BACKGROUND

Field of the Invention

This invention relates to beach towels, and more particularly relates to a weighted beach accessory for covering a ground surface and providing a clean laying area for a sunbather or beach goer.

Description of the Related Art

Sunbathers and beach goers enjoy relaxing on flexible towels or mats which separate the sunbather from the sand. These towels, or mats, frequently blow away and do not typically cover a large enough surface area to give a sunbather a practical amount of space. For this reason, a variety of weights have been developed in the art used, which are cumbersome and must be ported with the towel.

Because personal items ported to a beach setting must be carried by hand, often by a beach goer is wearing sandals or uncomfortable footwear in conjunction with heavier items such as coolers, it is important that towels and beach accessories be as lightweight and compact as possible.

While weighted towels are known in the art, they have proven to have little commercial viability because of the difficult of porting the weights. For this reason, other art has become known, including towels with sand anchors which are screwed or hammered into the sand to hold down the beach towel. These items also suffer from defects in that the anchors and components necessary to assemble and hold the towel are also cumbersome, expensive and easily lost.

There exist no towels in the art which are lightweight and portable and which solve the various aforescribed problems with the art. There is a need in the art for an portable, lightweight beach towel which overcomes these shortcomings in the art.

SUMMARY

From the foregoing discussion, it should be apparent that a need exists for a lightweight, compact beach towel. Beneficially, such a device would overcome inefficiencies with the prior art by providing a towel which is inexpensive to fabricate and easily to port, stow and use.

The present invention has been developed in response to the present state of the art, and in particular, in response to the problems and needs in the art that have not yet been fully solved by currently available apparti. Accordingly, the present invention has been developed to provide a compact beach towel assembly comprising: a flexible ground cover; an uninterrupted sidewall circumscribing an exterior perimeter of the flexible ground cover, a bottom edge of the sidewall connected directly to the perimeter of the ground cover; wherein the uninterrupted sidewall defines one or more hollow pockets circumscribing an upper edge of the sidewall; an elastic band circumscribing the upper edge of the sidewall within the hollow pockets; a plurality of bags adapted to hold sand, each bag positioned on a corner of the ground cover, wherein each bag comprises a plurality of tie strings, each bag applying tensile force to the sidewall and holding the sidewall in place laterally and vertically using a friction fit.

The flexible ground cover may be one of square, rectangular, triangular, hexagonal, octagonal and ovoid. The hollow pockets may not circumscribe corners of the sidewall but rather planar edges of the sidewall in some embodiments.

The elastic band may be stretched across corners of the ground cover from an open end of a first pocket to an open end of a second pocket forming a bag recess between the elastic band and a corner of the sidewall; and each bag is positioned in a bag recess such that the bag forms a friction fit with both the elastic band and the corner of the sidewall.

A second compact beach towel assembly is provided comprising: a flexible ground cover; an uninterrupted sidewall circumscribing an exterior perimeter of the flexible ground cover, a bottom edge of the sidewall connected directly to the perimeter of the ground cover, the uninterrupted sidewall forming a sunbathing recess with an open top end spanning the width of the ground cover; wherein the uninterrupted sidewall defines one or more hollow pockets circumscribing an upper edge of the sidewall.

The hollow pockets may not circumscribe corners of the sidewall but rather planar edges of the sidewall in various embodiments.

The compact beach towel assembly may further comprise a plurality of flexible rods inserted into the pockets.

The elastic band may be stretched across corners of the ground cover from an open end of a first pocket to an open end of a second pocket forming a bag recess between the elastic band and a corner of the sidewall; each bag is positioned in a bag recess such that the bag forms a friction fit with both the elastic band and the corner of the sidewall; an elastic band circumscribing the upper edge of the sidewall within the hollow pockets; a plurality of bags adapted to hold sand, each bag positioned on a corner of the ground cover, wherein each bag comprises a plurality of tie strings, each bag applying tensile force to the sidewall and holding the sidewall in place laterally and vertically using a friction fit.

The flexible ground cover may be one of square, rectangular, triangular, hexagonal, octagonal and ovoid.

Reference throughout this specification to features, advantages, or similar language does not imply that all of the features and advantages that may be realized with the present invention should be or are in any single embodiment of the invention. Rather, language referring to the features and advantages is understood to mean that a specific feature, advantage, or characteristic described in connection with an embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, discussion of the features and advantages, and similar language, throughout this specification may, but do not necessarily, refer to the same embodiment.

Furthermore, the described features, advantages, and characteristics of the invention may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize that the invention may be practiced without one or more of the specific features or advantages of a particular embodiment. In other instances, additional features and advantages may be recognized in certain embodiments that may not be present in all embodiments of the invention.

These features and advantages of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims, or may be learned by the practice of the invention as set forth hereinafter.

