I don’t know about you all, but when I chose this school, it wasn’t because of the Nobel laureates or the prestigious UC system. Sure that stuff is nice when looking for a job. But the real reason I came to this beautiful university is because it is right by the beach.

The weather has been pretty off and on lately, but lucky for those of us who stayed in I.V. for the long weekend, it was on. The past weekend was so nice it was hard to believe that, in other parts of the country, it was snowing. I woke up Saturday morning – still drunk from the night before – as the warm sun called my name through the cracks in my blinds. So I did what any normal person would do: I rallied up a big group of people, put on a Speedo and took a keg to the beach. I had more fun at the beach that day than I’ve had in a long time.

Toward the end of that amazing Saturday at the beach, I sat down and tried to take it all in. I thought to myself, “Why is the beach so extremely awesome?” I mean, it is just some sand and water. Why isn’t a pool this cool? Unfortunately, I blacked out before I could come up with an answer. Looking back on that moment of Zen, I think it has to do with nature. The beach is so beautiful because it is all natural. The way the waves melodically roll in and out seems to soothe the soul. There are no obstructions to block the sun, only endless ocean and sky to peer at. All people have fun, doing peaceful things like throwing a ball or disc back and forth. Even better than all of the serenity of the beach, though is that it is actually legal to drink alcohol there!

That is right, if you are 21, you can legally drink at the beach, making it the largest venue for a party that I have heard about. For some reason, most people don’t realize that it is legal to drink alcohol at our Del Playa beach. There are so many fun drinking activities that you can do on the beach. So now that you all know this, I expect to see more people there on every sunny day.

There are many games that are perfect for drinking at the beach. Personally, I enjoy horseshoes, bocce ball, beer pong, snappa and, of course, Polish horseshoes.

Polish horseshoes is a game played with two teams of any size, but it seems two to four people work best. To start, each team places a PVC pipe of about 5 feet in length into the sand at a distance of about 30 feet apart. Then they place an empty beer bottle atop each of these PVC pipes. Each team must take turns throwing a Frisbee at the opposing team’s bottle. If you hit the pipe and the bottle falls, you get three points, but the other team has the chance to catch the bottle before it hits the ground. If you hit the bottle directly and it falls to the ground, you score five points. During the course of the game, you must always catch the Frisbee when the opponents throw it within your arm’s reach, or your opponents score a point. Whenever a point is scored, all members that cost the team the point must drink. Play to 21 points or until you are too drunk to throw a Frisbee without injuring someone. Most important rule: All players must have a beer in hand at all times.

Sometimes we take for granted that we live so close to the beach. When I lived in Francisco Torres – or whatever the fuck it is called now – I only ventured out to the beach a few times. Now I have been enough times to realize how great it is. Take advantage of the fact that we live by the beach. As the weather gets better over the next few months of school we have, go drink on the beach.

Print