The debate was on when USA Today published a series of March stories about the 10 hardest things to do in sports. Hitting a baseball thrown at 90-plus miles per hour was number one. Driving a race car at megaspeeds around a track and not getting hurt was the runner-up hardest activity, while running a marathon came in number seven.

Ever since, American sportswriters have been poking fun at the original list. Some pundits composed their own fanciful “hardest” versions, which included supervising canine drug testing at the Iditarod, cleaning up after a NASCAR event and, in Oregon, being a Portland Trail blazers fan.

The above is all fine and good, humorous even, but the writers compiling the various lists probably have never been exposed to our area’s challenging conditions, things such as coastal winds and 20 straight days of rain. Beginning with number 10, here’s a list of the most difficult sports and fitness activities in the Columbia-Pacific region.

10. Planning, much less playing, a game of tennis. Even this time of year, conditions are either too windy, too misty, too cool or, on that rare day that tops 80 degrees, way too hot.

9. Participating in Seaside’s Beach Volleyball Tournament in shorts and a tank top. Staged in August, the tournament still is brrrrrrrr-city.

8. Hiking or trail running over any headland, cape or coastal promontory without getting muddy from the knees down. Some sections of trail underneath the forest canopy don’t dry out until mid-September – just in time for an early-fall downpour to render them soft and sloshy all over again.

7. Tossing frisbees on any beach between Ocean Park, Wash., and Pacific City almost any day in the summer. Ever attempt to contest a game of Ultimate Frisbee against a 25 mph northwest wind?

6. Finding the perfect wave. Sure there are primo point breaks and beach breaks to surf in Oregon and southwest Washington. Provided you’re in the right place at precisely the right time. Otherwise the tide will be too high or too low or, worse yet, the wind will be blowing onshore. In either case, the waves likely will be a sloppy mess.

5. Cycling through Seaside on the shoulder of Highway 101 between Memorial Day and Labor Day. The city’s summer tourist season is hell for two-wheelers. Humongous recreational vehicles sporting three-foot-long side mirrors can clear the bicycling lanes faster than an August downpour.

4. Golfing in the winter. Hail to those stalwart linksters who drive their little white balls into the teeth of a January sou’wester or one-putt a green during a driving December rain.

3. Successfully completing a spring baseball schedule. Heck, getting through any week without a rain-out before the beginning of July is almost unprecedented.

2. Catching your quota of Columbia River summer salmon. Once the sports fishing season begins, the boats outnumber the salmon and only the wiliest fisher folk get their limit.

1. Swimming – even wading, for heaven sake – in the north Pacific Ocean for more than 90 seconds without a wetsuit.

Richard Fencsak is co-owner of Bikes and Beyond in Astoria. His column appears on the second and fourth Thursday of every month in The Daily Astorian.