Activity guides for the water and the edge of it: open water swimming, surf breaks graded by ability, sea kayak routes, coast path sections, snorkeling and rock pooling. Entries cover entry points, tide windows, typical conditions, wetsuit thickness and local hazards. For readers who visit the coast to get into it.
Open water swimming, surf breaks, kayaking, coast path walking and rock pooling.
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.
Gentle sand-bottom waves, long-running surf schools, and water warm enough to learn in — from Narragansett to Cocoa Beach, the East Coast towns where a first surf lesson actually sticks.
Sheltered water, tidal timing, and wildlife that will not notice you: the estuary systems — from Elkhorn Slough to Mosquito Lagoon — that make the best flatwater paddling on America's coasts.
The best tide pooling happens on negative low tides in late winter and spring — how to read the tide table, pick a protected site, and explore without harming the animals underfoot.