A trip to the beach…
(in real life… not on social media!)
We realised we needed more photos of our beach products in action, so we loaded up our photographer with a sun shelter, adventure mat and cushion recliners and set her the task of taking the family to enjoy sun, surf and sand. Read on to see her unfiltered thoughts on our products.
Hi, I’m Miranda.
I used to love sitting on the beach, listening to the waves and reading a book… My biggest concerns were how to counter my super power (which is burning to a crisp in literally seconds) and avoiding seaweed.
But now I’ve got a three year old.
So a trip to the beach now involves hauling around a giant bag of sand castle making equipment and pretending I’m not afraid of seaweed.
It begins…
I pick up the LiFE! products and am pretty stoked I’m able to get the to the destination in one trip (because trying to convince a toddler to leave the beach for a second trip to the car is the definition of insanity)
The adjustable strap on the cushion recliners allow me to sling them over a shoulder as I juggle the giant bag of buckets and spades (with three extra rubber ducks today. Because? Who knows what motivates a three year old?!!)
I’ve got towels, my camera bag and the sun shelter (also with a handy carry handle) and the adventure mat which fits easily into a shopping bag along with snacks and the myriad of other items you’ve got to take to keep a toddler alive. A handle on the adventure mat might be a nice addition however I’ve run out of hands to hold it anyways.
The adventure mat is exactly what its meant to be.
It is a decent size and the sand brushes off easily.
The print is super vibrant (this is retro stripe) and looks great at the beach.
Turns out if you’re a friend helping pack up super quick when the toddler has cracked it, and you don’t refold it perfectly, it still fits into the shopping bag as you make a quick exit. Pretty sure anyone that unfolds it would easily be able to refold it. And am very sure my friend would’ve been able to refold it perfectly second time if not for the toddler time pressure. (Although kinda impressed she used the privacy pocket to keep it all folded!)
I gotta admit, the cushion recliner is pretty amazing.
It is really light weight and easy to carry. Everyone that sits on it is surprised by how comfortable it is. And it’s stable.
I didn’t test out all the reclining angles but think that’s a great feature because everyone has a personal preference on how upright they want to sit and it means you’re not stuck in the one position if you’re going to be sitting a while.
Last and by no means least I put up the Airlie Sun Shelter.
Although it starts out as a kinda weird deflated bagpipe, it goes from flat to glorious in the blink of an eye. A quick glance over the instructions was all that’s required and voila – I had the most beautiful sun shelter on the entire beach (which was empty, but I would stand by that statement on busy beach too!) This is the Waikiki print – soft greens and orange/coral – no fluro tent materials here!.
The shelter doesn’t have a base or ground cover which is genius! It means the kids can play in the sand in the shade (its UPF50+ too fyi) (And you could use the adventure mat in there to cover wet grass etc)
I thought I’d lost the vented canopy for a second there as I couldn’t find it in the bag. Eventually noticed its attached to the main shelter so I’ll never lose it.
It was sooo pretty I got straight to photographing. It received compliments and enquiries from passers by until it started to blow away in the breeze, luckily catching on a small child as ballast!. It took all of ten seconds to secure it, filling the sand pockets on the front corners and down the back. There are four sand pegs you can use as well. Probably should’ve done that to start with!
Pack up is pretty simple IF you remember to empty the sand out of it first (which we initially neglected in our hasty pack up). Its also probably much simpler if a dog doesn’t come by and pee on the side of the shelter so the sand isn’t all wet from rinsing it… Life eh?
The verdict…
I would honestly and happily use all of these products again.
The sun shelter is the standout – super easy setup and pack down, great shade coverage and having access to the sand is just darn clever.
The cushion recliners we would use on so many occasions – there is so much seat for their size. And the adventure mat is a whole lot nicer than the one’s you get at the local discount store and comes in a great range of non boring prints!
(Now to work out how to not return them… hmm.. maybe that dog did me a favour!)