It's a solid machine, was the first machine I bought (still have it)
I did a lot of research before I took the plunge and if a lot of the stuff I read was to be believed I wouldn't have touched it. Stuff like 'you have to have a hundred thousand hours on this machine to truly understand it' (not exactly but you get the drift
)
The simple fact is that you can pretty much turn it on, ground balance and away you go...
Will you master it right away? No, but like learning any language you will start to pick it up in no time, the subtle nuances will come with time and patience.
As for the beach, dry sand is a go, in fact it's great on the dry stuff, wet and in the water, no, not really, too chatty and a lot of falsing. It can be done but it might drive you crazy
I'd avoid wet sand initially as you will get frustrated with it.
YouTube has a ton of AT Pro videos and you could do worse than watch a few.