I didn’t grow up at the coast, but I learned about the tides the hard way (we found a nice place at the beach at low tide, and had to seriously hurry to get everything to safety). That taught me about tides.
Last year we were visiting a coastal town in the UK, and I had checked the tide table beforehand so I could always tell my wife and our friend about the current state. Sadly, we never had the time to see the beach or the port there - whenever we had time, it was already dark.