With the innovative wheelchair designs available today, there's almost no activity that people confined to a wheelchair cannot participate in. Beach wheelchairs allow individuals to enjoy activities at the beach, without bogging down in the sand. Standard manual wheelchairs would be very difficult to move through sand, and motorized power chairs would be practically impossible. The only way that normal wheelchairs could move around at the beach would be if someone added some sort of wheelchair-friendly surface or path. Even then, wheelchair users would be limited to using only the path that had been laid out for them. Wheelchairs for the beach provide the freedom to move independently, even on surfaces like sand.
One beach wheelchair model is the Landeez. The Landeez is advertised as both a beach wheelchair and an all-terrain wheelchair. It's designed to give people freedom to move easily on sand, snow or gravel. It's equipped with soft, plastic, air-filled tires. The tires absorb most of the shocks of moving over tricky terrain. The Landeez breaks down without tools for easy transport in a van or in the trunk of a car. The manufacturer even offers street wheels that can be exchanged with the beach wheels for use in town.
The Beach Access Chair is another model made by Aqua Creek Products. It utilizes four "balloon flotation" tires. The four-wheel design is typically more stable than three-wheel designs. It also includes an umbrella for protection from the strong seaside sun.
The Beach Cruzr is an electric beach wheelchair constructed using stainless steel hardware to resist salt corrosion. Designed and built by Hotshot Products in California, the Beach Cruzr has a load capacity of 275 pounds and retails for about $8,500.
Many beach wheelchairs are advertised as environmentally friendly. Playaboule, a manufacturer located in Washington state, offers solar-powered wheelchairs for the beach. Their wheelchairs are constructed using a combination of stainless steel and high-quality composites.
Not all wheelchairs for the beach are motorized. The De-Bug from Deming Designs in Florida can be self-propelled by the user or pushed by a companion. It's available in 3-wheel and 4-wheel designs and is narrow enough to fit through a standard 36-inch doorway. It's friendly to the beach surface; that is, it's designed not to damage the sensitive beach environment. It's a little more budget-friendly too, with a retail price of $1,850.
Given the relatively high cost of specialized wheelchairs for the beach, you may want to consider a beach adaptation kit for wheelchairs. Adaptation kits modify a standard wheelchair for beach use. A company called ATI manufactures and sells the HandMaster Bridge System, which can be used to convert any chair to an all terrain chair.
Many popular beach locations also provide beach wheelchair rental. You can surf the web to find out which beaches provide this service, but you might want to make reservations if it's allowed. Beaches can get pretty crowded on weekends and holidays. You wouldn't want to make the trip and then be forced to watch from the sidelines.
Wheelchairs for the beach allow users to get off the beaten path and experience the raw beauty of nature