What do you consider beach living?

[1AngryTaxPayer]

True beach living is walking distance to the surf. I can walk pretty quickly to the bay but it's a different kind of beach as there is no surf. In many ways it's even better. Less traffic being the main one. With the beach goes the traffic and crowds.

[wac_432]

Beach living is on the sand or 1-2 blocks away. High surf events should coat your property in salt spray and you should have to deal with tons of corrosion, drifting sand, and worry about sea-level rise, tsunamis, or storm erosion.

We live 1 mile (and 400 vertical feet) from the beach. It takes about 5 mintes to bike to the nearest surf break, and 2-3 minutes just to get to the sand. We have an ocean vista and I can do surf checks from our place, but I don't consider it beach living. We can be sunny and 75F while the beach is socked in and in the low-60's. We don't get the corrosive spray, just normal water from the marine layer and fogs. The only sand we have to deal with is what we track home. We have an outdoor shower and surfboard storage, we can surf every day, but we don't have to deal with the bums, partiers, and all the natural and man-made problems of the beach. I prefer our situation, because everything doesn't always have to be all about the ocean, but I'd also be happy with a place right on the water.

I would be very unhappy living more than a short bike ride inland, at this point. I've done that in the past and it sucks.

[tstieber]

You can have Beach living by a lake or Bay too. Mission Bay in SD (close to the ocean of course) has its own Beach front and lifestyle. Alameda in the Bay Area has a huge sandy beach on the bay that's really popular. Plus, while NorCal Ocean temps hover in the high 50s, the shallow bay gets into the low 70s. So it's a nice alternative in a region that otherwise has just Santa Cruz as a dependably warm and sunny beach area. And then there's Lake Tahoe, where the best beaches are. Turquoise water, warm surface (don't go too deep!), 80+ air temps all summer, water sports, warm sand, beach bars, etc. In fact, friends from Europe have said their favorite summer beaches in the whole state are in Tahoe.

[MtnSurfer]

Originally Posted by tstieber

You can have Beach living by a lake or Bay too. Mission Bay in SD (close to the ocean of course) has its own Beach front and lifestyle. Alameda in the Bay Area has a huge sandy beach on the bay that's really popular. Plus, while NorCal Ocean temps hover in the high 50s, the shallow bay gets into the low 70s. So it's a nice alternative in a region that otherwise has just Santa Cruz as a dependably warm and sunny beach area. And then there's Lake Tahoe, where the best beaches are. Turquoise water, warm surface (don't go too deep!), 80+ air temps all summer, water sports, warm sand, beach bars, etc. In fact, friends from Europe have said their favorite summer beaches in the whole state are in Tahoe.

You know, its funny that you mentioned Tahoe. Since picking up SUP'ing I've been dying to get up there and give it a go on the lake which is truly a beautiful place. Normally I only go there for snowboarding in the winter. But Tahoe and HI were actually the first main areas where the SUP sport began for obvious reasons.

In the PNW, where we are considering a move to, the Sound is the same way with many beach and water sports along with too many lakes to count. So yes, although somewhat of a 'beach snob' growing up (hey, its a cultural thing for most coastal communities), I now know there are many others beautiful areas with 'beaches' next to bodies of water which are fantastic places to enjoy the sun, sand and watersports.

Derek