The beach, as fun and relaxing as it’s meant to be, can also be chaotic and even dangerous. Which is why it’s no surprise that some truly wild things happen there from time to time.

So when one curious Quora user asked people to share the most shocking events they’d witnessed on public beaches, many didn’t hesitate to chime in. From encounters with unusual sea creatures to dramatic life-saving rescues, read their stories below—and if you’ve experienced something similar, let us know in the comments!

#1

All beaches in Sydney (Australia) are all basically topless – if you chose to go that way – and many girls sunbathe in only a bikini bottom. I was at the beach one day and heard a scream. A girl was apparently sunbathing on her back and a baby from another group, had crawled a few feet away from its mother, and latched onto the one thing that it recognised…

Image credits: Friday le Blanc

#2

I once saw some men protesting about overweight and/or elderly women sunbathing naked. Whilst, as a man, I appreciate the beauty of the female body, I do not regard fellow sun bathers to be there for my enjoyment or titillation. I felt that the protesting men seemed to think that women were there for te enjoyment of stupid men and not for the women’s pleasure. It made me very angry.

Image credits: Anders Wahlberg

#3

I saw a lifeguard jump into the ocean pull out a young girl who was motionless. She proceeded to give the young girl CPR: after 45 seconds, maybe a minute the young girl started to respond. The ambulance took the child away, the lifeguard went right back to her post like nothing ever happened. It was amazing the lifeguard had nerves of steel it takes a lot to impress me and she floored me: a true hero.

Image credits: Thomas Dolt

#4

Shocking but true. Back in the 60s my mother took me swimming to a public beach at a lake on a hot summer day. A man, reading his newspaper on his lakeside porch, got up and went inside. Mom heard the toilet flush, and shortly thereafter a turd floated by. She got me out of there right away, and we didn’t go swim in that lake again. It was later mandated that all the old summer houses henceforth must install septic tanks and not flow their waste into the lake anymore.

Image credits: Linda Johnson

#5

I saw a man swimming in the surf. Those only two or three people out in the water at this time. The man gets attacked. There’s blood everywhere. He screaming yelling slapping his arms. Make a long story short hands up getting his leg bit off in between his thigh and his knee, the man hopped out of the water T-shirt around his leg tight and hopped his car and drove himself to the hospital

Image credits: Steve C

#6

June 1995, I was alone on the beach in Cancun reading a book. Not many people were on the beach. I heard (off in the distance) a man screaming. I just ignored it at first because I didn’t see anything going on. The screaming continued and I looked out into the water and saw a man flailing his arms around. He was apparently stuck in an “under water riptide” (if you will) I ran to the hotel pool and told the lifeguards what was happening (there were no lifeguards on the beach) Two lifeguards ran into the water and dragged the man out, I thought he was dying. He was exhausted from trying to swim ashore. He was literally trapped in some kind of underwater current, the lifeguard told me what they call it in Spanish, I can’t remember the word though.

Image credits: Lisa

#7

I lived near the beach in Oregon. I was out walking one day and saw a small crowd formed up ahead. Quite unusual as I rarely see more than 10 people on this beach at any given time. As I approach I see they are standing rather close to a seal pup about 30–40 feet from the water and are discussing how to help the poor pup back to the water. I know their hearts were in the right place, but their heads were up their butts. I explained that mother seals leave their pups on the beach where they are safe from sharks and drowning while mamma goes hunt for fish to feed them both. If the mother comes back and sees people close to her pup, she will leave him and he will die. They need to move away immediately. What shocked me was the look of disbelief on their faces and that I had to coax them away from the pup. P.S.: available resource from Oregon State University

Image credits: James Carr

#8

I was on vacation with family & friends in the Outer Banks, North Carolina. We would go down to the beach, set up our 10×10 canopy and chairs and enjoy the day. So not far from us, these people had set up a very large tent/ canopy. (They apparently did not stake or weigh it down) The people were all out in the water swimming. A big gust of wind comes and lifts this huge tent like 20 feet in the air and just deposits it out into the ocean and I mean FAR out. To see something that big float through the air is crazy. The people came back and said to us “Why didn’t you guys do anything??” Yea we saw it but it was too fast for us to do anything. Besides you didn’t weigh yours down at the beach where it’s always windy, nor did you leave anyone to watch it. Sorry.

Image credits: Derek R.

#9

I admit that I didn’t see this myself, but my dearly departed Uncle Chester told me this story a few decades ago. Back in the day when women would have a short skirt over their bathing suit bottoms, he was at a beach and noticed that several men were milling around in front of a woman sitting up on the beach. He got curious and walked down the beach. The woman was sitting on her bottom with her knees up in the air and there was nothing under the short skirt! It was causing a traffic jam!

Image credits: Jim Wyrick

#10

I was one of the shockers, not the shockees. In the early 70’s our group of friends had a day at the Galveston sea shore. We took off our swimwear after entering the water. We were at chest depth for the girls, who were all shorter than us guys. Just as one of the families started waving at us from the shore one of those periodically much larger than the average waves passes by, with the associated deeper trough. The family stopped their arms in mid wave.

Image credits: Andy Heilveil

#11

Many years ago when I was maybe around 9 or 10 years old 1960ish. I saw someone pulled out of the water at Jones Beach in NY after a shark attack. We were close by and saw a lot of blood. Later we learned the person died.
Around 10 years ago at Bodega Headlands in CA we saw a floating corpse. People were gathered watching as CG helicopters and boats made their way to the body. I believe they recovered it. It was an eerie experience as the skies were ominously dark and all the many people gathered were absolutely silent. The only sound was the muffled beating of the helicopter and the sound of the sea.

Image credits: Joy Freeman

#12

In 1992 I visited the USA for the first time. We went to the beach in L.A. next to us was a dad with his boy, he had a six pack of beer. Now, I can’t remember if one of the cans was open, but I think so. About 15 minutes later two policemen came on horses, they cuffed the dad and took them away. The boy was distraught, crying. I don’t know if that happened because they looked Hispanic or not, but coming from Europe, I didn’t understand it because drinking beer on the beach is nothing that you would ever get arrested for. I was in shock, the scene was so surreal. The policemen riding the horses, dad walking next to them, his hands cuffed behind his back and the small boy trying to keep up. It was like a punch in the stomach.

Image credits: D. B.

#13

I was on a a beach on Zakynthos, Greece when some baby loggerhead turtles started emerging from a nest at the the top of the beach. This is quite unusual as they normally don’t come out until it is dark. There were a load of Italians, 50 or so, on the beach who wanted to use these baby turtles to make soup. The Greeks and the British were not in favour of this idea. The Italians were quite insistent and went and ripped down half a wooden fence to use as weapons, When the Greeks and the Brits removed the other half and still objected the Italians decided they were well outnumbered and they pissed off but it looked all set for quite a serious riot for half an hour or so. The baby turtles all made it to the sea.

Image credits: Richard May

#14

The most shocking thing I saw on a beach was a storm so powerful that it blew the sand everywhere. It felt like I was on the business end of a sandblaster. That nightmare didn’t end until so much rain fell from the sky that it was basically like a waterfall. Strangely enough, it was 29 degrees Celsius that day, so the rain was like having a shower in one of those power showers. There was steam everywhere, and it felt like I was drowning in treacle.

Image credits: Alex Martin

#15

I had been surfing at Zenith Beach, Port Stephens,NSW for about six hours, and feeling slightly tired, decided to call it a day. As I got out of the shorebreak, I turned around to look at the waves.. as the wave builds, you can see the wall of water… and see through it… And there was a six foot shark. Swimming right where I had been…

Image credits: Ben Longden

#16

Tsunami in 2004. Me and a few colleagues were having a meal near the beach. We were surprised to notice the waters had receded far into the sea (never experience a tsunami before). Later we got a shock when waves flew over the street into the restaurant.

Image credits: Adri Wing

#17

I’m 83 years old. When I was 15 years old I was on the Coney Island beach in Brooklyn NY. There was a helicopter floating in the water near shore. When they took off the helicopter blade hit the water and broke apart. The blades shot onto the beach and cut bathers. The Pilots got out in time. I have a picture of me on the front page of the NY daily news.

Image credits: Thomas Garuccio

#18

True story. I once was partying at Mameo beach with friends and one of my buddies at the time he was drinking. Well we were all drinking, having a good time and let me tell you he was a US marine at the time. Anyway he goes ‘I bet you guys I can swim all the way to the end and back.’ Some of our friends said your on and at that very moment I didn’t feel so good about this. I told him don’t bro, don’t do it, I feel something bad, something wrong, bro please don’t do it.

Well he laughed about it and said to me its ok, I’ll be back you know I’m solid.’ He didn’t listen. Anyway we all watched him swim away he maid it all the way to the other side of the lake. Coming back you can tell he was getting very tired already by now and let me remind you that lake was far wide and long.

He drowned and he was far way out there we all seen him in panic mode he was in de-stressed. We all couldn’t do anything but yell for help. We called the ambulance but he was already gone. The security cops helicopter and life guards found him, brought him back to shore.

He was gone all in one day. The best buddy I ever had. He was a really cool guy to hang around with. To this day i still miss him and this was in 2005. He’s gone but never forgotten. We had a memorial for him. He was a true warrior. That’s my experience and seen for my own eyes at the beach in Mameo Alberta, Canada ?? thought I would share. Thanks everyone for your time be well my friend

Image credits: Guy Baptiste

#19

Went for a walk at my local beach one evening. There were 3 guys at the tide line, trying to drag something in. I will point out that you can legally fish there if you have a permit, but a lot of marine life is protected and there are rules about what you can take and how you do it.

Anyway, I went down to see what was going on. The next wave breaks and they drag a Port Jackson shark out of the wash. They all danced around and laughed, talking in Arabic. I asked ‘what the f*ck are you doing?’ They pointed at the hapless shark and proclaimed how big a fish it was. I pointed out that it isn’t a fish, it’s a shark and a protected species. One guy went to cut the line but I stopped him and told him to retrieve the hook and get the shark back in the water. They had used a treble hook.

PJs have very small mouths and are difficult to unhook. They guys wanted to walk away, as though they had completed their triumph over a poor shark. I dragged one of them to the shark and said that we had to get the hooks out. We rolled the shark over and I got them to hold it while I got the hooks out. It was difficult but fortunately only one hook had taken. I pinned the hook to my shirt and hassled them to help me turn the shark around. One guy had walked off but the other 2 did as they were told and we got the shark in the water and it took off into the bay.

One of the guys asked why I was angry. Just as I was about to deck him, a ranger appeared. I explained what had happened and that he could take it from there. I walked up to the car park to chill. When I got there, 2 police officers were pulling stuff out of a car while the Arab guy stood there. I waved and walked away.

Next morning, the car was still there with a door open and all their junk piled in the driver’s seat. Don’t know the outcome but I assume they got in a lot of trouble. The car was towed later in the day. I hope they regret what they did but I’m glad the shark got away.

(EDIT) Just to note that there are signs on the approaches to the beach that warn against illegal fishing, describing in detail what you can and cannot do. They knew what they were doing, dragging a treble hook through the reef wash. Maybe they were trying to catch a ‘real’ shark like a reefy? I hope their neighbours don’t have animals that these idiots can torture.

Image credits: Jonathan Point

#20

Shocking, but not in a bad way. I’d been living in South Carolina for some time, frequenting a particular beach almost daily with my friend who’d lived there quite longer than I had. We both knew full well that this was a “no public drinking” beach. We did drink on the beach but kept it fairly discreet. We’re out there one day, and we’ve slipped a bit, we have a couple of beer cans showing. Friend has fallen dead asleep. We’re not actually drunk, but friend always falls asleep sunbathing. I’m laying out, not really fully awake but not totally asleep either. I hear the police coming in their quad. I decide to let my friend sleep through this, police make said friend very nervous. I sit up as I hear the quad stop near us, I already know what this is about. I’m willing to take the ticket with minimal drama. The officer asks me for ID, it still happens to be my AZ ID. The officer assumes I’m a tourist, and asks if my friend is here from AZ too, or a local. So I fish out my friend’s ID, still also an AZ ID. I point out my car, AZ plates. I still think I’ll get a ticket. No, this kind and reasonable officer says we must not have noticed the signs, but this is a no alcohol beach. He doesn’t expect us to read every sign or to know this. He takes our empty beer cans. But wait, it gets better. He explains that the law was made because college students would come to the beach and get drunk and unruly, not for sleepy middle aged tourists such as us. He hands me a couple of red solo cups. He proceeds to tell me that if we simply pour our beer into these, no one will ask what’s in the cup, and no one will look in our cooler unless we foolishly left it open. So I shockingly got the inside scoop on how to get away with breaking the law on the beach, by a cop whose main purpose was to enforce said law.

Image credits: Sam the Girl

#21

A few weeks ago, we were at Howard Beach in Ozone Park, NY. It’s not uncommon to see small family gatherings come and put food in the water. Usually fruits, flowers, pendants and coconuts. I’m not really sure why. I always assumed it is religious. Maybe an offering to a higher power. I’ve never asked, but it happens frequently. The birds just end up eating whatever they put out there, anyway. Well, this day, a family of about 6, walked across the bridge with a small garbage bag and proceeded to the beach. We didn’t pay them much mind. A while later they left, and my husband noticed there was a lot of commotion with the birds down in the area where the family had just left. At first we were laughing, because the seagulls tend to get really excited about food in general, but this day there were so many and they were going nuts. Making noises I don’t we’ve ever heard before. Finally, curiosity got the best of us and we had to know what they could’ve possibly put out there that have the birds fighting and overwhelming the beach like this. We went to see and that’s when he saw it. A full, bloody goat head. People swim here.

Image credits: Bianca Williams

#22

I saw this question and instantly an incident played back in my memory, childhood memory. We used to live in Karachi, Pakistan. My father was serving in the Pakistan navy. Karachi is famous for having good beaches, in particular one naming hawkes Bay. Since it was a coastal area, we used to go to hawkes Bay quite often during summers and spring season. We were fairly new to Karachi and its beaches, as it was our first year living in Karachi. We visited the hawkes Bay beach for the 1st time in late July or mid August, the memory is little imprecise. As soon as we reached the beach, we could see alot of people on beach but no one was entering the water. We all scraped it off thinking no one wants to enjoy the warm water. We entered the water, my brother, mother and I. As soon as we entered the water, people had a shocked expression on their face, yes sir I could see their faces and it confused me however, no one asked us to come out or anything. We were having good time then a wild wave hit us and instantly we could feel wild burning like sensation on our legs and arms. All of us got out of the water and when we came out we had long thread like stings all over our legs and arms. On that fateful day we got to know that mid July till late August is the season of blue bottle jelly fishes. Never again I want to go through that, the sting felt as if hundred bees stinging you at the same time and it really gave off a wild burning sensation. Treating the sting is a story for another day but rest assured it spoiled a perfect picnic day for us!

Image credits: Esrar Shenwari

#23

While on a lovely sandy beach, enjoying the sea and openness….. I watched as a young couple, with 2 small children and a baby, dug a hole in the sand, threw in all the cans, bottles, used nappies/diapers, leftover food and wrappers, then covered it up, before leaving. Not 20 feet from a Rubbish Bin.

Image credits: Andrew Chapman

#24

I was playing with my band at The Holiday Inn in Hilton Head island S.C. in the mid 70’s. One morning I was out walking along the beach. A few people were swimming, some were fishing, when all of a sudden I see about 100 yards ahead of me, people are all gathering around the beach as a guy was limping towards the shore. I trotted up where he was just coming out of the water, and he had about a 2 ft – 3 ft long shark still attached to his calf. He dragged it with him out of the water, bleeding a lot, as people were approaching him trying to figure out how to get the shark to let go. About then a police/beach rescue team showed up and took him away. I didn’t see how they got the shark off his leg, but they put him in an ambulance and took off with the little shark dead on the beach, I assumed someone would come along and clean it up…..

Image credits: Dino Perelli

#25

This happened at Siesta Key in Florida. A guy came past us, supported on each side by two men. In his foot was a giant fishhook! It had gone all the way through his foot. This was before cell phones, so they couldn’t even call for an ambulance until they got off the beach. The look of pain on the poor guy’s face is something I’ll always remember.

Image credits: Wendy M

#26

UK answer. I’ve seen people actually leave the beach just because it started raining. Do they not understand how an English beach holiday works?

Image credits: Mark Harrison

#27

1995, Dalkey, Ireland. They had a long flight of concrete steps leading down a steep hill into the Irish Sea, with boulders at the bottom. (I’ve been back once. Like the rest of Dalkey, it’s a bit more built up now.) But at the time, I was taking pictures of the waves, which were violently smashing against the rocks and sending up huge sprays. It was both pretty and pretty spectacular. Then as I watched, an old man with long white hair swam through the waves that were pounding the rocks, and began to climb the long stairway. When he got to where I was standing, he stopped and we talked for almost an hour. He was a fascinating individual. He was 80 years old. Shirtless from his swim, he looked in better shape than i did at 37. Tired from his workout, but still with boundless energy. He said he swam in the sea every day. Except 3 weeks ago, when there had been a storm and the water was just too rough. I looked down at the churning waves slamming the rocks, and couldn’t imagine anything rougher.

Image credits: Somebody’s Dad

#28

I found this more funny than shocking. Our church choir had taken a concert trip to Germany in ‘95, and 2 years after our Germany trip, the same folks who arranged our trip made arrangements for a German youth choir (high school and college age) to visit Texas. One night at choir practice, they asked for a volunteer to play host/tour guide for that group on the day they planned to visit South Padre Island during the day and sing in our church in the evening. Always looking for a good excuse to skip work and go to the beach, I volunteered. I had a few days to plan things before the day of their beach trip, so I decided to take them to a county park, just north of the developed part of the island, where there was a parking lot for their tour bus, restrooms, and where they could see the beach in its natural state, with sand dunes, etc. instead of a bunch of hotels and condos. When we got to the park, they got off their bus, walked right past the restroom/dressing room building, out to the open beach, where they all stripped off their street clothes and put on their bathing suits. I had heard this was how folks did things in Europe but had either forgotten, or didn’t believe the people who told me. When they finished swimming and it was time to go eat lunch, they stripped out of their bathing suits, right out on the open beach, and put their street clothes back on. I guess nobody told them we don’t do things that way here in the U.S. Probably a good thing it was in the morning on a weekday when there weren’t a lot of other people around.

Image credits: Richard Brotzman

#29

I was on a beach that didn’t allow dogs. It wasn’t crowded, and this couple were playing Frisbee with their German Shepherd. The dog wasn’t out of control, but wasn’t allowed there. The dog had to go poo, and went over near another families blanket, and had a massive poo. The family was splashing around in the water, not paying attention to their blanket. The dog owner dug a little hole with his foot, and nudged the poo in, and buried it. It had less than an inch of sand on top of it. They saw me staring at them, and they picked up their chairs, took their dog and left. The family came back from playing, and I started to walk over to warn them. But their little boy ran ahead of them, stepped right in the poop, and slipped. Fortunately, he wasn’t hurt, and didn’t fall in the poop, but his foot was covered with it. It was too late to warn them, so I just turned around and went back to my towel, and ignored the ensuing drama.

Image credits: Bob Wilson

#30

My cousin purchased beachfront land somewhat near New Smyrma Beach way back in the 60’s when it was cheap. He and his wife would visit on occasion but just to look at it and make plans. After 45 years he retired, sold his house “up north” and went to his Florida land with house plans he had purchased. They stayed somewhat inland with family friends that had also moved to Florida shortly before them and went to the land to determine where to place the house. After a few days they sited the house and took a stroll down the beach as the afternoon sun cooled a bit, plenty of time for a nice long walk. Some distance down the beach they saw a family setting up with some kids, they greeted them briefly then moved on down the beach. Shortly afterwards they saw two naked people walking toward them. They just stood still at first thinking they were seeing things, but as the couple got closer they realized it wasn’t old eyesight betraying them. My cousin took off running to the family behind them to warn them about the naked people. When he got there, they were all naked. Turns out he didn’t investigate the beach he was to live up the way from very well. They sold the land there and bought safer surroundings in New Smyrna. But living at the first location would have been interesting.

Image credits: Ray

#31

This happened to a high school friend, not to me. As a child, he saw another child drown at a lake. The boy was floating on an air mattress, and jumped off it, only to find that he had drifted into water deeper than he was tall. He didn’t know how to swim. My friend tried to persuade adults that he had seen the other boy submerge and not come back up, but none of the adults believed him. About half an hour later, one of the adults counted the children, and realized that one boy was missing. By the time the drowned boy was found, he had been underwater for an hour, and could not be revived.

#32

It is something I would never have believed possible had I not been a witness to it. It was festival time and I had visited a beach at south Mumbai. There may have been about 15,000 people around and it was a magnificant sight to watch. In the crowd, I saw a middle-aged couple. The man was looking distraught and his wife crying uncontrolably. I went over to ask if I could help. The woman said no. Her husband was more composed and told me their 5-year-old daughter has gone missing and the security guards can’t do much in the noisy crowd. I stuck on with them as did a few others for over an hour. No success. Just then, a man dressed like one of the Hindu holy men from Banaras, was passing us. The woman stopped him and told him about her missing daughter. The guy looked at her and indicated a direction. He said go up this path up to the point where the beach sands touch the road and wait. I said in my mind. Crazy s**t. and said it aloud. I went along with them anyway. Went up to the road…. and….. there she was. A tiny girl. Crying and looking around for the parents. 15,000 to 20,000 people and there she was …..looking around …frightened…..tears flowing down her face as her mother hugged her. Unbelieveable. I nudged her father to ask her why the holy man had left her. The father was puzzled but asked the child nonetheless. Who holy man? I have not seen anyone. said the child. I don’t believe in divine intervention as I have a scientific approach. Nor have I seen God. Or……. Did I see him but failed to recognize Him?

#33

A friend was retained by a low-budget movie producer to access “local” shooting locations and crew needs. When the finished movie was ready for promotion, she was invited to join in promotion at the Cannes Film Festival. Which involved more than a week of extreme hours and non-stop work. Deciding to relax for a few days before returning stateside, she teamed up with another young American woman and headed for the famous beaches. The acquired beach chairs, removed their coverups and stretched out in bikinis to enjoy the sun. Almost immediately a “mob” surrounded them, cameras clicking furiously. Men, women and children pointing and laughing at these two funny women. Stunned, they finally realized they were the only women on the beach wearing tops. Every other woman was topless, from toddlers, preteens, teens, young women, mothers and grandmothers — EVERY other woman was topless. Flustered, they grabbed their gear and fled to the road, boarding the first public transport available. Under their beach covers, they stealthily removed their bikini bras, slipping them into their bags. Getting off at another beach, they again acquired chairs, removed their tops and stretched out to tan. NO ONE PAID ANY ATTENTION. “Here I was, displaying my full assets to the world, and not one man gave a DAMN!”

#34

Walking on the beach with our dogs and one of our dogs stayed behind and was barking at something in the water. He refused to come with us. We looked and saw what looked like a garbage bag a few yards out. We waited for the waves to bring itn in and it was a human dead body. We called the cops and it turned out he had rockes in all his pockets. After an investigation the conclusion was [self-harm]. He jumped off the pier about a mile away. He was a local a bit off is what most people said about him.

#35

A man and a woman on a blanket enjoying the sun and the shore. Then out of nowhere, another man comes up to them and shoots both of them. I just new he was going to kill everyone within sight, but he didn’t. He took his cel out of his pocket and dialed 911, then he just waited. I saw this from the window of the cafe I was in.

#36

A large family of 3 generations Grandparents parents and children had enjoyed a day on a beautiful beach in Devon. By late afternoon they had accumulated several piles of litter. The grandparents got up and started of down the beach joined by the grandchildren, several minutes later the 4 adults got up shook their beach towels and began to follow. I wasn’t the only one watching and several locals approached and asked if the family were leaving. They were and obviously had no qualms about the mess they were intending to leave. There were a few raised voices and the visitors were supplied with rubbish sacks made to clean up and told that if they intended to visit the beach again, clearing up was expected. I thought it was disgusting that people could visit such a beautiful location and leave it in such a mess

#37

Not a beach but a private pool. We arrived at a converted farm house in remote Spain which had a number of units in which families could stay. Whilst my wife went to find the owners I had a look around, found the pool in which a youngish girl was splashing around. I quickly realised that she was actually struggling, was out of her depth and could not swim. There was no family around and of course, no life guards. A strange thing comes over you, immediately you want to help but then the fear of embarrassment; what if she is actually OK, what if someone thinks this stranger is messing with their daughter, What if, what if…? Anyway, paternal instincts took over, I got to the pool, jumped in, I could stand in the depth and hauled her out. She was OK, no further attention needed and we went to find her parents. You can imagine the awkward scene as I introduced myself and she added I was the guy that just rescued her. We got to know them well over the holiday. A nice family.

#38

Well, I wasn’t the one who was shocked, but rather the one doing the shocking. Forty some years ago, I was a young woman expecting my first (and only) child. We lived oceanfront in a condo at Hilton Head, South Carolina. At that time, this was a premier resort destination populated by mostly wealthy or celebrated visitors, and worker bees such as myself. So we enjoyed a much better standard of living than regular folk living in a regular place. It had always been my habit to sleep on my stomach, which became impossible as my pregnancy progressed into the seventh month. I had been a small, 5′3″ 100-lb woman before my pregnancy, and since I gained over 40 pounds during the pregnancy, by the seventh month I was GREAT with child. Fashionably clothed in a modest maternity bathing suit, I decided to head to the beach one day, spreading out my towel and attempting to find a comfortable sunning position — difficult and rather like trying to make a beached whale comfortable. I spied a young boy not too far away from me and suddenly I had an idea. I borrowed his shovel and dug myself a proper sized hole in the sand — one just large enough to accommodate my enormous belly. Then I spread my towel over it and eased myself down into the hole, comfortable for the first time in months. I’m not sure how long I was there, but long enough for the tourists around me to change to different people than had seen me lie down. When it was time for me to go, I slowly raised myself and gathered my things to head back up to my condo. And I could not help noticing that those around me, who thought I was just a young woman sunning herself at the beach, were slackjawed when they observed my belly coming out of that comfortable nest. Shocked does not even begin to describe that look.

#39

This was way back in the early 70s. I was maybe 10. San Onofre Beach bordered Orange County and Camp Pendleton. The Marines patrolled their end of the beach . It was also an unofficial nude beach. My parents never made a big deal about it We were walking along amongst the occasional topless or more folks. A jeep with Marines pulled up to a couple including a stunning brunette. When they told her to move down, she stood up and was so polite and conversational. The poor Marines were gobsmacked, stuttered and stammered, and made a hasty retreat.

#40

My girlfriend and I were in L.A. visiting friends a couple years ago and went to the beach for the day. We saw some guy that looked like 15 to 17 years old walking back and forth, staring at peoples belongings and finally one of the boys darted in and grabbed what looked like a wallet and took off running, the other two guys didn’t run and when the guy they stole from jumped up and started running after the first guy, the other two acted like they were playing frisbee and knocked him down. He got up and caught the kid though and dragged him to the lifeguard station. The way things started, I thought someone was going to get stabbed or something.

#41

I discovered a beautiful beach about a twenty minute walk from my hotel, while working in Hiraska, Japan. So the next time I worked there, I brought my swimming suit, got up early before work, and headed for the beach.
When I got there, I saw three people giving artificial resuscitation to someone lying on the beach. Then I looked out to the ocean and saw people in wet suits bringing more bodies to the shore on their surfboards, and pulling them up onto the beach. Maybe a boat had capsized? This sure wasn’t a good day to go for a swim!
Then suddenly, all the dead people got up and swam out into ocean! Turns out it was a group of lifeguards practicing their rescue techniques.

#42

A couple, likely tourists, were sitting comfortably (they looked asleep) on the beach near our house. We were up (2nd floor) in the surf club having a beer watching the beach goers below. The beaches here are often adjacent to or near scrub/bush and critters live in these bushes. So a monitor lizard or goanna, about 1.5 meters long, saunters out of the bush and heads straight for the guy (he’s resting next to his female companion). The goanna went up and stuck it’s tongue out and touched this guy’s arm (innocent enough, i love these lizards, they’re usually just curious). The guy opened his eyes and I think jumped to his feet in record time and started to run away. Same with his companion. It was hilarious to the people in the pub at the surf club watching it unfold. Probably not funny for the guy/girl. Extra info: Goanna refers to some species of the genus Varanus found in Australia and Southeast Asia.

#43

When I was 19 years old my best friend and I were at a party on the beach and they had a huge bonfire going cause it was cold and some drunk college dudes were drinking a bottle of Jack Daniels and they left a little bit at the bottom of the bottle, they screwed the cap back on and threw it in the bonfire. I saw them do it so I grabbed my girl friend and yelled run! There were tons of people and some heard me yell to run but unfortunately not everyone heard and so the bottle exploded and this chick got glass chunks in her legs and was bleeding. I felt really bad for her, she didn’t deserve it. So, her friend’s took her away. I had never seen so much glass and blood in a person’s legs. So, I went up to those guys and told the dude who threw the bottle that this was for her, I slammed a bottle of beer up against his side of his face and the bottle shattered. Then me and my friend left. He deserved it. I was drunk, yes. But I probably still would have did it if I was sober. Nobody tried to stop me from leaving, nobody tried to fight me, nothing. I guess everyone was so in shock they didn’t know how to react. Oh well. Take care.

#44

Late on a weekend morning my older brother and I were hiking the harborside beach on Coronado Island. CA in 1956. I could see that the tide was low and 50 yards away in a very deep tide pool floated what I, at first, thought was a toy doll. As we approached the pool I realized that the doll was actually a little girl floating face-down in the water. My brother, three years older decided to run for help. Half way to the housing project we lived in (and a phone) he met a woman yelling for her child, who had wondered off on her own. The mother made a sprint to the pool, dove in and pulled the child to shore. She tried to get the girl to breath, but to no avail. I stood there loaded down with my brother’s gear witnessing the whole sad story. An ambulance arrived to take the little girl away. This was the first time I had ever seen a lifeless body and the whole situation was a shock to this upset 9-year old.

#45

When I was 10 years old, my mother took us on a trip out west to visit her family. While there, she took us to the ocean. I’d never seen it before and was amazed. But, as I was standing there looking out at the vast expanse of water, a young man in his 20’s walked by me. He was fully dressed in slacks and a shirt and shoes. He smiled at me as he walked by and walked out into the water. He just walked straight out into it! I watched as he walked out until the water was over his head and I didn’t see him any longer. He didn’t come back!!! I ran to my mother crying and told her what I had seen. She was terribly upset and rounded us up and we left. I assume she contacted the police.

#46

About twenty years ago while sitting on a clif top with my girlfriend we watched a guy going along the beach with a metal detector. We were looking else where when suddenly there was an explosion. We looked to see the metal detecting guy laying on the beach with what appeard to be his head, shoulders and arm missing. People were running all over the place screaming. The police etc, turned up and the beach was closed. On our way back we past several military vechiles. We later found out the poor metal dectorist had found an old world war two land mine and set it off while digging for it and blew himself up.

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