By Glenn H. Kipps

The subject of this article is quite a bit different from the other posts where I talk mainly about camping in the woods.   Today, we are going to talk about camping on the beach.  I am going to give one of my famous scenerios where everything goes wrong. Then, I am going to give you a few tips on how to avoid these problems.

You are on your long awaited beach vacation.   You don’t want a hotel or condominium.   You want to camp on the beach. You feel that this will give you a feeling of being in the great outdoors without having to deal with the wildlife you find in the woods. You choose your spot and throw all the blankets and sleeping bags down on the sand. Then, you start to build you and your group a cooking fire that is later going to be a huge bon fire after dinner. All of the food and beer coolers are set up. Everything seems great. Uh Oh!!! The next thing you know, a policeman comes over to your area. He informs you that camping is not allowed on this particular beach and that fires are prohibited on all beaches. The closest camping beach is 5 miles South. You have been drinking all day. The only one sober enough to drive is your 16 year old younger brother who just got his license. You don’t have a stove, so you are resigned to eating at the closest McDonald’s or some other fast food. So you pack up everything and take off with little brother behind the wheel. The restaurant is just a block away. After you get your food at the drive up window, you continue to the beaches that allow camping per directions of the officer. Oh, I forgot about those tickets and hefty fines he gave you earlier as well. You are too drunk to respect the new driver. You and your friends are too rowdy. About halfway to your destination, little brother has an accident. While waiting for the police, you apologize to your little brother. The good news is that the cop has decided not to give your kid brother a ticket because of the noble effort to get you and your drunk friends to a safe place to camp. Besides, there was no real damage done to that telephone pole and the car is still drivable. Therefore, not all is lost. So, you guys settle down at your new campsite, stay up a little while longer listening to the ocean. However, the badness has not ended yet. The next morning, all of you wake up in excrutiating pain because of extreme sunburn. Wow!! Some beach vacation this turned out to be.

Well, let me tell you what you should have done to make this trip a pleasurable one. First of all you must think ahead. Not all beaches are camper friendly. It would have been a good idea to call ahead to see which beaches allow camping. Fires are no longer permitted on most beaches. This is sad, because I remember when I used to spend my whole weekends at Mission Beach in San Diego during the day and spend the night at Mission Bay, where there were always at least 8 bonfires. This was when I was completing my A school training to be a corpsman at Balboa Hospital (The Naval School of Health Sciences) in 1988. During the weekends, no one would see me at the barracks. At any rate, back to the subject. There are some beaches that still allow bon fires, but you need a permit. Again, you must think ahead. Next time, bring a stove. If you would have followed these simple suggestions, you would not have gotten into this fix with everyone getting fines.

You should not drink until you know you are in your location to stay. Do not rely on your kid brother who just got his license to get you out of a fix. It’s not fair to him. If you follow this little, but very important suggestion, your car may come back home in one piece. As for the sunburns, you are not 6 years old. Common sense says you should have bought some kind of pop up beach tent or beach shade and a good supply of sunscreen.   They go for $19 and up. If you would have gotten some kind of shelter, you would have had a 95% or better chance of not getting burned. Better luck next time camping on the beach.

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