Need a Way to Cool Off: Try These 14 Summer Activities That Can Cool Your Body
It’s been a summer of extreme heat from New York to Florida to California. You’re not imagining that conversations with friends disproportionately feature the weather these days, and they aren’t talking about the ocean breeze.
Outside is vital for your health, but so is avoiding heat stroke. When you can combine a healthy dose of natural Vitamin D with a water source that keeps your head cool and body temperature cool, you’ve won life—if only for an hour or a day.
Many of these activities will be financially prohibitive, so we’ve mixed it up. Rest assured, there are at least three options that virtually anyone can afford to do—keeping cool is worth a modest investment, anyway.
1. Buy a Waterslide
Back in the days when children played outside (ba humbug!), setting up a backyard waterslide was a Mount Rushmore-level activity. The activity combines physical activity with an adrenaline spike and the hydration many crave in the summer heat.
Don’t go light on the dish soap, either. While we’d warn you to be careful about hazards under or near the slide, backyard water slide lawsuits seem relatively rare. Disney is facing litigation from wedgie-injured patrons, but you can probably trust your neighbors to be less litigious.
2. Rent a Boat with the Family
When compared to a trip to Disney World, renting a boat seems like a high-value way to spend the day. Rather than charging you more for each Disney Annual Pass, more people on the ship generally mean a lower share per person.
Have you been tubing lately? Or kicked your feet up on the bow of a boat while the sun beats down on your golden skin, Bob Marley’s catalog emanating out the boat speakers at just the right volume? There’s literally no better way to spend your time or money.
3. Strap on a Snorkel
Snorkeling offers many of the perks of Scuba diving without the hassle of renewing your certification or the risk of dying. Florida owns the list of top US snorkeling sites, but California, Alabama, North Carolina, Maine, and Hawaii also make the list.
This is to say, there may be more snorkelable waters near you than you realize. On a hot day, why not engage in some near-surface underwater breathing? Who knows, you might even see a pinfish or find semi-buried treasure. Either way, it’s better than roasting the day away on land.
4. Buy the Kids Some Water Balloons
Any time you can combine cooling down with injury-free combat, you have a winning formula.
200 water balloons cost less than four dollars at Party City. If you spring for the high-quality, thick-skinned balloons, you might pay a buck or two more. Don’t cry poor when you’re denying your kids’ request to host an all-out assault of water bombs. If you’re scared to get hit, just say so.
5. Swim With the Manatees (or Sharks or Dolphins)
Having recently swum next to the sea cows, I can personally attest that it is worth your time. You might want to wait until winter, when the manatees migrate to the springs (where the water is much clearer).
Depending on where you are, you might also have the option of getting wet with dolphins or even sharks. Which activity you choose likely depends on your tolerance for adrenaline.
6. Buy or Rent Kayaks
When you hear the term “kayaking,” someone could be referring to any number of activities. They might speak of pulse-pounding whitewater adventures in Colorado, where the rapid do most of the work. They might instead be referring to a slow paddle down the lazy, winding creek behind your backyard.
This versatility of choice is what makes kayaking such an easy recommendation. There’s a version for everyone, and every version allows you to splash your kayaking partner with an oar-full of water when things get too hot.
7. Pick Up Water Guns
Spare me the lecture about how water guns desensitize kids to violence. Water guns are fun, period, and they’re not real. They spray water.
Kids (and adults) need to act out their tribal instinct for combat, and what better way than with a toy that simultaneously cools you down and fires you up? The Nerf Super Soaker reigned supreme in my day, but Amazon has no shortage of water cannons varying in design and price point.
8. Paddleboarding
Add extra weight to this selection if you have a friend who already owns a paddleboard or you own one yourself. Even if you have to rent one, consider the merits.
Perhaps there are unexplored coves in your area that you’ve never explored because you don’t have a boat. Maybe you want to do some standup cardio while getting your tan on. Whatever your motivation is, getting your hands on a paddleboard for an hour or two (and diving in, naturally) is a fine way to spend a sweltering day.
9. Turn the Sprinklers On
Sprinklers aren’t just for watering your grass and bromeliads. They are also a hydration device, fun factory, and low-cost activity on a hot day.
Creative, frugal parents have even designed a handful of sprinkler-based games. With an in-ground pool costing as much as $80,000 (and even cheaper models costing more than most US Americans’ annual salary), it’s time to make due with the sprinkler system.
10. Convert a Stock Tank Into a Mini Pool
For those who want a stagnant body of water to waste Saturday away in (and, dare I say, drink a Corona in), an in-ground pool or above-ground monstrosity are not your only options.
Stock tanks have become a cost-effective, visually appealing alternative to the traditional pool. With a quality deck job, strategic landscaping, transformative paint job, or other camouflage techniques, a metal stock tank can become your new pool.
11. Fishing
This entry comes with a glaring caveat. Once every 30-40 minutes, you must put the rod in a suitable holder, strip down to your swimming attire, and take a dip. If your fishing partners aren’t OK with that, it’s time to plan a solo fishing day.
It seems like a crime that anglers are so often so close to a bottomless pool of cool, hydrating water yet suffer the heat in long-sleeved fishing garb. Don’t be afraid to take a break and get a little wet, captain.
12. Try (and Fail at) Surfing
If you’re an experienced surfer, you might be rolling your eyes at the obviousness of this entry. For athletic water lovers, surfing is more of an addiction than an activity.
For those who haven’t tried to surf, or tried and failed repeatedly, consider getting back into the salt life. You’re going to fail, and that’s cool. Striving to master (or at least appear moderately proficient at) an athletic activity in the water is always time well spent.
13. Drive to the Local Public Pool
Don’t let Caddyshack, the Sandlot, or the local country club crowd scare you off. The local pool exists for a reason: so that normies can have some fun, act like dolphins, and relieve themselves (yes, that, too) when the thermometer surpasses 90 degrees.
There will be no Baby Ruths dropped, and who cares if your high-falutin friend sees you at the public pool? Life’s too short to be hot (or indoors on a beautiful summer day).
14. Brave the Local Waterpark
Waterparks are, objectively, one of the most disgusting inventions man has ever conceived. Mass gatherings of strangers in a handful of pools? What could go wrong?!
Put your germaphobia (or even your basic germ awareness) aside for a moment, though, and admit it: Waterparks are fun. The chlorine is probably caring for those unknown, invisible creatures in the water, anyway.
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