was to raise the price back up to where it should be for this type of quality of shirt, but after hearing so many positive reviews, emails from skin cancer survivors, and praise from anglers on how they have finally been able to afford to protect their entire family out on the water, we kept the super low price.
And we intend on keeping the all-time low price as long as we can… of course, no guarantees it will last forever (in fact, it will go up eventually).
So grab your sun protection fishing shirt here today at the all-time low prices for this high quality of a microfiber fishing shirt.
We are so confident you will love it that we have a 30-day Challenge in place where you can put the shirt to the test however you want… if you aren’t 100% satisfied, you can send it back for a full refund.
We’ll even pay for the shipping back to us we are so confident you will love it!
I hope you got something out of this, and I hope you know understand why this is the only performance fishing shirt a skin cancer survivor (me) trusts to fish in…
Related Post: “5 Things Anglers Can Do To Avoid Dying From Skin Cancer” (read it here now)
P.S. – If you think your angler friends or fishing network would benefit from seeing this, please Tag them or Share this with them. It would mean a lot to me.
Fish On.
Pa-POW!
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Not getting much luv from u guys which is disappointing
Hey Mick, at this point we don’t ship to Australia but should be sometime early next year. Thanks for taking the time to read the post and commenting. Let us know how we can serve you better my friend.
Joe