Sand sports include running, volleyball, soccer, beach flags, ironman, and fitness training. An increased amount of soft tissue injuries have been widely reported. A novel technique of determining the surface stiffness of beach sand in-situ used a simple drop-test penetrometer. The relationship between drop height and the depth of penetration squared was linear (Pearson’s correlation coefficient r2 > 0.92). The stiffness ratio between the soft dry sand and ocean-saturated wet sand compacted by eight hours of coastal water exposure was approximately seven, which was similar to previously reported stiffness measurements in a sand box. However, the absolute stiffness values were much smaller. While this technique was manually operated, an automatic system is postulated for future studies.