With. I live near the beach & hate it for all the reasons you mentioned, plus sunscreen (you put it on and sand then sticks to your body) & going in the ocean creeps me out cause there are animals in there.
I prefer a swimming pool any day over the beach.
I grew up with four beaches within easy biking distance (not counting the one in front of our house, since you couldn’t swim there), and another couple a ten-minute drive away. I loved the beach, and still enjoy it (most of the beaches were rocky instead of sandy). I tend to prefer a mountain lake Beach because the scenery is more interesting.
I don’t swim as much as I used to, but that started when I developed astigmatism. I don’t want to keep my glasses on, but everything is distorted without them (I can deal with blurryness).
Love the beach, partner doesn’t see the point. We vacation separately once a year.
I have never understood the appeal.
The Dead Milkmen seem to agree. 
The beach is awesome. Love absolutely everything about it, except for the beach and the water.
Depends on the beach. There’s a length of PVC pipe standing straight up offshore from Buccaneer State Park in Waveland, MS; tidal gauge, I’m guessing. Katrina probably took it out but it was hella fun to tie a raft to and ride the waves!
Love the beach. I am a rock climbing, tidepooling, beachcombing nut.
I don’t like crowds though.
No. I like to go to the shore, I enjoy the change of scenery and change of pace from being home. For me, being at the shore, (down the shore as we say here) has a completely different vibe to it and I like that for a change sometimes. However, I do not enjoy just sitting or lying on the beach.
I was just gonna say, you’re a pow’ful better swimmer than I am!
I love playing in the surf. It picks me up, and throws me around. I can body-surf and feel like I’m flying. I can look shorewards and get surprised by waves. It’s like rasslin’ with a really big and powerful friend.
The ONLY thing I don’t like about the beach is how hard it is to find a parking place anywhere nearby. Otherwise, a few hours in the water is totally wonderful.
Wife and I both love it. We didn’t get to go often growing up; my family didn’t have the money and her parents just didn’t like it. We appreciate that we’ve been able to enjoy it with our kids. We go to Rehoboth Beach the week after Xmas every year, and we’re headingo for St. Croix for Ms. P’s 50th this summer.
Ironically, I live two blocks from the beach in Waikiki and rarely hang out there. I’m pretty meh about it overall. But it sure is nice in the water when the weather is good, I admit that.
Fruity drinks with umbrellas… lots of eye candy, bonfires, meat cooked on fire…
I love the beach. Don’t care much for swimming in the ocean though.
Well, if you consider pasty-looking fat, old broads eye candy. Going by my Waikiki experience.
As a teen, I didn’t understand the appeal of my female contemporaries who’d like sizzling in the sun for hours at a time. I do like to listen to the surf and watch the ocean, but that’s best when the beach isn’t covered by noisy, oil-covered tourists.
Maybe I got spoiled because my grandparents owned a hunk of land on the Magothy River, a bit south of Baltimore, and we’d go there just about every Sunday in the summer. You could actually swim there, not just bob in the surf. And there were trees for shade, a hammock, and just family, hence, no noisy neighboring radios or shrieking kids running amok.
So, no, going to the beach isn’t my idea of fun.
A lot has to do with which beach you’re talking about. Not all beaches are alike. In Thailand, Hua Hin was a favorite – nothing spectacular but not too far from Bangkok and, some distance away from the large “umbrella slum” there, had an isolated section with lounge chairs, food and drink. Other beaches around the country were dreadful. Same here in Hawaii. Just depends.
When that happens, i bellow at them like a rabid walrus on roid rage.
makes them back off and stop poking you with the sticks.
I am confused?
In high tide, my head would be under water long before i was too far away to be visible.
wait NO, just NO
My head under water drowning does not count as being too far away to see.
Also it may bear mentioning that where i live, the beach is small and isolated, it is only local people, no tourists outside of someones visiting family members or something, so none of that nonsense like daytona or lauderdale etc
I was making a lame joke. With your head underwater, you would also no longer be visible.
mmm
Beaches are better with good music, my music, few vendors, cold beer, snacks, sun, lack of obnoxious folks playing bad music, eye candy, semi-athletic pursuits, good rollerblade tracks, few dune buggies or loud watercraft, exotic location, fresh juice drinks…
Yes. I’m currently at the beach, by the way, in sunny Florida, with my lovely wife. We did some fun adult stuff in the morning, then walked two blocks to the beach and waded out and rested in the water, then napped in the sand, then gorged ourselves at an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet, and now we’re back at our rental, digesting our food.