A Windy Day at Cocoa Beach
When you look at this view of Cocoa Beach, Florida, you may see a nice, warm summer scene. And it certainly is that, no doubt about it. But when I look at it, the one thing that first catches my eye is the umbrella at the far left. You see the one, right? It is the one that is starting to turn inside out.
So what’s the big deal? It just means that the wind is blowing, right? Yes, there is usually a breeze blowing off the ocean, but sometimes that breeze turns into a stronger wind, and that can sometimes cause problems. Especially if you have a beach umbrella that is blowing around.
Last year, the wind claimed our beach umbrella, turning it inside out and breaking some of the small metal rods that hold it together. So now, whenever we are at the beach and the wind is blowing strongly, I close down our umbrella when we aren’t sitting under it, just to be safe. And this past summer, it seems like we had several of those days of stronger wind. But our new umbrella survived to see another year, so it was all good.
Of course, the first challenge is to get your umbrella into the sand in such a way that the wind won’t just pull it out of the sand. We have seen that happen quite a bit, too. Some people apparently just barely poke their umbrella pole into the sand, and that won’t stand up to even a small breeze. We have a device that screws down into the sand to help hold your umbrella, but if the right wind comes along, even that won’t last.
And it wasn’t nearly as windy as one time when we were there a couple of years ago. On that trip, if you had spread a beach towel out on the sand, when you came back to it from the water you would have discovered that it was completely covered by sand, thanks to the strong wind that was blowing everything around. But we haven’t seen wind like that on our trips in a few years now, so that is nice.
But still, compared to the cold winter weather that we have been having around here lately, fighting the wind with your umbrella on a warm day at the beach sure does sound nice, and every bit worth the trouble.
About the photo:
A single RAW exposure, processed in Photoshop. Read more about the photo software and gear I use at the camera gear page.
Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10
Lens: Olympus 14-42mm IIR
