Have you been to a proper beach?

[Blitz24]

1 hour to the mountains, 1.5 hours to the shore from me. Both easily doable (and even in the same day).

 

[TB]

Thats crazy!!

How warm is it in summer?

Assuming that the 216 is his area code, the average high in July is 82F/28C and the 34/1 in January.

 

[Joel]

I live in Ontario on the coast of Lake Erie, my town in the summer is a beach town, and when it's snowing in the winter it's a ghost town. I'm studying in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and I can get to a beach with a 15 minute bus ride, and I'll see snow at some point this year (probably in the new year).

Assuming that the 216 is his area code, the average high in July is 82F/28C and the 34/1 in January.

If the 216 (Cleveland) area code is where he lives, I'm just across on the other side of the lake (closer to right across from Erie, Pennsylvania). There's the same transition, summers are hot and dry, and in the winter the lake freezes over.

 

[Takumi Fujiwara]

Two hours west to the ocean, two hours east to Tahoe/Truckee for skiing. Actually, there are times of year where there's still snow on the mountains around Lake Tahoe but it's warm enough to surf or kayak on the lake, which is pretty nuts when you think about it.

Southern CA has it even better, where my parents' house in LA is, you can drive 40 minutes west to the beach in Santa Monica or like 40 minutes up Angeles Crest Highway to get to snow. (Or like 90 minutes to Big Bear, which is the closest consistent skiing/boarding.) It's actually feasible to ski and surf in the same day.

 

[Daniel]

It's a 20 minute bike ride from the closest beach, and a few hours drive to the closest 'real' snow. We have Snowplanet north of Auckland but it's indoors.

 

[Grayfox]

About 18km from me is North Beach.
About 16km from me is South Beach.

I hate the beach, I hate the fish smell, I hate the water.
I know I would hate the snow if we got any.

 

[Crash]

Yup, been to plenty of beaches in my life.

 

[Small_Fryz]

The whole concept of snow and entire lakes freezing over is really weird to me

The best part about beaches are the girls

 

[motortrend]

No snow here, dont care. Been there, done that, lived in Chile a few years and the cold is not quite my thing though I must admit the snow is fun. Nothing like a good beach though

 

[wfooshee]

Hmmm.... beaches.... beaches.... Let me think......

Yeah, I've seen beaches. This is 15 minutes from my house:

I've seen snow, too..... From when we lived near Baltimore (this was a while back... the MGB was a couple of years old, the Buick was brand new):

I recall quite vividly my anger at my dad for not allowing me to bring my sled when we moved to Florida.....

 

[Kylehnat]

The ocean beaches in Washington are horrible...not proper beaches at all. There are some awesome beaches on some of the lakes and rivers, though. Even so, that's only a July/August/September activity around here .

As far as "proper", warm, sandy beaches, I've been to a few...on the Pacific Ocean in California and Hawaii, on the Atlantic Ocean in Guaruja, Brazil, and on the Indian Ocean in Durban, South Africa I'm searching for one on Arctic Ocean, but I doubt I'll find one that's fit for sunbathing...

 

[Lankay]

The best part about beaches are the girls

+1!

I've lived in a couple of different countries before, none of them had snowfall ever until I moved to Australia, where there is snow. Albeit you have to drive 6 hours or so to go to a mountain or a ski resort. Coincidentally all the places I've lived in is near the water, so beaches are a common thing for me. I am also an avid surfer, and if I lived far away from the beach I don't think I would survive!

 

[Doog]

Well, why don't we take a look.

See any water here? Me either.

 

[Grayfox]

Well, why don't we take a look.

See any water here? Me either.

Yes I do see water in the picture but in a small amount.

 

[Small_Fryz]

I dont see any snow either...

If that helps?

 

[Solid Lifters]

I used to surf and snowboard. It's easily done here in SoCal and both on the very same day. I've been to many 'proper beaches.'

 

[hawkeye122]

Cali Swag. Im less than 30 minutes from snow, and an Hour from the beach.

Granted, it's sucky north-coast beach which isnt "Beautiful", but still has proper sand and swimable water.

 

[daan]

Allow me to quote Billy Connolly.

Tomorrow we are going swimming in the North Sea." And we did. Now the North Sea... Now Aberdeen is a beach, 'cause it's got sand. There the similarity to beaches ends. That's the North Sea for Christ sake. That's the Arctic Ocean just around the corner. 'Cause the Arctic comes down and then it becomes the Atlantic and splits up into the North Sea. On the horizon there's oil rigs. "Now hear this. All employees must wear survival suits at all times. You wouldn't last two minutes, if you fell into the North Sea. Failure to wear the survival suit will result in instant dismissal." Forty miles away there are women taking their childrens clothes off. "In you go, you big Jessie." I had to get stripped. There was fish looking in the water saying "There's a 🤬 pale blue guy coming in." Standing there, skinny, muscles like knots in a midgets penis. And my swimming costume, it was that knitted cotton stuff, with a belt and a 🤬 pocket, the reason for which escapes me completely. None of your Speedo, second skin. This was more your second cardigan. Big wooly number, you know. If you were stupid enough to go in above your waist, they grew, like this. It was absorbent, could drag you to the bottom. You had to grab armfulls, when you were coming out, the crotch was away down here. People could look in and see your willy, if you had one, but in the North Sea, you don't.

I read a magazine. Sumo wrestlers... it was one of those in-flight magazines. Cliff Michelmore, authority on everything, had written it. Sumo wrestlers have such exquisite control of their bodies, they can withdraw their testicles at will. Wuish. So you aim a hefty boot, and they go wuish. Poof. "Is that the best you can do?" I could do it when I was twelve. One foot in and I see the whole 🤬 lot disappear. An ugly gaping wound. Whole thing shut up to my lungs. I had to get it out with a chimney sweeps brush. This is why Scottish guys don't look sexy on the beach, it's all flopping around here. You go to the Mediterranean or Caribbean people are wandering around with a huge thing... like a baby's arm hanging out of the pram. There's your warm water, lap, lap. The wuish has gone. "Connolly, in the water." "I'm going, I'm going." "Come on, you big bloody Jessie, get in there." I ran down and put my foot in, and my heart stopped. I'd never felt cold like that before, and I heard this weird noise: "Whooouuuiiiiiiii. Whooooouuuuuaaaaiiiiii." "What the 🤬 hell was that?" It was me! You know the way, when you get a fright. You know, if you go through a dark room, and an icy hand touches you. Inside your leg or something. Nah. You don't go "Oh, what my goodness. Oh, what was that? Oh gosh!" No, you go "Whooooouuuuuaaaaiiiiii." It's something you're not in control of. "Whooouuuiiiiiiii." You can hear it. Normally you can't hear yourself, you kind of feel it, but that you can hear like it's some other bugger. "Whooouuuoooo." It's something deeply primal, something from when we lived up trees, it's stamped in your DNA or something. "Whooooouuuuuaaaaiiiiii." It's closely related to the "Blutherlyooouuuuuhhh." "Oooouuuuoooooo." You know the noise you get, when you shove a new-boiled potato up a donkey's arse. It's exactly the same noise. "Whohohouhohuhu. Ooouuooo." So the other guys are saying "Go in further, you big 🤬 Jessie." "Oooouuuooooohhh. Ooohhuuuu." And I wandered, up to my knees. I lost the will to live. "Billy!" "Uuhhooop" "Look over there." "Uuuoopp." "Look over there." "Uuoooppp? Uuuhhooo!" There was a guy in a speedboat, a bastard." "Brrrrr." "Uhhooop." Waving. "Uuhooohh." Coming towards me. I didn't want to run, case I fell in. "Uuhooohh." It actually slid in my direction. I hoped it would go away. It got bigger. "Uuhooohh." I will never forget, as long as my arse looks so... I will never forget that wave going up the inside of my thighs. "Uuhooohh." And it kissed the underside of my scrotum. "Aarrrggghhh."

Scotland has loads of beaches, but the cold water means you don't go in much. I have been to a proper beach in Majorca, but I'm not a beachy person. I don't like just going and sitting on a beach.

Hebridean Beach by alanthejoiner, on Flickr

Now, doesn't that look lovely? But I dare you to go into that water...

 

[Omnis]

I live next to the beach. Down in Miami in the 80s you could do "snow" on the beach.

 

[axletramp]

I live on a small island so I'm only ever a short stroll from a beach - the cleanest in Europe. Sometimes it snows but the sea air tends to keep it away. However, I might have a pic somewhere of snow on a beach if you'd like it.

I find that when you do live near so many nice beaches you start to take it for granted. You only notice it when family and friends stay over and point out how nice it is.

 

[GilesGuthrie]

There's snow on the ground outside my house right now. And 6 miles away there are beaches. You'd have to be the right mixture of adventurous, foolhardy and drunk to go swimming in the sea here though.

 

[Bigbazz]

There are a bunch of beaches within 20mins drive from my house, and we usually get snow every year at some point, so both!

The closest beach

Snow in the closest city, bout 30mins away.

 

[axletramp]

You'd have to be the right mixture of adventurous, foolhardy and drunk to go swimming in the sea here though.

There's a tradition here of a Christmas day swim in the sea at a place called Ouaisne Bay. It usually involves a couple of pints at the Old Smuggler's Inn on the beach before a quick strip and run into the water. I've done it once - jeeeesus that put me off doing it again. You definitely need the pub bit first... and after!

I found the only 2 pics I had on my laptop of snow on a beach (sorry, these were taken with my old 2G iPhone). This is a shot from my old house from 3 years ago looking across St Brelade's Bay:



And this was from the same winter but looking back across the bay to the German gun emplacements at Le Fret Point:



Edit: You see that little building in the centre of the pic? Nigel Mansell's house is just below there - he owns that headland.

 

[ziopaperone]

I live here:

so it's 1 hr. to my local beach or something like between 2 and 3.5 hrs. to almost any point of the Adriatic coast north of Apulia.
Regarding snow it's a couple of hours to the Apennines and a bit more to the Alps.

 

[Diego440]

One thing I love about living in Venezuela is that the beach is roughly 40 minutes away. I lived for 3 years in Buffalo, NY and saw my fair amount of snow, here's the beaches:

40 minutes away:

1 hour away:

1 hour by car + 1:30 by boat:

2 hours away:

So apparently, the beaches get better the farther I drive. The coldest the water goes to is around 22°C, and that's only for about a monht in January, the rest of the year it's above 27°C. The dwnside to that is that the outside temperature is rarely below 30°C, which is great for the beach but not so much for daily living.

On the plus side, I go every Saturday to the beach and always take at least a friend and a botle of rum, which rarely makes it home, as we open it around 9:00am and we get back home around 2:30pm. The beach has become a central and necessary part of my week.

 

[NINE_HUNDRED]

I live on the coast of Devon so there's quite a few beaches to choose from. Though, they're your typical English beach. We also get some snow most winters, which is always a bit of fun.

 

[axletramp]

...I go every Saturday to the beach and always take at least a friend and a botle of rum...

At first I read that as '...and always take at least a friend, my bottle of rum...'

Not sure what's going on in my head. I guess that 'Friday feeling' has come a bit early!

 

[Dennisch]

 

[Grayfox]

LOL

Australia is pretty much hell.

 

[Jay]

An Australian would never say "fall"