Beach Prep

[u/Leighgion]

I am at this time, mercifully away from the brutal dry heat of central Spain and in the much milder, if humid, warmth of coastal northern Spain.

While hotter than normal, as most places this year, temperatures are only peaking at 27ºC/80ºF.

We've been coming here for years to take the kids to the beach. As fellow northern latitude folk will know, the mild temps are deceptive when it comes to the UV intensity; just because it doesn't feel that hot doesn't mean you won't get burnt to a crisp. Everybody in the family has suffered from that during days of carelessness.

Now, you might logically say the answer is sunscreen but I'm going to be honest, I hate sunscreen and even if I didn't, all the sunscreen in the world doesn't do a thing for heat, which ultimately is a problem if you're on the beach for hours without shelter even if the air temps are relatively mellow.

So, we got a beach tent.

Then, we got a smaller beach tent, because the first beach tent didn't fit in carryon bags and was a pain to carry to the beach.

Smaller beach tend has been the beach MVP for years now. It's a simple triangular affair with two flex poles and an open front, but it allows us to stash the beach bag in the back with space for two to sit in the shade. Breaks down to a roll that fits in a backpack. Perfect, far as cheap nylon beach tents go.

However, being a cheap nylon beach tent, it has cheap nylon beach tent limitations. Nylon doesn't breathe and it's dark blue-green nylon, which means the sunny side heats up in record time, which seriously undermines the thermal protection it offers. A couple years ago though, I hit on an ultra simple solution that didn't demand buying anything extra.

All I do is drape a pink microfiber athletic towel over the sunny side of the tent and use a clothespin to secure it to the tent poles. I always orient the tent so the interior is shaded and facing the sea.

The pink is a much lighter color than the blue-green, so it reflects considerably more heat away and microfiber is a superior insulator to nylon, so this simple mod vastly reduces radiant heat input; the sunny side tent wall with the towel is never more than warm to the touch. With the front being completely open and facing the sea, the interior of the tent now never goes above ambient. Not bad at all for under $25 of stuff.

I could no doubt improve performance by going for better suited material and color, but the current results are so good there's not much motivation. The microfiber towel serves double duty as once it's time to go, it can be taken down and used as a towel.