Open water swimming, surf breaks, kayaking, coast path walking and rock pooling.
The National Weather Service posts a rip current risk level for surf beaches every day, and the flags on the sand say something different again. Here is what each one means, and what NOAA and the National Park Service tell swimmers to do when the water pulls.
Sand adds resistance and instability to everything — here is how to time a beach workout around the UV index and tide, where the public class scenes run deepest, and what a sensible week looks like.
Cowell's in Santa Cruz, La Jolla Shores in San Diego, and three more West Coast beaches where the waves are slow, the schools are established, and a wetsuit solves the cold.
Cape Hatteras's thermal winds, San Francisco's summer gale, South Padre's flat-water lagoon — the five coastal venues where reliable wind turns a beach trip into a sailing trip.
From the legendary nets of Manhattan Beach to Miami's South Beach courts, the coastal cities where anyone can drop into a pickup game — and where the sport's biggest events play out each summer.
Shorelines concentrate birds like nowhere else — the five coastal sites and the two migration windows, spring and fall, that put warblers, shorebirds, and raptors within binocular range.