Floatopia: Celebrating Spring Break With Booze and Inner Tubes
Floatopia was in full swing in San Diego this weekend, and perhaps at other spring break destinations, which means there is another reason why parents should worry about their children during spring break.
Don't know what Floatopia is? Picture several thousand college students drinking on rafts and inner tubes in the water and you'll get a pretty good idea of what's happening out here.
A couple of years ago the City Council banned drinking alcohol on San Diego beaches, piers and sidewalks, but it didn't occur to anyone to also ban drinking on the water. So over the weekend, thousands of college students showed up with beer coolers as well as plastic rafts, inflatable kiddie pools and inner tubes for 2010 Floatopia. Organizers alerted spring break revelers through Facebook at Floatopia SanDiego.
As long as the college students drank their beer and alcohol on their floaties, the polices were helpless to stop. Some of the police stood on surf boards to overseas the floating party and the cops herded the students into the shallower water to keep them away from boats in Mission Bay.
You don't have to be a mom to realize how dangerous Floatopia is. With 6,000 students celebrating during the floating kegger party on Saturday alone, police and lifeguards couldn't possibly keep track of everyone. Imagine if a drunk student fell into the water and nobody noticed? On Saturday, lifeguards did rescue 12 drunk students who fell into the water.
San Diego didn't originate the Floatopia idea; Floatopia got its start in Santa Barbara, CA. Call me a nag or worse, but I hope that Floatopia doesn't spread any further.
Lynn O'Shaughnessy is the author of The College Solution, an Amazon bestseller and she also writes for TheCollegeSolutionBlog. Follow her on Twitter.
Floatopia image by Drew Pez.
