Have used a small Academy pop up for years, but use nylon yellow rope and tent stakes to hold it down.

Also take a couple of 5 gallon buckets to carry stuff in. They work better than the cheap sand toy buckets you get from the souvenir shop too. Also cut the bottom out of one. turn it upside down and fill with sand and poor in some water. Pull it off and you've got a sand castle built to carve. Use plastic forks, knives, and spoons to carve your sandcastles.

I've got a small (approximately 3' long) spade I picked up at Harbor Freight that works great for building big sand castles. also use a couple of garden trowels/shovels/rakes. Take a full size rake too in case it's a bad seaweed season.

Washers is easy set up with a couple of small peices of PVC pipe tou can bury and horseshoes are fun too.

Leave the inflatable pool toys and traditional beach ball at home. Get an outdoor Volleyball, a Rubber Football, a Soccer ball, and one of those rubber PE kickball. Kites are also fun at the beach. If you get a frisbee get one of those heavy disc golf ones.

Beer is good, as is soda, but Gatorade and water are a necessity. I always back my truck down to the shoreline and just leave the cooler on the back. Paper towels, paper plates, and plenty of snacks.

Leave your designer sunglasses in the car too. Grab a cheap pair of dollar store shades so if you loose them in the surf you dont feel sick.

Bring plenty of towels and trash bags too. And you can never have too.much sunscreen. A good book and a bluetooth speaker are always good ideas too.

Goes without saying, but should be added to the list: take a trash bag and take out what you bring in. Don't trash up out beaches.

Watched a local Surfside Beach man set up a pop up tent last July 4. The stakes are great and everything, but he dug four holes about 4 inches deep and set the legs into the holes, pushed in the stakes and covered the holes back up with sand.

Now, our pop ups barely move in the wind while everyone else is scrambling for extra stakes and sandbags.

Whatever you do... DON'T FEED THE GOD **** SEAGULLS!!!

RO519 said:

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Polish horseshoes is a fun beach game. I made my own out of a 10' stick of 2" PVC and two empty beer bottle wrapped in duct tape.

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Is that the game where you try to knock the bottle off with a frizbee?

RO519 said:

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Polish horseshoes is a fun beach game. I made my own out of a 10' stick of 2" PVC and two empty beer bottle wrapped in duct tape.

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We've always called it Beers-bee. I've never heard Polish Horseshoes. Interesting.

Yea. Fun game kids can play, can also be a fun adult game with beverages (how I prefer to play.)

A co-worker showed it to me and thats what he called it, so I rolled with it.

-Typically call ahead of time to a canopy service and have it put in front of whatever rental property we are in.

-Have a typical plastic table with a small base that we bury about a foot under the sand. Table is then used for whatever, typically 42 or moon.

-Wide wheel cart for Fishing Kayak and "just for fun" kayak. Graph/tackle stays in the Fishing kayak

-Yeti cooler

-Pile the loungers on the 'just for fun" kayak the first day and then just leave them on the beach each night. Take them down and put them in a pile just in case winds pick up overnight

-Boogie boards, skim board

-Books

So what is the rules to polish horse shoes? How far apart, etc?

AnScAggie said:

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Ditch the popups and get a Neso shade or something similar. I am not a Port A local, but I have had a place there since 2007, after ever big weekend you can drive by the dumpsters and find tons of broken popup frames. If you do decide you have to get a popup, try to stick to a straight leg design.

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I just want to send a thank you for the Neso recommendation. We got one for our trip last week and it was absolutely awesome. That said, I do recommend buying 2 extra poles (so you have 4 vs. 2) and ordering some sand/snow tent stakes from amazon vs. using the sand bags. It was SO easy to set up/break down in just a couple of minutes and held up great all week through various conditions that broke several nearby popup frames. Had a lot of people asking me about it. Draws attention when you can roll up with something that looks like a small light backpack, takes less than 5 minutes to set up, and holds up great all day.

You're welcome on the Neso. We usually spend about about 30-50 days a year on the beach and having a Neso has made it so much more enjoyable than dealing with pop ups.

AnScAggie said:

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You're welcome on the Neso. We usually spend about about 30-50 days a year on the beach and having a Neso has made it so much more enjoyable than dealing with pop ups.

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+1 on the Nesso.

Compared to a pop up tent they are light, compact, couple minutes to set up, and give you a great shade footprint.