Introducing the Geometry Between Swims Collection — towels that play as hard as you do.
We've always believed a great towel does more than dry you off. It sets a scene. It anchors a moment. It turns an ordinary afternoon into something worth remembering. With our new Gaming Collection, we took that idea one step further — and made towels you can actually play on.
Whether you're wrangling kids at the beach, hosting a backyard hang, or just looking for a reason to put the phones down, these towels were designed to get everyone off their feet and into the game. No equipment required. No setup. Just lay it down and play.
Here's how.
The Shell Toss — Bullseye Beach Towel
Best for: Kids and competitive adults who swear they're just playing for fun.
Our Bullseye Score Towel doubles as the world's most beautiful toss game. Each illustrated shell carries a point value — 10, 25, 50, or 100 — scattered across the towel like a real shoreside find.
How to play: Draw a line in the sand a few feet back from the towel. Take turns tossing shells you've collected from the beach, smooth rocks, or bean bags if you've brought them from home. Whatever lands on a shell earns you those points. First to 500 wins — or set your own target. Play on one towel together, or lay two side by side and compete for territory.
Variation — Closest to the Shell: Skip the points entirely. One person calls out a shell, everyone tosses for it, and whoever lands closest wins the round. Simple, fast, and endlessly repeatable.
Variation — Team Play: Split into two teams, each tossing from opposite ends. The towel becomes contested ground. Whoever racks up the most points across five rounds takes the win and bragging rights for the rest of the day.
Poolside Hopscotch — Stepping Stones Beach Towel
Best for: Little ones with energy to burn, or anyone who hasn't hopped in too long.
Numbered 1 through 10 in overlapping watercolor circles, our Stepping Stones Towel is a hopscotch board that needs nothing but bare feet. Lay it flat in the sand and you're ready.
Classic Hopscotch: Toss a shell or small rock onto a number. Hop through the board on one foot, skipping the square your marker landed on, then hop back to retrieve it. Miss a square or lose your balance, and you pass the turn. First to complete the full board wins.
Variation — Bubble Jump: Call out a number and everyone has to hurry to touch it at the same time. Last one there sits out. Keep going until one player remains.
Variation — Color Hop: For younger kids who aren't counting yet, call out a color instead of a number — "orange!" — and watch them scramble to find it. Great for toddlers just learning colors and completely chaotic in the best way.
Variation — Simon Says Hopscotch: Combine it with Simon Says. "Simon says hop to 7 on one leg." Anyone who hops without hearing "Simon says" first is out. It sounds simple until you're the one calling the numbers.
Board Game on the Beach — Crossplay
Best for: The strategists. The ones who take games a little too seriously. (You know who you are.)
Our Crossplay design comes in 3 color variations on both our beach towel and beach blanket. It is a fully playable checkers or chess board — no pieces required, because the beach or your snack bag provides.
Checkers: Collect two types of items — dark rocks and light shells work perfectly, or use your poolside snacks (goldfish v.s fruit snacks). Bonus fun: snack on each piece you win! Each player takes 12 pieces, sets them on their side of the board, and plays standard checkers. King your pieces by stacking a second item on top.
Chess: If your group knows the game, assign different shells or rocks to each piece type. A large conch could be the queen, a small flat stone a pawn. It sounds improvised because it is — and that's exactly what makes it memorable.
Variation — Last Piece Standing: A simplified version for younger kids. Each player gets 6 pieces. Take turns moving one square at a time in any direction. Capture by landing on your opponent's piece. No kings, no jumping — just strategy. Whoever captures all the other player's pieces wins.
Variation — Obstacle Chess: Place a few unmovable "obstacle" shells randomly across the board before you start. Pieces can't pass through them. It changes the entire geometry of the game and makes experienced players rethink everything they know.
Towel Tangle — Salt Scatter Beach Blanket
Best for: Groups, parties, and anyone who doesn't mind getting sand everywhere.
Colorful, oversized, and covered in illustrated shells, our Salt Scatter Beach Blanket takes the spirit of Twister and moves it to the shore. The circles are your spots — orange, pink, yellow, and blue — each with a different shell illustration inside.
Classic Twister Style: One person calls it out — "right foot, yellow" or "left hand, blue starfish" — and everyone playing has to get there without falling over. If you collapse or lift a hand or foot, you're out.
Variation — Shell Matching: Call out the shell instead of the color. "Left foot on the scallop." Players have to identify the right shell and get there. Mix in color calls to keep it unpredictable.
Variation — Toss for It: Instead of a caller, each player tosses a shell or small rock onto the towel and has to place the body part it lands nearest to on that circle. No caller needed — the toss decides your fate. Especially fun with four or more players trying to occupy the same circles at once.
Variation — Freeze Frame: Same as classic play, but every 30 seconds the caller yells "freeze" and everyone has to hold their position perfectly still for a count of 10. Anyone who wobbles or shifts is out. Sand makes this significantly harder than it sounds.
Tic Tac Toe at the Tide — Three in a Row
Best for: Two players, any age, any patience level.
Clean, graphic, and deceptively simple, our Three in a Row design features a built-in tic tac toe grid at its center. Gather two types of shells, rocks, or snacks — one kind per player — and you're playing.
Classic Tic Tac Toe: Three in a row wins. You know the rules. The towel does the work.
Variation — Best of 7: Standard tic tac toe ends fast. Make it a series. Keep score in the sand, play seven rounds, and see who takes the match. Suddenly, it's a whole afternoon.
Variation — Wild Card: Add one "wild" shell that either player can place on any turn to block or connect. Whoever brings the wild shell to the game gets to use it once. It changes every calculation.
The Play Mat — Wander Coast Beach Towel
Best for: Little beachgoers with big imaginations.
Our illustrated Wander Coast Towel is the one that needs no rules — just wonder. Featuring a hand-drawn shoreline complete with a lighthouse, a surf shack, a sandcastle, a whale tail, beach chairs, and a winding path through it all, this towel is a world waiting to be explored.
How to use it: Lay it flat and let kids do what kids do. Build sandcastles at the edges and let them exist inside the map. Drive toy cars or trucks along the winding paths. Arrange shells and rocks as villages along the coast. Float a leaf in a nearby tide pool and call it the sailboat from the map.
It's a playmat, a story prop, a geography lesson, and an art piece all at once. No turns. No winners. No rules at all — which, if you've spent any time with small children, you know is sometimes exactly what everyone needs.
A Few Universal Tips for Game Day
Bring a small bag of playing pieces from home. Bean bags, snack foods, river rocks, or a handful of large dried beans in a zip-lock work perfectly for toss games and board games alike. The beach provides plenty, but having backups means the game never stops for a supply run.
Use the sand as your scoreboard. Draw a tally in the wet sand near the water's edge. It washes away when you're done, which feels like a perfect metaphor for a day at the beach.
Layer two towels for bigger games. Most of our gaming towels work together. Lay two Shell Score Towels end to end for a longer toss lane, or use the Checker Board alongside the Bubble Stack for a full afternoon tournament setup.
The best games are the ones you make up. Every rule above is a starting point. The beach has a way of turning "we're just doing this" into something no one wants to stop. Let it.
The Between Swims Collection is available now. Shop the full collection HERE
Tag us in your game day photos — @geometryhouse — we want to see who's winning.