In Search of the World's Greatest Beach

One of my favorite "getting to know you" questions is: What's your favorite type of vacation? I find that answers normally fall in roughly one of three buckets: ski, beach, or adventure.

I personally have a clear answer to this question, "beach", and I am continually in search of the greatest beach in the world. I've been in the process recently of planning yet another beach vacation and decided to list out my criteria about what makes a great beach.

Emptiness
Beach Depth and Length
Sea Floor & Seaweed
Surf - for me, this axis is a Goldilocks thing. You want some surf, but not too much.
Sand Softness
Water Color
Weather - how often the beach gets sun is a factor, but we'll assume if it's being considered in a "best" list, that the weather is already warm and sunny
Bugs

Let's take some of my recent and favorite beaches and run them against this criteria:

1. Surfside Beach - Nantucket
2. Kailua Beach - Oahu, Hawaii
3. Fruit Stand Beach (my personal name) - Oahu, Hawaii
4. Medano Beach - Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
5. Kondoi Beach - Taketomi, Japan