Dan's Papers - July 4, 2008 - Reaching Beyond Kadima and Volleyball

The Hamptons has some of the best beaches around. Southampton's Cooper's Beach and East Hamptons' Main Beach have made Dr. Beach's Top 10 Beach List for the past few years. At these top beaches, beachgoers can lie out on a towel, relax and work on that tan. However, the beach experience shouldn't stop there. These beaches are ranked highly for a reason and should be enjoyed to their fullest capacity.

One of the ways to enjoy these beaches is to play beach games. There are the typical beach sports such as soccer, football, wiffle ball, running, swimming, volleyball, and badminton. And then there are those games that go beyond the standard game of catch. These games, which are great for all ages, take a little more creativity than the standard games and require a little patience in learning the rules.

Beach bowling, for example, takes the basic beach essentials - a ball and a bucket - and adds a twist. When playing beach bowling, take a bucket, fill it with moist sand, pat it down and turn it over to create a bowling pin. This process can be continued to construct a standard bowling triangle with one pin in the first row, two pins in the second row, three pins in the third row and four pins in the last row. A "lane" with the pin setup should be created for each bowler taking part in the game. This way each bowler can roll the ball twice each frame, as is done in professional bowling. When the pins are set up, take a few steps from the pins. You may want to draw a line when you find the perfect tossing distance to prevent arguments when the game starts becoming competitive. This way, after you play as many frames as it takes to tire you out, the scores can be added up and a winner can be crowned.

Another game that can be played with only a ball and a few holes is beach golf. True beach golf does not mean bringing your sand wedge and a bunch of beat up golf balls to the beach to practice your bunker play. Rather, it is played with driftwood you find along the shore, a tennis ball and a few holes you dig up yourself. The object of the game is to hit the tennis balls into the holes you created.

Extremely competitive beachgoers may be more interested in a water bucket race. To play this sport you need at least four players, two large buckets and two cups or small buckets. The two teams line up with all the players behind the large bucket. When the game starts, one player from each team will run to the shore, fill the cup with ocean water, run back and dump the water into the large bucket and then pass the cup off to a teammate. The game will be played until a team fills the large bucket with water.

For those of you who prefer to keep it simple, beach bull's-eye or sand darts may be your game. This game is the beach version of darts and only requires a few circles in the sand, as well as a bull's-eye. Assign a point value to each circle and look for some stones or shells to act as darts. Players should take about five to ten steps back and try to hit the bull's-eye. Each participant is allowed three throws per turn. After several rounds, add up the scores and determine who is the sand dart champion for the day.

There are also different games depending on the size of your group. Frisbee, hacky sack, bocce, sand tick-tac-toe, horseshoes, keep-it-up with a beach ball, and catch are great games for two or more people. However, if your group is more than two people, you may want to play kickball, tag, dodgeball or Marco Polo in the ocean. Fishing, flying a kite or building a sandcastle are fun beach activities for only one person.

If these games aren't for you, there's always the good old-fashioned metal detector.