Spring breakers at SPI observe St. Patrick's Day by continuing to drink copiously

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND — Spring breakers kicked off St. Patrick’s Day early in the day Wednesday, crowding the beaches of South Padre Island and slamming drink after drink well before noon.

The Island’s beaches glistened Wednesday with strands of green beads and beer cans as college students from all over celebrated the holiday with ample amounts of sun and alcohol.

Elisa Onofre, a recent graduate from Texas A&M University, said she and her friends hit the beach early Wednesday, despite coming off a long night of heavy drinking and partying.

“We got up real early — we wanted to start early,” she said. “We’ve been drinking ever since we woke up.”

Onofre said she and her friends started out the day with shots.

Zach Foraday, a University of Texas student, said he planned on sucking down energy drinks along with alcohol to keep him up and partying straight through the holiday. “The Red Bull girls came around the hotel yesterday and gave us a whole case. So we’re definitely ready to go,” he said. “We’ll be up all day, drinking all day.”

Foraday said he woke up Wednesday and was ready to go by 8:30 a.m. He and his friends also started out St. Patrick’s Day with a round of booze.

“We started the shots early in the day,” he said. “We make the shots stronger as the day goes on.”

Though bars and pubs are seen as the typical venues for St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, spring breakers slammed cans of beer on the Island’s beaches while soaking up the sun and enjoying clear skies and temperatures that were in the mid-70s almost all day long. Most students planned on visiting the Island’s bars and clubs once the sun went down.

Students who crammed Coca-Cola Beach said they had been chugging drinks beachside since morning, and by afternoon their stumbling, slurred words and sunburned shoulders proved it.

By late afternoon, as the sun started to wane, students began leaving the beaches in droves, while cars leaving the island created bottleneck traffic. Students said they were leaving to eat, clean up and prepare for another long night of drinking at the Island’s bars and clubs.

Well into Texas Week — when most of the state’s universities and colleges are on spring break — South Padre Island Police Chief Randy Smith said there had been no serious incidents, just some students picked up on charges of public intoxication and disorderly conduct.

“It’s been busy, keeping an eye on things,” Smith said. “But so far that’s been the lion’s share of our issues — just drunk and disorderly.”

Smith said the Police Department generally prepares for the last few days of Texas Week to be rambunctious, but he also readied his department for a rowdy Wednesday, given the holiday.

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Michael Barajas is a reporter for the Valley Morning Star in Harlingen.