A discussion on the beach is fairly predictable—you’d be hard pressed to find someone who writes that he/she doesn’t enjoy the sun, the sand and the cool ocean water. The ladies go sun tanning, the men pretend not to be sneaking peeks and the ladies in turn (God bless them for it) pretend not to notice. All things considered, the beach experience between a guy and a gal is pretty similar. Both genders have the mentality of getting in “beach shape;” they both go for a swim in the ocean and they both have some sort of activity to amuse them on the beach—whether it be sun tanning, volleyball, building sand castles or just some simple reading.
I, like the vast majority of people, enjoy a nice day at the beach. Several times throughout the summer, I’ll get a call from a friend saying, “Hey, man. Beach day tomorrow!” From there, we round up a group of our closest friends and take a day trip to Atlantic City, NJ. Upon our arrival, we jump straight into the water, body surfing along the big waves and doing front flips over the smaller ones—the usual routine for guys on a beach day. We take some time to relax and dry off in the sand afterwards, making sure to bury any poor devil among our group foolish enough to fall asleep up to his neck in sand. Later, we spend some time on the boardwalk, grab a slice of the all-too-well-known gigantic boardwalk pizza and head for home.
I suppose if you were to hyper-analyze every step of the day between a man and a woman, there would be differences—but not many. We all ultimately go to the beach for the reason of relaxing and having some fun while the weather is nice and the water isn’t freezing (not to mention it’s a nice way to spend some fun vacation time with family or friends). I would argue that the differences in activities come at a much more individual level, rather than this he said/she said level. I’ve known many ladies who run head-first into the water, doing front flips and splashing about like my friends and I do. I’ve also known many men who prefer to lie out under the sun and get a nice tan as opposed to diving into the ocean. And I can recognize the appeal of both activities. It’s all about what a person’s tastes are and what he/she personally wants to do. I mean, really, if you can’t do whatever you want to do at the beach, where on Earth can you?

By AJ Simmons