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Beach Games: Fun for Everyone
| Article
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14241 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
7 / 1988 |
2,402 Words |
| Author
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Chauncey Mabe
Chauncey Mobe is a writer and editor for the News & Sun-
Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. |
Debbie Strand leads her tow-headed sons, Eric, six, and Karl, two, to a spot near the surf. Husband Glen follows with a cooler. The air at Singer Island's public beach in Palm Beach County, Florida, is laden with the pleasing aroma of coconut oil. Nearby a twosome bats a ball back and forth with a set of oversized paddles. A hollow ring sails overhead, and in the ocean a number of people ride the waves on mini-surfboards.
Pulling similar toys and games from a bag, Debbie sends her men-folk off to play. Just as she settles down to roast in the sun--her favorite pastime--a small beanbag plops on her tummy.
"Sorry, Mommy," says Eric, running to retrieve it. "I kicked it the wrong way."
A day at the beach for the Strand family is no longer, well, a day at the beach. Like others around the country and around the world, they not only soak up rays and frolic in the surf, they also spend their time playing with a variety of new games. These games are joining--and in some cases supplanting--traditional seaside pastimes such as Frisbee, volleyball, and surfing.
A good example is Hacky Sack, a small bag filled with plastic BB's that players kick among themselves. Another new toy is the Aerobie. It's a thin, aerodynamically sophisticated ring that sails like an ordinary Frisbee, only much, much farther. Bodyboards are also increasingly popular. These are relatively inexpensive junior cousins to surfboards that combine the advantages of body surfing and conventional surfing. Perhaps the most widely played of the new games is the paddle game Kadima, or Smashball, as it is marketed on the West Coast.
None of these games are really all that new. Most were introduced in the early 1970s. What's new is their widespread and ascending popularity. Pop-A-Lot, played with a pair of funnel-like devices to catch and propel a ball back and forth, was a yard game in 1971 and had earlier variations. But more and more, it is showing up among the nontraditional games at the beach, where it is an ideal way to pass the time, especially for children.
In fact, aside from the paddle games and bodyboards, none of these pastimes were developed with the beach especially in mind.
Fighting Beach
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