Great Gifts for Beach Bums [Gift Guide 2010]

Sand. Water. Sunshine. Everybody loves the beach. And anyone who has ever had an honest day at the beach will love these gifts.

1. Handplanes:
You would possibly not know this but the purest approach to surf a wave is in your belly. And it’s pretty easy. These little handplanes-basically surfboards to your hands-changed my life. Enjoy Handplanes makes fast childrens from recycled surfboards, and Danny Hess makes models better fitted to bigger waves. Here’s an editorial I wrote about handplanes on The Scuttlefish, my ocean site. Once you’re feeling handy, you should buy a DIY kit from Cyrus at Korduroy.tv. (Cyrus’s surf movie, Stoked or Broke, may be a really perfect buy.) $50 to $120. [ EnjoyHandPlanes.com ; Korduroy.tv ]

2. Teak Mat :
Here’s a pleasant little trick: Changing inside and outside of a wetsuit on a teak mat as opposed to in a tupperware bin or on the asphalt of a beachside parking space seems like you’re changing on the deck of a ship. And the rot resistant wooden slats allow sand to rinse off conveniently. It’s the nicest one I’ve tried. $55. [ Amazon.com ]

3. Vintage Cousteau Books :
I collect these. Voraciously. The 40-year-old science is a bit of outdated (They talk of pods of millions of dolphins and the mystery of why the cetaceans squeak), but the photographs, art, and adventure bound in each volume cause them to treasures. $50. [ Ebay.com ]

4. Anzfer Farms Lamps and Vases:
Best friends Jon and Joe scour the western seaboard for driftwood, and refine the raw pieces into lamps and vases. Every one is unique. $120 [ Etsy.com ]

5. 1967 VW Vanagon by GoWesty:
The legendary VW van, refurbished and augmented with sturdier parts, engines, accessories and engines. I’d love a Synchro with AWD and a Subaru engine. Used, obviously, but with long warranties. Expensive for a car it’s two decades old, but until somebody else makes a van with a stove, fridge, shower and bed inside that fits in a traditional parking spot, you’ve really got no choice for coastal camp adventuring. $25,000 and up. [ Go Westy ]

6. Life on Blu-ray:
The follow up to Planet Earth, funded by Discovery Networks and the BBC. Aren’t getting the only narrated by Oprah. Get the only narrated by David Attenborough and his crisp british accent. Amazon.com ]

7. Calypso Model:
Cousteau transformed a minesweeper into a machine of science. It was also his oceanic home. It is a very nice model of the Calypso, including helicopter. $550 [ MyHobbyStore.com ]

8. Wegener Bluegill:
An alaia is a thin, traditional surfboard design which is really tough to ride unless you’re a) magnificent and b) only hitting mellow, peeling waves. The bluegill is less complicated to paddle on and provides you some of that alaia feel with a more manageable ride. [ MolluskSurfShop.com ]

9. GoPro Hero HD Camera:
Almost like in my snow guide, I’ll include a Go Pro Hero here. They do HD, like many, but they are available waterproof housings good to 100 feet-that’s a useful margin of pressure resistance to have when waves come crashing down for your head. GoPro Hero cameras and their surf mounts were used at the enormous wave surfing contest Mavericks and the mounts never broke loose. I like these cameras. $179 to $300. [ GoProCamera.com ]

10. Waterproof Cameras :
My favorite ocean going camera comes from Panasonic. It has the most productive image quality and a tight depth rating of 33 feet. Roughly $220, discounted. [ Lumix/Amazon ]

11. Patagonia Wetsuit:
The water seems colder than usual this winter. That’s why I’m extra curious to check out out a Patagonia wetsuit, lined with wool fibers. Wool’s nonporous structure lets it stay stink free and ready to insulate while wet. I’d get an R3 with a hood, that’s fantastic for the water I frequent. $550. [ Patagonia.com ]

12. Speedo:
Comedic for Americans, stylish by European standards, and Hydrodynamic as your butt once you’ve waxed it. Hypothetically. $25 [Amazon]

13. Target up & up Sport Sunscreen:
When Consumer Reports reviewed every kind of sunscreen, from high to low end, they found Target’s house sunscreen performed the precise. Insane, I know. And cheap. And a clever present for many who you’d wish to not grow to be with alligator skin at the tip of a decade of tanning. $10 for two bottles. [ Target.com ]

14. Finis Swimsense:
A motion sensing watch that logs your swims and recognizes other kinds of strokes. It is going to upload distance, laps, pace, strokes, and calories burned to a PC. $200 [ Finsinc.com ]

15. Shark Shield :
The shark shield emits an electrical field that is imagined to annoy sharks by overstimulating them through their Ampullae of Lorenzini (an electronic sense organ) after they come within a couple of meters. Seems like a good present, except shark attacks are too rare to essentially worry about, at all. And the device won’t even work well enough to prevent a charging shark, anyhow. Probably worth passing on and having your beach bum just get over their irrational fear. $600 [ Sharkshield.com ; Popular Science ]

16. Otterbox cases:
Water, jolt and scratch resistant-ifying a gadget before someone takes it to the beach could save them an awful lot in repair and replacement bills. Just saying. $50. [ OtterBox.com ]


17. Vibram Five Finger Flow Shoes:
They appear weird but they strengthen foot muscles and offer you more ability to work on balance. The flow model has siped bottoms which can be ideal for grip on wet surfaces (sipes are the little cuts in snow tires that let them to persist with slick surfaces) and are neoprene topped for warmth and quick drying. I’d love to wear these hopping rocks between tide pools, or perhaps while surfing. $70-100



The burning sensation that comes from holiday shopping isn’t from rubbing against the unwashed masses at malls: It’s looking to decide upon presents for everybody to your list. Gizmodo’s daily gift guides and best gadgets list are the all-natural, non-smelly cure.

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This post is tagged: day at the beach, parking space, subaru engine, western seaboard, wooden slats