People watching

As something of a student of human behaviour I find myself watching and observing people quite a lot.  Today for example I was by the beach eating a sandwich and wondering why so many people had pop-up tents at the beach.
It makes very little sense really, if your trying to avoid the sun don't go to a sunny beach.  Secondly the beach was really windy, a flimsy lightweight tent this is simply going to be blown away, and several were.  Trying to peg out a tent in soft sand with 4 tent pegs is a bit like trying to dam Niagara falls with a few stone, you can try but it's not going to work.  So why do so many people try?  Buggered if I know.