Along with the swimsuit, sun protection and sun glasses, many of us heading for the beach pack our favourite personal electronics – perhaps an iPod, mobile phone (BlackBerry in my case) and digital camera. Sadly, sand and water have a traumatic effect on such devices. My (grown-up) family has written off two digital cameras by getting sand in the zoom lens and even lost a mobile phone to heavy rain.

With this in mind, I set off on the annual family windsurfing/kiteboarding get-together better prepared than usual.

First, I put my Apple iPod Touch inside a special case designed by OtterBox for the iPod Touch second generation player (www.otterbox.com). The $50 (￡60 in the UK) Armor Series case is waterproof (up to 3ft deep), dustproof, drop-proof and scratch- proof, and still lets me use the touch screen through a thin membrane.