How To Anchor A Beach Tent

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Jay Elliott

Chief Camping Officer

Given the wind that you can be subjected to at the beach, it’s important to have your beach tent secured so it doesn’t get swept away.

Depending on the type of beach tent you have, there are multiple ways you will want to anchor your beach tent, to keep it firm and secure.

Guy Ropes

Whether your beach shelter is just a source of shade, or is an enclosed shelter, it will have support guy ropes to help support the tent with the wind.

Given sand tends to be quite soft and loose (especially the ground layer) your typical tent pegs are not likely to be effective. Firstly they are probably quite thin so they pull out of the sand very easily (there is no friction to hold them in place), and they are not likely to be long enough to get down to the hard sand below the surface which has the rigidity to hold the peg in place. 

There are multiple products available that are designed to be effective in sand. They both tend to be quite a bit longer than average tent pegs (starting at 30cm and going up from there), and they also have a design that is more effective and holds strong in sand.

Supa Peg have a wide design that provides a larger surface area, as well as a tapered design that allows you to hammer them into the hard sand below and hold there successfully. They tend to start in price at around $4 each and go up in price as the length increases.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tBWvRNL9Iw

Another option available to you is the Oztent Blue Screw which uses a threaded design to screw into the deeper hand sand, and fix firmly in that way. They are highly rated and easy to use, and comes in packs of five for around $30. You can also buy them individually.

Tent Frame/Skin

If your beach tent also has a floor and walls in the design then you will need to put some effort into stabilising the base as well.

If your tent has a floor then it is likely to have tent peg eyelets in each corner. As we have discussed, traditional tent pegs are unlikely to be much use, but potentially if you get some very long and thick ‘normal tent pegs you still might be able to peg the corners in. 

But this would need to be supported by properly pegged guy ropes first, and could not be the only form of anchoring.

Other common features in beach tents are sand pockets that are designed to be filled with sand to help weigh the tent down. They are often on each side of the tent on the outside, and sometimes on the back.

And lastly you could also strategically place yur beach gear inside the tent weighing down the corners from the outside. Especially things like eskies, bags and boards etc.