If you ask my nationality, my answer is “pretty much all the whitest ones.” SPF aside, sitting in the sun was never a favorite pastime. So even though I am part of a beach house every summer, I never had a beach chair. For the most part, I went to the beach around 3 or 3:30 p.m., told the tag girl (I usually didn’t have a beach tag either) that my tag was on my (non-existent) chair on the beach, and sat in someone else’s chair, while they played volleyball or rinsed off, or otherwise moved about the 38th street beach vicinity.

This year, though, I vowed to get better at beach volleyball. Which requires me to play more. Which requires me to be on the beach more. Which requires a beach tag and, realistically, my own beach chair. So for the first time, I bought one.

After days and days of research, including a shopping trip to Hoy’s in Avalon, NJ, I got my new beach chair straight from the Tommy Bahama website, where I saved $8 from the list price (paid more than that for shipping, but I didn’t have to leave my great parking spot). Without further adieu, as summer is half over, here are the 10 Best Things about My New Beach Chair!

10. My New Beach Chair offers a unique embroidered design featuring a marlin, a lovely cursive style font, and a very good tagline in all-caps that stands out nicely but not obnoxiously.

9. My New Beach Chair has a removable headrest, so the choice to be comfortable or uncomfortable in your head and neck area is a decision you make of your own free will.

8. My New Beach Chair has a strap to hold in somebody’s baby.

7. With My New Beach Chair, you can completely recline, and there’s a bar underneath your head so you don’t tilt back headfirst into the sand like a seesaw. Oh yeah, and check out the hot summer beach colors and pattern.

6. My New Beach Chair has wooden armrests so as not to burn your arms in the blazing sun, and a safety handle so you can hold on tight in case of a tsunami.

5. My New Beach Chair says you should exercise near an open flame and with burning cigarettes. No, wait.

4. My New Beach Chair has a spacious zip pocket in back to hold essential beach appliances.

3. My New Beach Chair has convenient side pockets to hold both your beer and your banana

3 a. Or your banana and your cucumber, if you put your beer down on the ground

3 b. Or your banana and your friend’s peach. But your beer ends up on the ground again.

2. The insulated compartment in My New Beach Chair allows you to bring an assortment of snacks that you otherwise may never consider for the beach.

1. And last but not least, you can easily carry My New Beach Chair almost anywhere — like a back pack by using the padded orange straps, or like a purse or suitcase by using the comfy rubber handle up top.