Safety Tips for Your Next Beach Vacay

May 12, 2023 | Best Vacation Tips

Whether it’s your first time at the beach, haven’t been in a while, or it’s your first time traveling with children, at Beach Boys Cabanas, serving Holden Beach, Sunset Beach, and Ocean Isle Beach, we might be about getting you the beach equipment rentals you desire for a spectacular vacation in the sun, but we’re also about safety, above anything else. We want people to remain uninjured and non-sick while at the beach, which is why we’ve decided to include a safety tip guide. 

Know Your Limitations 

If you rent a paddleboard, surfboard, or other beach equipment with us, are using your own, or are going into the ocean for whatever reason, make sure you know your limitations. Swimming in the ocean isn’t anything like going to your community pool. You have to contend with the waves, which can easily knock you over or pull you under. Not to mention, the ground underneath you could drop unexpectedly and put you in a precarious situation if you can’t swim at all or well. 

Therefore, make sure you stay where you know you’ll be safe, and the same applies to any children you’re bringing along with you. 

Buddy Up

Make sure you swim in the ocean with somebody or go surfing with somebody. 

While it might be nice to treat yourself to a trip alone, getting away from everyone and everything. But, with that solo trip comes the need to try to stay safe without having someone you can count on to help you if you become in need. Therefore, if you’re traveling alone, ask someone there to watch you and you keep an eye on them.

Even if you’re just going for a walk on the beach with your pooch, contact someone before you go so someone knows where to find you if something should happen. 

Wear a Life Jacket 

If you rent a paddleboat, surfboard, or another similar piece of beach equipment, wear a lifejacket while you’re on it, even if you’re a good swimmer. This is important enough to reiterate — swimming in a pool and the ocean are very different. The same applies if you go for a boat ride. 

Wear Sunscreen 

Even if you don’t usually burn, wear sunscreen while you’re on the beach or in the water. The sun gets brighter the further you go south, making it more likely that you’ll get burnt if you’re not familiar with the NC sun. 

Make sure you’re reapplying it as necessary based on the directions on the bottle since you’ll be sweating and getting wet in the water. 

Stay Hydrated 

Take water with you and continuously sip on it, even if you have to think about it and continuously remind yourself about it. With the heat, it’s easy to get dehydrated as you sweat, even if you’re merely lying on the beach, reading a book. 

Be on Alert for Rip Currents 

Waves tend to break evenly on the shore, but this isn’t always the norm. Sometimes, they break fiercely in other areas, which creates a rip current — a channel of water that extends into the ocean from the coast. They tend to look a different color than the rest of the ocean surrounding them and are choppy. Ideally, you should try to avoid them at all costs because even if you’re a strong swimmer, a rip current can still pull you out to sea. 

If you happen to get caught in one, stay calm and just go with the flow. Don’t try to swim against the rip current. After the current settles, swim horizontally to pull yourself out of it. You then should swim diagonally toward the shore. 

Hopefully, these tips help you have a safe vacation at the beach. And we, at Beach Boys Cabanas, hope you check our equipment to further make the trip enjoyable. We serve Holden Beach, Sunset Beach, and Ocean Isle Beach.

If you have any questions or would like to book, call us at 910-712-3776. You may also use our online reservation tool.