If it is early in the morning, or late in afternoon, one does frequently see frum families on the beach or boardwalk as the bathers have covered up or left by then.
It would be a terrible shame that frum people could never enjoy the beauty of the sand and ocean, otherwise. In addition, those who jog in the summer know that very often it is simply too hot except along the water where there is a constant cool sea-breeze blowing.
Where I live, the beach doesn’t open until 10 AM, although I don’t think it is locked before that, but if you are out of the boardwalk by 9 AM (maybe the lifeguards come early), it is a very small chance that anybody will be there. After 5 PM, similarly, there is only a very small chance anybody is still dressed inappropriately. My question then is if there is only a very small chance, does one still have to stay away?
Even on the streets, one may see a jogger dressed inappropriately. Does that mean one could never jog? Where I used to live, there was a major street along a river with a jogging path, and the joggers there probably were worse dressed than any beach. What is the halacha in that case?
Must one give up things that are healthy and one enjoys, on the chance that other people may come along who are not dressed well? Certainly, those who go to work do not have to avoid the subways, even though the dress there is not exactly 100%. The question is when it is not for a necessity, does one still have to avoid going anywhere when there is a chance of seeing somebody. When running, one really doesn’t focus on anything except runnning, because if he stops to look at something, he is not getting any exercise, and if he does not stop, he may crash into something.
So the question is what must the chances be that something inappropriate will come along in order to make one avoid an activity. 1%, 50%, 100%?