As a beach kid growing up on the sunny San Diego coastline, I’ve been to my fair share of beaches. From spending my days at local beaches on Sunset Cliffs to playing beach volleyball on big sand strips full of tourists, I’ve experienced the beauty of almost every beach in Southern California. After a long week of school, I decided to try my luck visiting the gulf coast and compare it to my local west coast hang outs.

First and foremost, the Gulf is insanely hotter than Southern California. Back home a beach day could last for up to twelve hours; down in the south being out more than three hours without an umbrella is quite the challenge. The Pacific Ocean would normally welcome a heated visitor with refreshing waves grazing the shore, always providing a cool and refreshing environment. Although it could be argued that the Gulf’s water temperature is below the air temperature, its not quite as refreshing as the good old Pacific.

The water in general is a foreign land. The beach I visited, Dauphin Island, had a variety of sea creatures lurking in the waveless see.There were an abundance of hermit crabs, flying fish, and normal fish who just loved to swim up to my bottom side. Occasionally, fish would fly in-between my friends and I, inspiring a fear amongst the people in the water. Nobody wanted to imagine a fish flying into their faces. In fact, this waveless water resembled more of a lake than an ocean with a silty sand bottom and light current.

Between the hot air, hot sand, and almost as hot water, the Gulf is quite the difference from good ol’ California. As much as I love my west coast waves, the South’s all I will be seeing for a while.