If life gauged your prior behaviors — the experiences you “liked”; the memories you “shared” — then repeated them over and over, like some space-age supercomputer or social media sociopath. What’s the stuff that would keep popping up in your daily “feed”?
Would it be morning beach walks and afternoon bike rides? Evening pier beers with a happening band? Deep talks with old friends — or scintillating conversations with total strangers? Or would it be the same ol’ doom scroll of online outrage, Facebook fights and Instagram FOMO?
These were the thoughts that kept surfacing as we put together our summer issue. Not because of the not-so-deep questions we conjured up on our office computer, but the time spent answering them out in the field — and the people who sated our curiosity.
Fish and bird biologists. Lighthouse keepers and rainbow experts. Not to mention the writers and photogs who interpreted their tales and delivered the results. Sharp minds who’ve devoted their lives to exploring the world around us, and, in return, get rewarded in ways cyberspace never could, whether it’s sharing the spine-tingling jitters of touching a shark, the cerebral joy of an excellent conversation — or just the refreshing taste of an ice-cold beer.
“ THAT’S THE BEST THING ABOUT THE NATURAL WORLD: IT DOESN’T TRY TO READ YOU AT ALL.
Now compare that with screen time (an average of 7 hours per day for each American at last count!), where just a few minutes of political memes can leave you totally exhausted — and a series of half-second tweets can feel like the end of the world. All fueled by a string of code designed to force-feed you the same toxic cocktail every time you tune in.
WHAT IF THE ANALOG WORLD CAME WITH AN ALGORITHM?
But that’s the best thing about the natural world: it doesn’t try to read you at all. It doesn’t even know you exist — until you introduce yourself into it. And then it requires you to reintroduce yourself again and again. To dive back in day after day and see what floats past in the process, even if it’s doing the same old thing; and even then, you’ll never see the same thing twice. Just because you discover a perfect conch shell or empty sandbar one morning, doesn’t mean you’ll find 1000 more next time you stroll. (If only.) But it also won’t keep putting the same old pile of dog poo in your path, either.
And summer’s the perfect time to take that first step. To slam shut the laptop, turn off the iPhone, and crack open the ever-expanding world as it exists in real life, instead of in a collection of two-dimensional colored pixels. Just choose wisely. Because, whatever you put out there, it will inevitably come back. — Matt Walker
Thank you for reading Outer Banks Milepost. We hope you enjoy it. If not — before chucking this issue into the nearest dumpster — please consider one of the following equally satisfying ways of expressing your disgust: wrap up burnt ciggies on your next beach sweep; stuff it with chum, then feed it to the sharks. Or just toss it on that 6-month pile of newspapers you’ve yet to recycle. (Trust us, you’ll feel better.) Then, send any and all feedback — positive, negative or just plain confused — to: editor@outerbanksmilepost.com. We promise to find some way to re-purpose them.
“Plastic people...Oh baby, how you’re such a drag...” — Frank Zappa “And we’ll all float on, okay...” — Modest Mouse Issue 14.2
Summer 2025
Cover: Flip Flopsam
Carnell Boyle, Jared Cera, George Cheeseman, Marcia Cline, Carolina Coto, Kim Cowen, Cloey Davis, Michael J. Davis, Fay Davis Edwards, Mary Edwards, Laine Edwards, Marc Felton, Janet Fenton, Travis Fowler, Adriana Gomez-Nichols, Amelia Kasten, Chris Kemp, Nathan Lawrenson, Dave Lekens, Tim Lusk, Elisa McVearry, Ben Miller, Dawn Moraga, Ben Morris, Holly Nettles, Stella Nettles, Rick Nilson, Barbara Noel, Holly Overton, Stuart Parks II, James Perry, Charlotte Quinn, Meg Rubino, Shirley Ruff, Amy Snowden, Noah Snyder, Rob Snyder, Janet Stapelman, Alyse Stewart, Willow Temple, Kenneth Templeton, Stephen Templeton, Shane Thomas, George Tsonev, CW, Christina Weisner, Chris Wheeler, John Wilson, Mark Wiseman, Bri Young, Mike Zafra Lensfolk
Nate Appel, Matt Artz, Nathan Beane, Chris Bickford, Russell Blackwood, Mike Booher, Don Bower, Aycock Brown, Mark Buckler, Jon Carter, Garnette Coleman, Rich Coleman, Marc Corbett, Kim Cowen, Chris Creighton, Mere Crockett, Benny Crum, Jason Denson, Amy Dixon, Susan Dotterer Dixon, Lori Douglas, Julie Dreelin, Tom Dugan/ESM, Roy Edlund, Bryan Elkus, Ben Gallop, Cory Godwin, Treveon Govan, Michael Halminski, Chris Hannant, Katie Harms, Bryan Harvey, David Alan Harvey, Ginger Harvey, Bob Hovey, Biff Jennings, Jenni Koontz, Daryl Law, Mike Leech, Anthony Leone, Jeff Lewis, Jared Lloyd, Matt Lusk, Ray Matthews, Brooke Mayo, Mickey McCarthy, Nic McLean, Roger Meekins, D. Victor Meekins, Richard L. Miller, Dick Meseroll/ESM, Ashley Milteer, David Molnar, Rachel Moser, Ryan Moser, Elizabeth Neal, Rob Nelson, Candace Owens, Anne Snape Parsons, Crystal Polston, Daniel Pullen, Cal Ramsey, Ryan Rhodes, Terry Rowell, Cyndi Goetcheus Sarfan, Katie Slater, Tom Sloate, Wes Snyder, Aimee Thibodeau, David Thomas, Ed Tupper, Eve Turek, Chris Updegrave, Dan Waters, Kati Wilkins, Cyrus Welch, Jay Wickens, Cody Wright Penfolk
Ashley Bahen, Madeline Bailey, Sarah Downing, Ty Evans, Laura Gomez-Nichols, Jim Gould, Steve Hanf, Sam Harriss, Sarah Hyde, Catherine Kozak, Katrina Leuzinger Owens, Dan Lewis, Michelle Lewis, Terri Mackleberry, Fran Marler, Amanda McDanel, Maggie Miles, Matt Pruett, Mary Ellen Riddle, Peter Graves Roberts, Arabella Saunders, Corinne Saunders, Shannon Sutton, Kip Tabb, Brian Tress, Emmy Trivette, Kathleen Wasniewski, Hannah West, Clumpy White, Sharon Whitehurst, Natalie Wolfe, Michele Young-Stone Pointing/Clicking
Jesse Davis
Sales Force
Laurin Walker
Big Mouth In Chief
Matt Walker
Blame It All On Suite P Inc. PO Box 7100 • KDH, NC 27948
Outer Banks Milepost is published quarterly (sorterly) by Suite P Inc. All contents are the property of Suite P Inc. and do not reflect the opinion of advertisers or distributors. Nor do their contents reflect that of the creative types (who would never, ever sell out). Comments, letters and submissions are usually welcome. Please include SASE for return delivery of all snail mail, however, Milepost and Suite P Inc. still aren’t responsible for any unsolicited materials. And don’t expect much else to move much faster than IST (Island Standard Time). Oh yeah: if you reprint a lick of this content you’re ripping us off. (Shame on you.) To discuss editorial ideas, find out about advertising or tell us we blew it – or just find out what the waves are doing – call 252-441-6203 or email: editor@outerbanksmilepost.com; sales@outerbanksmilepost.com.
Art: Allie Luciano/PrettyTrashyOBX www.outerbanksmilepost.com Reader You Brushes & Ink
“Odyssey”
By Michael Halminski www.michaelhalminski.com
“My wife and I went to Kansas City for Thanksgiving two years ago. We’d hop on public transportation and go downtown to sightsee and do different things. One day, we went to this gift shop where there were distractions and whirly gigs in all directions. When I saw this rack of posters hanging on dowels, I thought, “Why can’t I make one picture out of those posters?” And I could’ve moved them around, but I’m fairly deliberate in my composition, so I just walked up, took one or two different shots, and that was that. But I like all the little details that give it sort of an Outer Banks feel — the fishing lures, the national parks, the moon phases. And, if you look even closer, you see Taurus. That’s my sign.” — Michael Halminski
Go with the flow.
Marine plastics, nautical mishaps and salty answers. 20 GetActive
Looks like rain...
22 FirstPerson
The sunny side of Josh McCraw.
24 In Real Life
Hatteras Island so captured Michael Halminski, he couldn’t help but return the favor.
40 GraphicContent
Less beach litter — more beach skitter!
43 Flotsam & Jetsam
Curious questions from our collective summer consciousness.
New study shows higher concentrations of microplastics, and potentially greater health risks, in NC’s coastal counties.
Recreational playground. Psychological escape. A summer dip to soothe poison ivy — or a cold plunge hangover cure. Outer Bankers often see the Atlantic Ocean in our backyard as a salty spa for various maladies. But even Neptune’s vastness can’t escape the ubiquitous 21st century blight: microplastics. And, according to a new study, “Marine Microplastics Levels and the Prevalence of Neurologic Disability,” exposure to these invisible plastic particles can lead to long term health disabilities.
“You can’t see them,” says the study’s senior author, Dr. Sarju Ganatra. “But they are there and certainly have an impact on us.”
Ganatra is a researcher who works at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in Burlington, Massachusetts, and focuses on environmental impacts on health. This study looked at 218 coastal U.S. counties across 22 states. Its results were presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s annual meeting in April, then published in the journal Neurology.
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Among the findings: microplastics can affect memory and cognition; there is an association between microplastics and declines in mobility and the ability to remain independent; risk is higher for coastal residents who live in areas with higher levels of microplastics; and that North Carolina coastal counties, including Dare, Hyde and Currituck, fall into the medium range of marine microplastic concentration.
“We only have data at the ocean level, and that’s why we are focusing on the ocean,” says Ganatra. “But the drive-home point is that this is not an ocean-county-only problem. It’s everywhere.”
According to the Wilson Center’s Environment Change and Security Program, more than 300 million tons of single-use plastic waste is generated annually, of which about 5 million to 18 million tons leak into the ocean every year from various landbased sources, including stormwater runoff and mismanaged wastewater systems.
FAMILY OWNED & OPERATED SINCE 1987!
“These plastics end up in the guts of birds, oysters, and fish, and entangle sea life, posing a threat to the health of ocean ecosystems, food security and the planet,” notes an article on the Program’s blog, New Security Beat And they break down very slowly.
According to NOAA, it takes about 450 years for PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic bottles to break down in the ocean, and 20 years for plastic bags; while the
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife estimates monofilament fishing line won’t break down for 600 years.
Now picture all the other stuff you see on the beach or in the ocean: food wrappers, party cups, face scrubs, drinking straws, shopping bags, children’s sand toys, etc.
Microplastics in the ocean — and their tinier cousins, nanoplastics — are the invisible particles leftover from all this trash.
Ganatra suggests imagining the ocean you’re bathing in as a glass of water.
“And if you put salt or sugar in it, two minutes later, you’re not going to be able to see it,” he explains. “But it’s still there.”
Not only do microplastics lead to negative health effects, research shows that more exposure to the ocean means more risk.
According to the American Academy of Neurology, Gantara’s study first looked at the different levels of marine microplastics found in surface ocean water between 2015 to 2020 in coastal counties, then sorted findings into four groups, ranging from low (0 to 0.005 pieces per cubic meter of water) to very high (10 or more pieces per cubic meter of water).
That data was then compared with the amount of disability in coastal residents in memory and thinking, mobility, self-care and independent living. In all categories, the counties with higher levels of marine microplastics were consistently found to have higher levels of disability than the lower-level counties.
“The environment can play a crucial role in our health, and factors such as pollution may impact a person’s risk of developing cognitive decline and other neurological disabilities,” Ganatra said in a news release leading up to the study’s presentation.
“Our study found in coastal communities with higher levels of microplastics in the water, there were higher rates of disabilities that can affect a person’s life in many ways through thinking and memory, movement and their ability to take care of themselves and live independently.”
Still, scientists do not yet have a good understanding about whether specific sources and types of microplastics have different effects on the body, Ganatra says.
“I think we just know that as a mixed bag of microplastics, they are bad for our cardiovascular and neurological health,” he explains. “The problem is, we don’t have that kind of granular data to say what’s the impact of what type of plastic.”
But it’s not just an ocean problem. There are thousands of different kinds of plastic, with seemingly endless sources. For instance, a Science Daily report published in March 2025 noted that microplastics are not only found in sponges, cutting boards and even our clothing, it now appears that chewing gum is guilty, as well.
“In a pilot study, researchers found that chewing gum can release hundreds to thousands of microplastics per piece into saliva and potentially be ingested,” the report says.
Furthermore, a January 2024 study,
published in science journal PNAS, found that nearly a quarter-million detectable “nanoplastics” were found on average in a liter of bottled water.
“In particular, nanoplastics are believed to be more toxic since their smaller size renders them much more amenable, compared to microplastics, to enter the human body,” the study says.
Ganatra notes that other studies have found more specific evidence of the presence of the plastic in body organs.
A study published this year in the journal Nature Medicine received national attention for finding that brains of deceased people contained about a spoonful of microplastics.
“ ACCORDING TO NOAA, IT TAKES ABOUT 450 YEARS FOR PET BOTTLES TO BREAK DOWN IN THE OCEAN.
Using advanced technology, the study compared samples taken from liver, kidneys, brain and other organs in 2024 to samples taken in 2019 and/or 2016 and found an increase in microplastics concentrations.
Plastic concentrations were not influenced by age, sex, race/ethnicity or cause of
death, the study says. The findings, however, showed an increase over time in microplastics and nanoplastics concentration, with brain tissue showing higher proportions of polyethylene. Electron microscopy revealed isolated brain plastic presenting as “nanoscale shard-like fragments,” and that levels of microplastics had increased 50 percent since 2016.
But even with greater accumulation of the plastics evident in the brains of decedents diagnosed with dementia, the study said, it is not yet known whether the plastics caused it.
“These results highlight a critical need to better understand the routes of exposure, uptake and clearance pathways and potential health consequences of plastics in human tissues, particularly in the brain,” the study says.
Does this mean no more saltwater therapy for ocean enthusiasts? Not necessarily.
As Ganatra cautions, it’s hard to avoid exposure to microplastics, which are not only in the water, but in the foods we eat and the air we breathe. Still, there is no need to panic and make drastic changes, such as not going swimming in the ocean.
“I think being mindful about it is a good thing at the moment,” Ganatra says. Individually and collectively, that means reducing the use of plastic, recycling it properly, making it more reusable, he adds.
“The plastic,” he says, “doesn’t end up in the ocean from nowhere, right?”
— Catherine Kozak
Pre-show publicity drive.
Photo: David Stick Papers/OBHC
PRESIDENTIAL PAGEANTRY
Remembering FDR’s night at the inaugural TheLostColony.
Few presidents left a lasting impact on Outer Banks life like Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Not only did the 32nd president’s public lands policies lay the groundwork for Cape Hatteras Seashore and Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, his Great Depression relief programs — such as the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps — paid down-on-their-luck laborers to build the very dunes that protect NC 12. Meanwhile, FDR’s Federal Theater Program started supporting out-of-work actors in 1935, which set the stage for a legendary local attraction to rise up two years later.
In 1937, The Lost Colony received funding from the FTP to hire leading roles for its inaugural season. The pageant opened that year to mark the 350th anniversary of the birth of Virginia Dare. And, on August 18th, Virginia’s birthday, FDR himself wanted to be in the audience to witness this new mix of musical and play — what playwright Paul Green had dubbed a “symphonic drama.”
The president’s visit created its own kind of drama.
According to records at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, New York, on August 17, 1937, FDR and his press secretary, Marvin H. McIntyre, left for the DC train station at 10:48pm, “enroute to Roanoke Island.”
Also aboard were ten members of congress: Senators Robert Reynolds of North Carolina; Joel Clark of Missouri; William Dietrich of Illinois; Thomas Bilbo of Mississippi; and William Bulow of South Dakota. Congressmen included the Tar Heel state’s Lindsey Warren, Robert Doughton and Graham Barden; House Majority Leader and future Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn of Texas; Virginia’s Schuyler Bland; and Vermont’s Charles Plumley.
After traveling all night, the delegation arrived in Elizabeth City and breakfasted on the train before the President made his
Fresh Off The Hook & Ready To Cook
way to the waterfront, where “throngs of onlookers” lined the shady thoroughfares to catch a glimpse of him riding by in a sleek convertible.
At 9:30am, the entourage departed River City on a Coast Guard patrol boat and headed for Roanoke Island.
Coastguardsman and island native, Louis Midgette, was assigned to attend to the president as sort of a local ambassador. Protection for the commander-in-chief included 200 troops from Fort Bragg, 60 State Troopers, and “a squad of secret service men.”
“THE PRESIDENT’S VISIT CREATED ITS OWN KIND OF DRAMA.
Preserved as the Safeguard of Both Liberty and Civilization,” which was broadcast live on the radio and was later printed in newspapers across the country.
Following his speech, the president needed a place to rest prior to taking in The Lost Colony, so he relaxed and had dinner at the Buchanan cottage on Nags Head’s famed cottage row.
To accommodate the president’s wheelchair, a ramp was constructed to access the porch. Roosevelt also brought along his own wooden chair, which had arms that enabled him to stand on his own. He left it as a memento of his visit, and it stayed in the Buchanan cottage for many years.
to the show, RF Hill, Jr., an administrator with the North Carolina State Board of Health’s malarial control unit, completely fogged the grounds with an insecticide. Hill’s efforts must’ve been successful, for he later reported, “I was standing within 20 feet of the President...and if he slapped at one single mosquito or scratched a bite, I didn’t see him.”
Today, a stone marker near the place where the presidential convertible parked proclaims, “On this spot Franklin D. Roosevelt witnessed the 23rd performance of The Lost Colony, August 18, 1937.” Some have surmised that it might also mark the site of America’s first “drive-in” theatre.
After the festivities were over and the presidential party departed, beach life somewhat returned to normal. But Nags Head neighbors recall that Mrs. Buchanan said, “It was the happiest moment of her life when that limousine drove away.”
Today, the Buchanan Cottage Guest Book, with Roosevelt’s signature in it, is part of the collections at the Outer Banks History Center, while the wooden chair that FDR used has an honored place inside Nags Head’s municipal complex. And The Lost Colony? With the exception of war (World War II) and pestilence (COVID), it’s continued to play every summer. In fact, this year, marks its 88th season — making it America’s longest-running outdoor symphonic drama. — Sarah Downing
After arriving on Roanoke Island, Roosevelt delivered a speech, “Majority Rule Must be
Toward dark, the president returned to Roanoke Island to view The Lost Colony in his car from a spot at the back of Waterside Theater. So that the president might enjoy the outdoor drama to the fullest, a plan was in place to keep him mosquito-free. Prior
HANDCRAFTED
Sources include: Cockshutt, Catherine, “Nags Head Beach Historic Cottage District National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form,” n.d.; “President Takes Boat to Island,” Evening Star (Washington, D.C.) Aug, 18, 1937; “Prevents Mosquitoes from Biting President,” Daily Journal World, (Lawrence Kansas), Aug, 19, 1937; Trebellas, Christine, William Chapman, and United States National Park Service Southeast Regional Office, 1999, Fort Raleigh National Historic Site : Historic Resource Study. [Atlanta, Ga.].
1223 Duck Rd., (Next to Duck Deli)
soundcheck
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A cheering, jeering look at recent events and their potential impacts.
THE WADING IS THE HARDEST PART
If you think coastal flooding is a problem now, just wait ’til 2050, when, according to North Carolina’s 2024 Sea Level Rise Science Update, “trajectories indicate a rise of one foot to 1.4 feet” compared to 2000. All depends on how much greenhouse gases increase — and arctic ice decreases. But, either way, keep them extra-tall Xtratufs handy.
JUDGES RULE!
Well, at least one does. For nearly two years, we’ve watched and worried as an agency appointed by NC’s General Assembly worked to strip Jockey’s Ridge and other coastal assets of their long-held environmental protections. In Feb., a superior court judge ruled in favor of the Coastal Resources Commission and ordered the protective rules be reinstated! Fight over, right? Wrong. Of
course, the agency immediately appealed, which left all protections in limbo at press time. But, in an age where developers appear poised to bulldoze public policy on every level, we’ll celebrate any win we can get.
EPIC FAIL?
Stop worrying about your kid’s extra credit — and start sweating their credit score! In Feb., Power School reported that a hacker had infiltrated their “student information system” and stolen the personal data of 62.4 million students and 9.5 million teachers — including everyone who worked in or attended an Outer Banks public school between 2013 and July 2024 — possibly “the largest breach of American children’s personal data to date.”
THAT’S JUST HOW THEY ROLL...
Add pricier car insurance to your list of pocketbook woes. In Mar., we learned that the NC Rate Bureau was seeking a 22.6%
increase in auto premiums. Of course, the Dept. of Insurance could request a hearing to oppose the increase — or they could just settle on a lower number. (That’s what happened in 2023, when a 28.4% increase request landed at a 4.5% increase per year for two years.) We’ll find out before Oct. 1. But expect to pay more. Because, when it comes to inflationary pressures, insurance companies never “air down.”
WE ALL GET HIT EVENTUALLY
Meanwhile, the beaches of Currituck, Dare and Hyde can expect to see a nearly 10% rise in homeowners’ insurance over the next two years, thanks to another DOI settlement. It starts this June with a 5.1% increase, followed by a 4.8% increase in 2026. Of course, all those costs get figured into mortgage payments — and passed along into rents — which makes you wonder: what’s gonna wipe us poor locals off the map first, the next named storm or our next monthly payment?
REEL BIG FISH
Fishing this summer? You’re gonna need a bigger boat — and some stronger line — ’cause the Atlantic was teeming with titanic marine life this spring. It started in March, when a team of anglers caught and released a 13-foot white shark from the shores of Hatteras Island, while an Ocracoke boat hooked a 15-footer less than a mile off Ocracoke. Meanwhile, the Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute went looking for right whales — and ended up spotting an orca. And, in April, a couple kayak fishermen paddled out just past the piers and pulled in a pair of 140+ pound bluefin tuna.
WHAT A WASTE
Why are we bent about DOGE’s rash of federal cuts? Is it because some valuable National Park Services workers got fired, adding stress to an already overburdened staff? (And potentially threatening summer beach driving.) Might it be the
hundreds of NOAA meteorologists who got axed — just as we hit the busy season for hurricanes? (And surf forecasts.) Is it the $227,000 in lost dollars that could’ve bought locally grown food for schools and food banks? Is it because broke DC workers don’t buy beach vacays? Yes, all that. But it’s also because DOGE’s slapdash approach — including firings, rehirings, lost productivity, and paid leave — is now expected to cost taxpayers $134 billion in lost labor and revenue.
BREEZING TO VICTORY
Need some refreshing good news? Students from First Flight Middle School and High School attended March’s North Carolina Renewable Energy Challenge at CSI and blew away the competition in the wind and water turbine events. At press time, they were headed to May’s 2025 KidWind Challenge Worlds in Phoenix, Arizona. So, by the time you read this, they just might be a global power!
LESS IS MORE
Predicting hurricanes is always a gamble. (Just ask any Western NC resident about Helene.) But we’re still happy to report that multiple meteorological teams are expecting 2025 to be less active than last year, with a total of between 17 and 19 named storms. Of those, they predict 9 will be hurricanes — with 3 or 4 of those being major (Category 3 or higher). And while those numbers are still greater than the 30-year average, they’re also shy of 2024’s totals. And one less hurricane is one less hurricane that might hit us. (Or elsewhere.)
For detailed reports on these stories and breaking local news on a daily basis — plus plenty of local discussion — visit www.outerbanksvoice.com, www. islandfreepress.org, www.coastalreview. org, www.samwalkerOBXnews.com, www.outerbanksnews.org, and www. thecoastlandtimes.com.
SMART-ASS COMMENT OF THE MONTH
“I have a peace treaty with sharks. I don’t fish for them so hopefully they don’t fish for me.” — Tri-Village
“Nearly 13-foot Great White Shark Caught and Released off Hatteras Island Beach,” Mar. 16, 2025, IslandFreePress.com
WHADDYA RECKON?
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We got questions — you got answers.
Leah Woolridge, 45
Medical Maven
Kitty Hawk
“I once found a good-sized, fully intact Scotch Bonnet shell. I’ve tried to find sea glass, but I just don’t have the eye for it.”
Jade Shaw, 47
Produce Princess Wanchese
“I found a dolphin skull on the beach in Nags Head. At first, I thought it was flipflops someone left behind, or a piece of trash, but as I got closer, I realized it was bone.”
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Ben Battaile, 36
Saver of Lives
Kill Devil Hills
“We see a lot of things wash up. Big buoys and scientific instruments are cool, but what gets me are when these huge trees wash up. I guess those come down from the Chesapeake Bay. And if it’s not trash, we’ll try and repurpose it to build stuff for the station.”
outthere gohunt gosurf
Frederick Smith, 53
Shipping Captain Waves
“A few years back, off Ramp 27, I saw what I thought was a big, washed-up buoy. But when I walked up, it looked like it was maybe some kind of missile target for the Navy or some branch of the military? Either way, it was huge!”
What’s the weirdest thing you ever found on the beach?
Willy Holmes, 30 Stoke Patrolman Southern Shores
“Like two years ago, we were at my buddy’s wedding up in Chicahauk. We walked out to the beach to set up and there was this huge whalebone. We grabbed it and stuck it in the sand, and my friends got married next to it.”
Devon Hollins, 26
Retail Ripper Nags Head
“I was down on Hatteras Island surfing a couple of months ago, and while I was in the water, there was a crew of divers right there pulling out pieces that you could tell were part of a shipwreck.”
Jackie Tury, 58 Gallery Goddess Kitty Hawk
“I found a baby seal on the beach. I got to babysit it and protect it from passing people and dogs while I waited for the marine mammal stranding group to show up.”
Katlin Malbone, 30
Purveyor of Pier Goods
Kill Devil Hills
“A note in an old bottle that was from Miami; it had floated all the way to the beach in Nags Head.”
Interviews and images by Tony Leone
DEAR SCABBY
Local advice from an OBgenXer who’s seen a thing or two — and has the scars to prove it.
Dear Scabby,
I’ve been working remote since moving here eight years ago and just lost my job to A.I. What do I do? — Jan, Nags Head
Anything that fragile isn’t worth keeping anyway, so don’t waste a second more lamenting the loss. In lieu of embarking on any bold second act or some radical reinvention, why not throw yourself into the bustling summertime economy? It’s noble. It can be surprisingly lucrative if you hustle. And best of all, it’s filled to the brim with jobs that are largely AI-proof. Binary code can’t deliver a pizza, algorithms can’t clean a swimming pool, and a drone can’t make a cocktail to save its life. (Not yet, anyway.)
Your situation does pose a certain existential dilemma, though — something even lifelong residents grapple with: to make money? Or do I make money to live here?
If your answer is the latter, then you, my friend, are one of the chosen. There’s this adage that some of the old loc’s kick around from time to time: You don’t choose the Outer Banks. The Outer Banks chooses you. Hell, I know plenty of people on this beach who are smart enough and educated enough to be making powerful decisions or millions of dollars in DC or LA right now. But they live here instead. Not because they lack ambition, but because this is the best f#%king place on Earth.
And whenever the world goes offline — be it for an hour or forever — there’s no better hill to die on.
Dear Scabby,
How do I get rid of all these damn sandspurs in my yard? Every summer, I think I’ve got ’em whipped, but they keep popping up! — Brian, Kill Devil Hills
Ah, yes. Cenchrus tribuloides. The dune sandbur, aka the sandspur, aka “get off my lawn” with the Clint Eastwood voice. You will not find a more dug-in Outer Banks native. Hell, if tobacco wasn’t already North Carolina’s state vegetable, the sandspur would be in the running. But that doesn’t mean you’ve gotta deal with their indiscriminate, unchecked aggression. Total eradication with extreme prejudice is the only answer.
Unfortunately, those pre-emergence products don’t always work so well, laying sod is expensive AF, and don’t even get me started on that Astroturf-looking shit. So, what to do? First off, don’t you dare try to mow them down — it’ll only spread them farther and wider. Instead, try a calculated, surgical response. Or, as the Hoodoo Gurus put it: “Gotta dig it up.”
Come at them from the side, underneath the root, and dislodge them. First with a shovel, then with a penknife or screwdriver. Before you know it, you’ll be able to attack them shits with your bare hands. (Or at least some gardening gloves.) Do that every day, all summer and all fall, as they emerge, and four years later you’ll have grass fluffy enough for your dog to do zoomies on while you and your friends play cornhole barefoot.
Now, all those clumpy holes will make your yard look like a bad day in Fallujah for a while, so just throw down a bag or two of grass seed every spring or fall. The Outer Banks blend works killer, and that’ll help your Cenchrus tribuloides problem, too, because a healthy lawn is like kryptonite to these pricks.
Keep on scratchin’!
— Scabby
upfront soundcheck
MADE YOU LOOK!
Guess this colorful camo — win a free NC Aquariums Family Membership!
This stylish fabric looks great on the beach.
Helps you get wet — but can still keep you dry.
Soaks up the rays — but don’t mind the rain.
And works all day so you can relax!
Think you’ve fashioned the correct guess? Zip your brightest idea to editor@outerbanksmilepost.com by July 22. We’ll dump the right ones in a beach bucket, then scoop out one winner, who’ll score a free NC Aquariums Family Membership! That includes: free admission to the NC Aquarium on Roanoke Island for two named adults and their children/grandchildren under age 18; free admission at all three NC Aquariums and the NC Zoo; and unlimited free walk-on access at Jennette’s Pier. (Plus gift shop and program discounts.) Learn more at www.ncaquariums.com.
PS: And what about last issue’s puzzle? Well, for the first time, nobody got the exact answer — “the sound” — so we’re giving Luther Vinson the prize for coming closest with “a duck blind.”
Tide dye? Photo: Trip Wylde
outthere gohunt rearview
photofinish
Every dot creates a deluge of info at cocorahs.org.
HOP IN THE DATA POOL
Every day, local volunteers help collect national precipitation numbers.
m We make the vacation experience the best it can be for our customers. If you are looking for that perfect home to rent or are interested in investing in your own Outer Banks property, contact Joe Lamb, Jr. today!
Every morning at 6am, Malcolm Green goes and looks at the water. Not the sound behind his house — but the rain gauge installed on the pier. He checks the numbers on the plastic beaker and records any precipitation from the night before. Then he logs the data online, where it’s used by agencies like the National Weather Service to track weather patterns and forecast extreme events such as flash floods and droughts.
But it’s more than just sharing data; for Green, it’s a way to connect with the natural world and his community.
“It’s rewarding,” he says. “It makes you more aware of your environment, and you feel more involved in what’s happening environmentally in the area, because you’re tracking it. You’re seeing the implications of rainfall.”
Green is one of several Dare County residents participating in a national effort called the Community Collaborative Rain,
Hail and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS), which was launched in 1998 after a devastating flash flood in Fort Collins, Colorado. Volunteers like Green collect daily rain gauge measurements, providing critical data in rural and coastal areas that often lack coverage from official satellite weather stations. In places where weather can vary drastically over short distances, these community observations help fill the gaps.
On the Outer Banks in particular, there’s little usable land to install automated remote weather stations. And while dramatic rainstorms and hurricanes tend to grab public attention, it’s the daily recordings from volunteers that provide a clearer picture of the region’s overall weather trends.
“There’s not a lot of space to put in some of this heavy equipment,” says Sean Heuser, CoCoRaHS state co-coordinator and manager of the NC ECONet at the State Climate Office of North Carolina. “And,
so, it’s great to have volunteers who are on the Outer Banks, who live there, and who can go out once a day and record these observations.”
“ IT’S ABOUT MORE THAN JUST SHARING DATA — IT’S A WAY TO CONNECT WITH THE NATURAL WORLD.
In a region as meteorologically unpredictable as the Outer Banks, CoCoRaHS data has become increasingly vital. According to Heuser, during the last three of four major hurricanes that impacted North Carolina, the highest recorded precipitation amounts came from CoCoRaHS volunteers.
“Having those observations on the ground helps not only the Weather Service and
forecasters understand how severe [an event] was,” Heuser explains, “but also, if you’re having to file insurance or storm damage claims, you’ve got a reliable observation right there to help your cause.”
In other words, these simple recordings can directly impact residents’ ability to get financial assistance after extreme weather.
Getting started is simple: purchase a rain gauge (around $30) and install it in your yard. Then check it once daily, and log your results online. (No science background is required — training resources are available on the CoCoRaHS website, where you can also sign up to volunteer.)
Once you start, it’s almost contagious, as participants report hooking friends, neighbors and even family.
“This is the best part of this program,” says Heuser. “It’s for people of all ages. We’ve got kids as young as 10 or 11 years old helping out, doing the readings once a day.
My father-in-law, who’s getting close to 80 years old, is an observer.”
Together, this pool of collective data creates a well of info for America’s scientists to pull from. And you never know where your efforts will end up.
Barb Schmitz is a local CoCoRaHS volunteer who has been recording since 2016. Last year, Schmitz spotted her data featured on the National Weather Service’s Instagram page, which compared the dry July 2024 to a much wetter August. Her recordings helped illustrate the shift.
“First of all, I think it’s cool that I can actually enter in data that these folks want to see and that it’s important to them,” Schmitz says. “And even though I’m just a regular old citizen, they value it so much.”
It’s even more valuable these days, as climate change is making weather more erratic and intensifying precipitation events, as a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture.
Meanwhile, recent federal budget and staffing cuts have reduced resources at the National Weather Service and other agencies.
Not only does that make this data even more critical for meteorologists, but for volunteers filling those data gaps, it’s also a clear way to make a difference in murky times — day by day, drop by drop.
“I mean, honestly, everything that’s been happening, it’s just kind of depressing, you know?” says Schmitz. “And, so, this work just means a lot. And it’s easy as pie.” — Maggie Miles
MADE IN THE SHADES
Magic Cabana’s Josh McCraw reflects on launching the Outer Banks’ first homegrown sunglass brand.
Photo: Ed Tupper
I always knew I wanted to be at the beach. I grew up in High Point, but my family would shoot down to the Outer Banks all the time. So, in 2018, I moved here for the summer. And it was one of the most memorable times in my life. A lot of late nights. A lot of early morning surfing. A lot of very cool people. Just a very happy, awesome change of pace. After that, I just never left.
There are “sunglass people” — and “not sunglass people.” I’m definitely a sunglass person. I always had this crazy collection of funky shades, everything from $300 all-glass designs to $5 gas station throwaways. I noticed that people would happily grab a pair off my towel and throw them on. At the same time, I was DJing a bunch at night, and there were always a few people in the crowd wearing sunglasses and having the time of their lives. They just seemed like the ultimate accessory to the Outer Banks summer lifestyle. I started thinking, “There’s something going on here...”
Finally, in 2022, I figured, “Why not make some sunglasses?” I was already doing graphic design work. And I’d always been interested in fashion, merchandising and retail. So, I started buying these blank shades in a few different styles. Then I would bring them to these parties and hand them out. In fact, the name Magic Cabana came from a really eccentric playlist that Josh Martier put together called Cabana Magic Time 2017. Actually, you can still stream it on Spotify — it’s like 150 hours of sunset vibes, dance music. So, shout out to Marty!
“ “THEY JUST SEEMED LIKE THE ULTIMATE ACCESSORY TO THE OUTER BANKS SUMMER LIFESTYLE.”
I got a lot of support and interest that first year. But I was getting a bit of a guilty conscience about materials. I started thinking, “Do I really just want to keep slinging cheap plastic?” So, I began slowly upping the quality. In 2024, we finally landed on 100 percent acetate, stainless steel, polarized polycarbonate lenses, plastic alternative frames — all the things that go into your bigger brands. They’re still what we call “beach to bar” sunglasses, but they actually protect your eyes. And, if they fall off in the surf, it’s nice to know they aren’t just going to break down into microplastics.
Currently, we do limited runs of six styles, two-to-three times a year. Summer is all about funky, “in your face,” sportier styles. Fall is a little more laidback; a little cruisier. It’s a pretty involved process. I’ll start by sending a mood board to the manufacturer — maybe some photos of old looks I like — with some design tweaks, and color ideas for lenses and acetate blends. And they say, “Here’s what we can do.” So, it takes a lot of emailing, a lot of Zoom calls, and a little compromise for every style. But it always turns into something killer.
Of course, we’re still learning. And whenever you’re dealing with a lot of moving parts, things happen. Like, last summer, I got a phone call from FedEx: “Hey, your package is held up in Tennessee; we need more paperwork.” It turns out, once you hit a certain quality, they become “medical devices.” So, I had to jump through all these hoops to get them here. But now I know. And, hey, maybe I can market them as “medical grade” now. [Laughs]
But, to be honest, this whole thing just kind of happened. We tried an idea, then we leaned into it a little more, and a little more, ’til we went from these throwaway shades to a fully branded, eco-friendly sunglass line. But I don’t think that any other place would support this idea like the Outer Banks has. We’ve had people take them on trips and send me photos from Italy, Japan, Australia. Just seeing someone out wearing them here is such a gratifying feeling. And that’s what still motivates us — the Outer Banks community, and that original vibe of a bunch of friends drinking beers on the beach, partying, grabbing their sunglasses, and heading out at night. And that’s what we want people to feel. So, when you put a pair on, they just brighten your whole world — because that’s what they’ve done for us. — Josh McCraw
PRO TIPS: FROM THE LOCALS!
Welcome to Rodanthe, Waves, and Salvo! We wish you and yours a safe and happy visit!
Turn off your outside lights and any unnecessary inside lights at night; this will make star gazing better. It’s safer for the turtles, too!
If our roads are flooded, slow down, don’t make a wake, and watch for ditches when turning onto side roads. The water is mixed with saltwater which is very damaging to vehicles.
Please pay attention to the 35MPH speed limit, the road, crosswalks, and sidewalks.
Non-street legal Golf Carts are NOT permitted to run along Highway 12 (on it, nor next to it). It is illegal, and highly dangerous.
SLOW DOWN, RELAX, BREATHE IN THAT SALT AIR, AND REMEMBER - THAT’S WHY YOU’RE HERE.
Portrait by Daniel Pullen
IN REAL LIFE
The totally honest, always humble, nearly 100 percent analog world of Michael Halminski.
It’s a simple sign. Mostly white wood and black lettering. With little more than a name (“Michael Halminski”) and a trade (“Photography”) — plus a tiny red arrow that says “Local Art” tacked below as if a last second afterthought. So subtle and subdued you might blaze past and feel like you missed nothing more than a parcel of scrub between Waves and Salvo. But follow the worn gravel driveway west toward a cedar shake house, mount the front porch stairs, and step through the storm door, and you’ll discover a photographic treasure trove.
Images of baby terns and turtle corpses. Dramatic wavescapes and blue-collar watermen. All born onsite — many in a bath of chemicals in the built-in dark room — then matted and framed on a workshop table.
“My goal from the very beginning was to make art photography that people could put up on a wall,” says 76-year-old Halminski, standing in the home gallery he built in 1986. “And I wanted to do it every step of the way.”
That’s how’s he’s done it for nearly five decades. Only, back then, his home gallery was a Rodanthe rental. And the sign was a hand-painted piece of plywood that came and went when he did.
“If the waves got good, I put a sign on the door saying, ‘Gone Surfing,’” he grins. “Sometimes I still do.”
And why not? if it weren’t for chasing waves, Halminski might not be here at all.
As the son of a Navy meteorologist, Halminski grew up doing two-year stints in stunning natural settings, like Japan, Newfoundland and Northern California. Then, right before junior high school, his family abandoned the lush tropical island of Guam — “the absolute best place we ever lived” — for the grit and gridlock of our nation’s capital.
“Moving to DC was the first time I lived in that kind of an environment,” Halminski recalls. “It was the big trauma of my life.”
A shy, curious teen, Halminski found refuge in three all-consuming passions: photography, cars and surfing. When he wasn’t wrenching on VW engines with his dad, he was shooting drag races at the nearby tracks, or chasing waves near his family’s Delaware beach cottage. At one point, the need for speed was winning the race. He began souping up Beetles; in college, he even traveled to Pomona to check out the drag race nationals. But, ultimately, the surfing bug won out.
“I remember being in chemistry class at George Mason University with a Surfer magazine inserted in my textbook,” Halminski says. “I thought, ‘This is not right; I’m outta here.’ I didn’t even finish the semester.”
Instead, he moved to Delaware, where he spent two years studying — and shooting — the surrounding lineups. Occasionally, he’d head south to Hatteras and camp for a week or two. Then, in 1973, the then-24-year-old packed his ’64 Microbus with a quiver of boards and just enough clothes and money for an extended vacay — maybe six months.
“But once I got here, I just couldn’t leave,” he says. “I spent that first Christmas alone. And there’s this moment that’s still burned into my brain. There was a huge storm. I was standing on the back porch of this little cottage, and I could see the tops of the waves feathering over the dunes. I had the weather report on the radio. And I just thought, ‘Yeah, this is this place.’”
“There was a huge storm...I could see the waves feathering over the dunes...I thought, ‘Yeah, this is this place.”
The Tri-Villages in the 70s were notoriously rough-and-tumble. More famous for spitting out newbies than drawing them in. But it proved the perfect environment for a young man like Halminski. He was humble in attitude, yet confident in his abilities. Skilled with an engine. Good with his hands. Willing to work. And, perhaps most important, happy with nothing at all.
“Yeah, we didn’t have the amenities that we have now, and it really didn’t make a difference,” he says. “We were fleeing those urban elements.”
He’d spend the coming decades immersing himself in the island way of life. Surfing as much as humanly possible. Shooting all the dynamic, natural moments that dotted both sides of the island. All while cycling through the list of trades that kept yearround residents floating here for most of the 20th century: building houses, hauling nets, laying bricks, even shooting the occasional wedding.
But the most important career move proved to be washing dishes up at Nags Head’s famous Seafare restaurant. That’s where he crossed paths with a burgeoning fellow lensman named Ray Matthews.
“That was a game changer,” Halminski recalls. “We were both fledging into photography and about at the same stage. But he was setting up a color dark room, and I went, ‘Wow.’ Because I had a setup where I could print black and white, but I knew deep within that I wanted to get into color printing. Ray was kind of a steppingstone to that. And because he was near and dear to me, he kept me going.”
ROBIN GERALD
In 1977, this was the oldest house in Rodanthe. I’d say it was built in the late 1800s. It sat near where the traffic circle is now. My surfing buddy, Robin, lived there. Robin moved down from Delaware the year after me, but he grew up in the country and was raised hunting and fishing, so he probably integrated himself into the local community quicker than I did. And because he was fully immersed into the natural environment, he was a big influence on me as far as developing my eye.
If you look close, you can see a deer hanging on the porch. He had just gone hunting in Buxton Woods. And out behind the house, it was still very heavily vegetated, so he’d go out there and kick up a pheasant, shoot it, and his dog, Susie, would go fetch it. Once in a while, he’d even roast a pheasant stuffed with oysters. So, we ate pretty well — despite our poverty.
JOEY
In the beginning, I really wasn’t looking for the people. I was looking for landscape shots, atmospheric shots, nature shots. But now and then I’d see a portrait idea that impressed me. And the 70s and 80s were probably my heyday.
Back then, all the local guys used to hang out at the Rodanthe Harbor fish house and run their boats out and bring the catch in and offload. I took this photo of Joey O’Neal with a view camera I built from a kit — which is basically the same technology as an 1800s camera. It takes considerable setting up to take a picture, so I experimented with it for a couple of years, then I put it away because it wasn’t fitting into most of my work. But now I wish I’d used it more. Because there’s a number of people from that era who I never photographed. And they just don’t make them like that anymore.
OYSTER SPAT
Back in the late 70s, you could walk along the sound and pick up a bucket of oysters in no time at all. You can’t do that now. I can’t tell you exactly why. Loss of habitat, sedimentation; maybe parasites or a virus? Around 2004, I started getting interested in farming oysters behind my house. It didn’t make sense to do anything large scale, but I carried on from a citizen science aspect.
By 2008, I got to where I was supplying the aquaculture program at Carteret Community College with brood stock. In return, they gave me about 40,000 eyed larvae. I had never seen anyone document their development over time, so I gave it a shot. The top left frame is new spat that are a week old. To the right of that is two weeks. Then, down below, you’ve got three weeks and four weeks. Those are centimeters, so you see how quickly they grow. It takes a controlled environment, so I could never do it again. But I still nurture a little reef out back. And some oysters out there today are probably from this original set.
EVERY BIKINI BODY BODY
The two became close friends and co-mentors. Both were also go-to shooters for the era’s top pub, Outer Banks Magazine, scoring their share of spreads and covers. But while Matthews dove head-first into commercial work, Halminksi preferred to hunker down among a nest of pelicans than chase paid gigs.
“Ray lived in town where all that market existed, and I was down here in isolation, more or less — which is the way I preferred it,” Halminski says of the recently departed legend. “But also, when it came to the commercial side, I found that when I shot trying to please a potential client, it never worked out that well; I had to shoot to please myself, and that would translate into a client.”
Which is exactly what happened around 1980, when the Roanoke Island Marine Resource Center — today’s NC Aquarium — asked Halminski if he wanted to hang a few photos. He quickly developed, matted and framed 28 of his favorite shorebirds and seascapes. The exhibit lived on for nearly 10 years.
“About that same time, I rented the house in Rodanthe with the plywood sign in the front,” he recalls. “And people would come in saying, ‘We saw your exhibit in Manteo.’ So that’s really what got me going.”
When it came time to build his own home in 1986, Halminski made sure to buy a lot right on the road to lure passersby, then put a studio and gallery front-and-center. He spent the next 39 years filling it with images, creating a catalog that captures every aspect of Hatteras’ oldschool existence in its most organic state — at a time when it was starting to gradually slip away.
“I like the idea of citizen science, where you get your hands in it, and feel good about it.”
“The stuff he has is the stuff I wish I could shoot,” says leading local lensman, Daniel Pullen. “He’s got the guys out with pound nets; guys out in a duck blind in the middle of winter; people surfing; old timers at Old Christmas. He just covers all of it.”
At the same time, Halminski shored up his street cred by working to protect the Outer Banks on every level. When Buxton Woods was in danger of becoming a golf course in the 80s, he joined Friends of Hatteras, rallying locals and legislators to create a nature preserve. As president of Chicamacomico Life Saving Station, he helped make sure its popular “breeches buoy” demonstrations of vintage rescues didn’t drown in red ink.
“The National Park Service had to stop it for budgetary reasons, I think,” he recalls. “Our board had to decide, ‘What are we going to do? This drill brings in hundreds of people.’ So, we mustered some Lost Colony actors to come down, and we got the ball rolling. And a lot of the guys who stepped into that role are still doing that drill today.”
Halminski also served as a founding member of the Dare County Arts Council and sat on the board of the Roanoke Island Aquarium. And that doesn’t include the range of solo volunteer efforts to nurture the environment, from helping the Park Service with sea turtle strandings to doing water testing for East Carolina University. Even now, he collects oyster spat data for UNC Wilmington.
“I’ve always believed that taking care of nature was a responsibility,” he says. “And I like the idea of citizen science, where you don’t have to have a degree but you can do some volunteer work, get your hands in it, and feel good about it.”
And yet, it’s Halminksi’s photos that likely leave the most lasting impression, provided you know where to look. Might be the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse Visitors Center, where there’s a classic image of Kim Mosher hoisting a speckled trout in front of the historic beacon. (“I still get calls about ‘the lady with a fish,” he laughs.) Or it could be his collection of Tri-Village lifestyles and scenics that he recently donated to the Rodanthe-Waves-Salvo Community Building for a permanent exhibit. (“I thought they’d use one or two — they ended up taking 76.”)
WHELK SHELL
The great thing about photography is every photo is different. Almost like a fingerprint. So, when people ask me for photo advice, I always say to follow your heart. Study what other photographers are doing — get inspiration — but throw your individual personality into it.
This photo was inspired by an Edward Weston image of a nautilus shell. I took it around 1980, about the time I started my Rodanthe gallery. I had a lot of time to hang out, go surfing, and walk the beach. One morning, I picked up this whelk. It still had the animal in it, so I quickly brought it home and set up my view camera. I placed the shell near a lamp on a piece of black felt — the same type of black felt I used for focusing my view camera, actually — and took two or three exposures of it. Then I walked to the beach and put it back in the water.
ENDANGERED SPECIES
I don’t get too involved in big issues. I’ve got so much else going on, and I don’t like controversy at all. But I do believe photos can make a difference. I mean, look what Ansel Adams did for helping expand the National Park System.
Around 1996, there was a juried photo show sponsored by Dare Arts. I’d had this turtle skull for a long time. I knew I wanted to enter something that was in black and white, and I wanted to use this skull. My first thought was just to put it up in a dune with sea oats or something. But then I went driving on the beach south of Salvo, and I saw this fishing net. So, I just stopped the truck and put it down and took about six or seven pictures. When this one took first place, they said it was because it wasn’t just a picture — it told a story. So even though it’s never my intention to make a statement, I guess it happens sometimes.
TROPICAL STORM HANNA
In Delaware, I was shooting my friends surfing almost exclusively. When I came down here, the environment just exploded on me. It had everything I was looking for: the ocean component, the wildlife component. To be honest, before long, I didn’t want any people in my beachscapes.
In 2008, we had Tropical Storm Hanna. The weather was terrible that morning and into the afternoon, but then it started to clear up, so I drove up to Pea Island to shoot. I climbed to the top of the dune and the waves were beautiful. It was totally empty. I thought, “My God, what a great scene.” I shot a few, then this guy comes and stands right in the middle of my frame. I was like, “You son of a...” [Chuckles] But in retrospect, it was the best thing that could’ve happened. Because it gives the picture almost that Greg Noll vibe — you know, the surfer just standing there, looking in awe.
But even if you’ve never seen a Halminski image firsthand, you’ve witnessed their ripple effects: he’s influenced virtually every Outer Banks photographer to follow him, from contemporaries like Russell Blackwood to next-gen names like Pullen, to the countless hobbyists filling Instagram with crashing waves and classic characters.
“I like to say I document Hatteras life,” laughs Pullen self-effacingly. “Halminksi’s been documenting it. And, as far as documenting life on the Outer Banks for the past fifty years is concerned, in my eyes nobody holds a candle to his work.”
Like most photogs, Halminski converted to digital decades ago. But while his dark room doesn’t get as much use, he still prints his images in-house. And he still mats and frames every piece. If anything’s changed, it’s that he’s expanded his subject matter to include road trips to the big city or the occasional rock concert.
But that’s about as modern as things get. Even his choice in wave-riding equipment circles back to the good old days of the “ride anything” movement, when everything was possible — and going lightning-fast was the ultimate thrill.
“I started riding surf mats five years ago once my ankles got bad,” he says. “It’s kind of a hybrid of bodysurfing and bodyboarding. And once you get that concave bottom lifting and get an edge in the wall, it’s like being in a car when the nitro kicks in.”
In many ways, it’s just another case of perfect positioning: the right piece of equipment for the right moment in time.
After sixty years in the water — and fifty on Hatteras Island — Halminski knows you can’t stop life from moving. You can only try to keep pace.
“A lot of city stuff is infiltrating this area now. Maybe some of it is good. But give me this place 30, 40 years ago. I’ll take it.”
Maybe that’s why he’s so matter of fact about the changes that surround him. Whether it’s all the rental machines toppling like sandcastles along Rodanthe’s oceanfront. (“It’s sure become the Holy Grail for local photographers.”) Or the perpetual threats to our environment and open spaces. (“The big issues are never over.”) Or the constant creep of civilization.
“A lot of city stuff is infiltrating this area now,” he says. “Maybe some of it is good. But give me this place 30, 40 years ago. I’ll take it.”
But that doesn’t make Halminski a total throwback. In fact, he’s been maintaining a website where he shares new images and vintage memories. But you’ll never catch him sharing a “story” — unless it’s firsthand.
“I don’t know if I want to call it a ‘problem,’ but I have not embraced social media at all,” he says. “I’ve got my blog, and I love making entries. It gets me to be a little bit introspective. I tell the story behind each picture, and I just leave it at that. “
That’s what makes Halminski so unique. In a modern world that traffics in fake likes and easy clicks — along a hunk of road that screams “wide open” with waving flags and blinking neon — Halminski’s happy to carefully share each image one-by-one in real life. Confident that, eventually, the right person will discover and appreciate his work in real time. Which is all he ever really wanted.
“I’m just still approaching it the old way,” he says. “I put a sign out. People might stop in, or they might not. A lot of times, they won’t even buy stuff, and we’ll just sit around and chat. And that’s fine, too.” — Matt Walker
SELF PORTRAIT
I don’t know what comes over people when they want to do a self-portrait. I don’t dare do selfies like they do now. But I’m sure it was intentional, because I had to set up the camera on a tripod, set a timer — then I put the back of the bus right in the middle of the frame.
I loved this ’64 microbus. It wasn’t a camper, but I took out the middle seat and added a piece of plywood to sleep. I put screens on the window for bugs, though it still got pretty stuffy. But it floated on the beach. And I could pull that rear panel out, tear it apart, and work on it anytime. I had it for ten or 12 years before the floors finally rusted out. I’m guessing this was shot right after I got here — maybe ’75 or ’76. I was out on the beach in Ocracoke looking for surf or birds or both. Not sure I found either, but I’m not sure it mattered. There was such a magic to the place then — a spirituality. I just hope all the people coming here now feel half the magic that I’ve felt.
out there go hunt rear view go surf photo finish
MAN, WE HUMANS CAN MAKE A MESS. And the more fun we have, the fi lthier we get. Just look at your average beach access toward day’s end. It’s like an archaeological site of spent cans and single-use plastics. If only there was a way to make cleaning up just as fun as partying down... Well, now there is! Presenting “Beach Trash Bingo!” Just tear out this page and tape it to the top of your cooler. Between swims and swigs, scan your surroundings for the following common items. For every fi nd, cross ’em off , then chuck ’em in the nearest trash can. Even bett er, kick back and crack another cold one while your kids do the dirty work! Black the whole page out — or just snag a bunch of any one item — then pick your favorite prize, whether it’s neater surroundings, a healthier environment, or just a cleaner conscience. Th e summer party game where every Outer Banker wins!
f lotsam
Beach days provide the perfect time to ponder some not-so-deep thoughts.
Here’s a few questions and answers from the shallows of our collective summer consciousness…
Photo: Daniel Pullen
what’s the deal
Roy G. Biv meets Vib G. Yor.
Photo: Nathan Beane
A RAINSTORM PASSES...
A bright sun appears. Then a technicolor beam of light splits the sky. So mind-blowing, crowds will stand mesmerized, no matter how many times they’ve stood in awe. And it’s even more impressive when they show up in pairs.
“I’m always fascinated by rainbows,” says First Flight High science teacher Jason Breiholz. “If I’m surfing with my buddies, I try to give them some kind of fact, like, ‘There’s a billion raindrops in there, refracting all the light to divide it into the prismatic colors of the rainbow!’ And what’s interesting about double rainbows is that the colors are backwards from the primary bow.”
So where do they come from? And what does it mean?
According to Hawaiian tradition, rainbows are symbols of transformation and passage between dimensions.
“The Hawaiian culture says that the gods could travel to the earthly realms on rainbows,” says rainbow expert Steve Businger, a professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. “And similarly, when a person passes, their soul can travel up to the next dimension via a rainbow, which is a beautiful thought when you think about it.”
Beautiful, sure, but hardly scientific. No, to crack the code of these spectral beings requires less blind faith — and more pure physics.
“Double rainbows occur because it’s possible for light to reflect twice inside a single raindrop,” Businger explains. “And when that happens, the secondary light comes out at a 51-degree angle above the shadow of the observer’s head, and that primary bow is a 42-degree angle. So, when you’re facing away from the sun and you look at the shadow of your head, and then you take it at an angle of 42 degrees, you hit the primary rainbow. And at an angle of 51 degrees, you hit the double rainbow.”
According to Businger, the possibility of a double rainbow is always technically present, but it’s much fainter due to light loss during that second reflection.
“It’s not a perfect 100 percent reflection in the back of the raindrop,” he explains. “And if you have pollution in the air — pollen or dust or exhaust — anything that reduces the amount of light is going to reduce the ability to see the secondary ring.” So, what’s the perfect setup for a double rainbow? Businger says it’s a combo of a proper rainstorm and the right timing.
“The storm doesn’t have to be that intense — just
a regular heavy shower with blue sky all around,” he says. “But it has to happen either in the morning or in the afternoon. The lower the sun is to the horizon, the higher the rainbow will be. So, close to sunrise or sunset, with a shower, then a clear, clean sky maybe after a cold front moves through, and then some showers pop up — and then you see a spectacular double rainbow when looking away from the sun.”
Businger says that triple rainbows are also technically present, but they’re even more faint than double rainbows, and get washed out by the sun so you would never actually see them. But he says you can sometimes see additional color bands called supernumerary rainbows, which are a diffraction phenomenon that has to do with very small uniform droplets causing interferences.
He also says rainbows can appear over the ocean, visible through sea spray blowing off the tops of large waves.
“The storm doesn’t have to be that intense — just a regular heavy shower with blue sky all around.”
“You just need to have the right geometry to see the rainbows in the ocean spray,” he says. “And for the Outer Banks, you want to be facing away from the sun and toward the wave. The bigger the waves, the more the spray. And, of course, you need sunshine, so you need to have nice weather.”
Luckily, the Outer Banks’ relatively clean air and lack of major pollution sources — plus the proximity to the Gulf Stream, southwest afternoon showers, and sea breezes — all contribute to frequent rainbow sightings. And yet, no matter how many times they appear, they never lose their hypnotic power. In fact, Businger says he still finds himself inspired in their presence, despite years of study.
“It’s very meditative,” he muses. “I feel like time stands still, and I’m looking at the eternity that is represented by the gloriousness of the rainbow.”
— Maggie Miles
Motormouth
Photo: Ashley Milteer
BOUNCING ON A SANDBAR...
A series of curved, gray dorsal fins pop up past the breakers. You quickly dive under, hoping to catch some of the dolphin pod’s passing chatter — but can’t make out a single click, chirp or squeak. Why?
Chalk it up to a mix of ambient, aquatic noise — and natural evolution.
“There’s so much wave noise [and] environmental noise, it kind of masks those sounds that are coming from further away,” says Dr. Lindsay Dubbs of the Coastal Studies Institute in Wanchese.
In a calmer ocean, it’s possible to hear more. But, even then, compared to marine mammals, humans are hard of hearing when it comes to the undersea world.
dolphins talk hear can’t why
under water?
“We primarily use our sense of vision as a terrestrial organism,” says Dubbs. “Sound needs to be louder for us to hear than many mammals that are more adapted to hear underwater, so we’re kind of limited-hearing.”
Ocean organisms, on the other hand, rely on sound to not only communicate but also to orient themselves and to measure distance in a medium that often lacks visibility.
But humans have something else: technology.
“You can study fish by diving down and counting them,” says Jennette’s Pier’s Educator Curator Christin Brown. “Or you can just listen to them, which is a noninvasive way to study animals in the ocean. And every animal has a unique sound.”
Brown uses specialized microphones called hydrophones to hear and sometimes record whatever undersea sounds wait off the pier. Then, by increasing the pitch and speeding them up, the noises sound louder to our ears.
“I’m into it,” Brown says. “If there’s dolphins around, I’m running out here, grabbing a hydrophone — what are they talking about?!”
Brown made the pier’s first hydrophones out of lapel microphones and thermometer sheaths. They functioned, but sometimes water got in. So, when funding became available during COVID, she eagerly purchased five educational hydrophones for $350 each. A scientific hydrophone can run thousands of dollars, she notes, but hers still provide a unique window into the water.
She recalls listening to a pod several hundred feet from the pier.
“It was a huge pod of probably moms and babies, and there were so many menhaden around — so lots to talk about,” she says. “And the little ones are really chatty.”
Some of the chatter sounds like creaking doors; others like the whistles and chirps of songbirds.
“Clicks are used for echolocation, whistles are talking,” Brown notes. “And we believe whales have full alphabets
that we don’t even understand.”
Snapping shrimp — also called pistol shrimp — are the loudest sea creatures, she says. As a defense mechanism, they shoot out water at high speeds by clicking their claws.
“It makes this crackling sound like bacon.”
Sadly, on a recent spring visit, the hydrophone only picked up one overpowering sound: the grumbling of motors. Two boats were cruising offshore — but with the hydrophone, it sounded like they were right off the pier.
“We don’t really think about sound pollution,” Brown says. “It’s just another thing we need to consider when we talk about our impacts.”
Dubbs is currently using hydrophones to “characterize the soundscapes” typical of ocean areas offshore in the Gulf Stream and around Jennette’s Pier. The goal is to provide baseline data for the eventual deployment of wave energy and current energy devices. She notes that, in the Gulf Stream, the hydrophone sits in 230 meters of water.
“The little ones are really chatty.”
“Even from that depth, we can pick out those environmental sounds, like the wind blowing, or rain events,” says Dubbs, who also serves as co-director of the Outer Banks Field Site of the University of North Carolina Institute for the Environment. “And the loudest sounds that we hear out there are boats passing.”
On other hand, when there are no motors running, and the sea’s pretty calm, you can still hear all sorts of critters. Sometimes, you don’t even need a hydrophone — a pair of flippers will do. (Though you won’t necessarily hear Flipper.)
“If you swim out to the wrecks, you’ll hear oyster toads,” Brown says of the species also called oyster toadfish. “They make this really deep sound, like, ‘Brrrrmm!’ [And] you’ll hear snapping shrimp.”
Brown adds, “If you scare a giant animal like a shark, you’ll hear a tail boom…they will quickly turn so fast, you’ll hear this booming sound.”
But not everyone can swim past the sandbar. That’s why Jennette’s Pier is planning to install a display in future months that will let visitors come and hear all these undersea voices from land.
Already, Brown plays aquatic audio clips for the roughly 130 school groups that come in. She says the sound sparks in the students an additional layer of empathy for animals.
“You see an animal, and that’s a connection,” she says. “But hearing them communicate is even deeper of a connection to that organism.” — Corinne Saunders
SEA IT AGAIN FOR THE FIRST TIME
GO BEHIND THE SCENES, LOOK A SHARK IN THE EYE, TOUR THE S.T.A.R. CENTER, SEE RESCUED SEA TURTLES, TRY CRABBING, LEARN TO FISH, BE AN AQUARIST FOR A DAY, WALK THROUGH WETLANDS, TOUCH A STINGRAY, GREET AN ANIMAL AMBASSADOR, JOIN THE OTTER HOUR, STROLL THE POLLINATOR GARDEN, PADDLE AROUND ROANOKE ISLAND, CHAT WITH A SCUBA DIVER, HAVE FUN AT CAMP...AND MORE !
(A full 208 feet in the case of Cape Hatteras.) With a giant lantern burning up top. (Technically, these days, it’s usually a combo of an electric lamp and Fresnel Lens, but we’ll let you slide on that one.) So why in the world would anyone go through the trouble of painting these things?
Because the Outer Banks is famous — or infamous — for having no distinguishable land features. And to a 19th century sea captain sailing 15 miles off the coast in broad daylight, all big brick towers look alike. That can lead to all sorts of problems for any vessel transversing our treacherous coast wondering, “Am I off Hatteras Island and heading for Diamond Shoals? Or off Bodie Island and headed for safety?”
So, around 1873, the United States Lighthouse Board came up with a simple solution: give each lighthouse its own distinct paint job. Although the answer wasn’t always so “black and white.”
From roughly 1870 to 1873, the Cape Hatteras tower was actually white on the bottom and red on top. But, in 1872, the Bodie Island Lighthouse was completed roughly 50 miles north. The day after lighting the beacon, Capt. Peter Hains, Lighthouse Engineer for the Fifth Lighthouse District, who was inspecting the work, reported, “The black and white bands show well and the tower will undoubtedly make an excellent daymark for coasters.”
Soon after, the 1873 Lighthouse Board gave Cape Hatteras’ lighthouse the black-and-white “barber pole” look we know today; their report gives an idea of just how specific they were in planning the paint scheme:
whitewash, which at the time consisted of a mix of Quicklime, water and rock salt, with Portland cement, ground rice paste, or Spanish whiting (high-grade white chalk pigment imported from Spain) often added. Preparation called for boiling the mixture and applying it as hot as possible.
According to author and lighthouse expert James Claflin, the US Lighthouse Board was very specific about color schemes:
“Colors were not by choice, but rather were strictly dictated by regulation,” Claflin writes, noting that whitewash was an excellent preservative “used for most towers and dwellings of the time.”
Which may explain why Ocracoke remains our nation’s oldest operational lighthouse.
Then there’s Currituck Beach Lighthouse — all ruddy brick — as naked as when it was completed in 1875. There’s no official documentation as to why they chose not to paint it, but as the last lighthouse built in North Carolina, some simply suggest that, since the state’s other beacons were already black-and-white, a natural, rustic look might have been more distinct.
“Colors were not by choice, but rather were strictly dictated by regulation.” do
“The tower at this light-station has been painted in spiral bands alternately black and white, there being four bands, two black and two white, each one making one and a half revolutions about the tower, the object being to render it more distinct at a distance, and consequently a better daymark on this low, sandy coast.”
They also gave Cape Lookout a distinct, black-andwhite diamond look.
stripes?
And what about for nighttime? That’s why each lighthouse has its own blinking pattern: Hatteras flashes once every 7.5 seconds; Bodie Island uses a 22.5-second cycle, with 2.5 seconds on, 2.5 seconds off, 2.5 seconds on; Currituck Beach is a 20-second cycle with three seconds of flashing and 17 seconds off; Ocracoke Light doesn’t blink at all.
Of course, there are two exceptions to this not-socolorful tale.
Stubby Ocracoke Light — which began guiding ships into Silver Lake in 1824 — is painted with
“The dunes hadn’t been constructed as a permanent fixture,” surmises Currituck site manager, Meghan Agresto. “So maybe red would stand out in an otherwise sand, blue, brush green environment? And red is a traditional warning sign. But the truth is we don’t really know.”
“But unpainted brick is better for the breathability of the tower,” Agresto adds. “And cheaper to maintain.”
After all, every paint job needs a touch-up now and again — especially in our harsh coastal weather. And that’s exactly what we’re witnessing this summer in Buxton, as the Park Service has stripped the Outer Banks’ most iconic landmark down to the brick in preparation for its first fresh set of stripes since 2014. It’s all part of a $19.2 million restoration project — from restoring masonry and ironwork to replacing the lens designed to keep our nation’s tallest lighthouse shining bright for centuries to come. — Kip Tabb
Cape Hatteras strip-tease.
Photo: Daniel Pullen
Photo: Chris Bickford
THEY’RE IN THE LINEUP...
Out before the earliest surfer can hit the parking lot. And still diving for fish as the last pop-up tent leaves the beach. In between, they soar overhead in a dramatic V-shaped formation, ride solo across a windblown crest, or plunge dramatically into the sea to scoop up fresh prey. Then, just before dark, pelicans suddenly vanish, as if simultaneously beamed to some mysterious island miles away.
Which is basically what happens.
“We’ve found 10 major roosts [in NC’s estuaries] where Brown Pelicans really like to nest,” says Carmen Johnson, Waterbird Biologist with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.
“And they go back to those same sites every night right around sunset to sleep and feed their chicks and leave first thing in the morning, because they want to be out foraging as long as they can be.”
endangered species list. And, as of 2023’s count, there were 5227 pairs of Brown Pelicans in NC.
Still, that’s a lot of young families battling for a place to live. And just like humans, it’s the younger generation that feels the pinch.
“The older birds are more mature and smarter,” says Johnson. “They migrate back earlier in the year and get right down to business building their nests. Because they know that the higher up that they nest on these islands, the less likely they are to have their nest overwashed. So, they’ve staked out the prime real estate. And that’s very attractive to a mate.”
But while the grassy islands may make for excellent love nests, and be safe havens from foxes and raccoons, they’re no defense against disease, as one roost discovered this past February when highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) — aka bird flu killed 329 Brown Pelicans on Cora June island near Hatteras Inlet.
sleep night? where
pelicans do at
Brown Pelicans weren’t always such a perpetual presence in Eastern NC. In fact, in 1929, the National Audubon Society documented just 14 breeding pairs on Royal Shoal near Ocracoke Inlet. But, as the Army Corps of Engineers dredged more of the Intracoastal Waterway, they added tons of new habitat that proved perfect for roosting.
“As the Corps of Engineers began piling up dredge material, grasses began to grow up on these spoil islands,” Johnson explains. “That was something that the pelicans really liked, and so they started to use these dredge material islands to nest.”
Isolated from civilization. Safe from predators. Easy access to the ocean and sounds. What else could a waterbird ask for?
But even as the species grew in numbers, a hidden threat was looming: DDT. After World War II, it became the go-to pesticide for farmers. As toxins flowed into coastal waters, and moved up the food chain, eggshells became increasingly thin and weak, decimating the population. By 1970, Brown Pelicans were added to the federal list of endangered species.
Then, in 1972, DDT was banned, setting the stage for a serious comeback.
“Once DDT use stopped, Brown Pelicans really took off here in North Carolina,” says Johnson. “A survey from 1977 had 82 nests. In 1983, our next survey counted 1586.”
Clearly, there wasn’t much actual sleeping going down on these islands...
By 1985, the species was removed from the
“Once DDT use stopped, Brown Pelicans really took off here in North Carolina.”
“Unfortunately, because they were in an area where they were so packed in together, it just spread really quickly,” says Johnson. “But I was out there in March, and I’m happy to report there were probably 100 to 150 pelicans out on the island, and they all looked really healthy and didn’t display any signs of HPAI.”
Luckily, flu season’s well in the past. Which means the skies should be full of our favorite summer stunt pilots. But in an age of climate change, wetland loss, and increasingly invisible pollutants, no species is ever safe. And if there’s anything the Brown Pelican’s up-and-down history has shown us, it’s that we’ll all have to keep our eyes on the horizon to make sure they continue to soar.
“In my field of work, we like to say, ‘Keep common species common,’” says Johnson. “We don’t ever want to have pelicans get into another situation where they’re imperiled. Because they really are a North Carolina success story.”
— Nigel Petros
koozie? invented the who
YOU WON’T FIND THE WORD “KOOZIE” IN
WEBSTER’S...
That’s because it’s less of a word and more of a brand — or, more specifically, a federally registered trademark of the Koozie Group, a behemoth in the promotional products industry, featuring 40 brands and 27 products, including bags, chairs, apparel, housewares, mouse pads, and, yes, the Koozie® Can Cooler.
But most people know the definition anyway; just take a look around any Outer Banks beach, boat or bar on any July day.
Based on its function, a Koozie is a foam or neoprene sleeve that insulates beverage containers from external heat — such as body heat and sunlight — and moderates heatreleasing condensation, thus helping beverages stay colder for longer.
The Koozie was not always ubiquitous, though. Its humble beginnings were in 19th century England, when teapots were first wrapped in knitted covers called “cozies” to retain warmth.
It has overcome obstacles over the centuries to become the icon it is today: from a series of humiliating names (“stubby holders,” “huggies,” “coldy-holdies”); to scientific experiments to determine if it actually worked; to being subjected to “genericide” — when a brand name becomes so synonymous with a given product or service that it loses its distinctive identity. (Think “Kleenex” for tissues, “Band-Aid” for bandages...Frisbee, Jacuzzi, Xerox, Google, etc.)
In 1981, an Idaho woman named Bonnie McGough invented and patented the “insulated beverage cozy,” mainly to get her husband and his friends to stop complaining about their beers getting warm too fast. It consisted of two layers of nylon with goose down between them, quilted around the perimeter so the down wouldn’t shift between the layers, with a rib-knit fabric around the top to secure the can.
Around the same time, the name “Koozie” became a registered trademark for foam can coolers produced by Radio Cap Corporation of San Antonio.
Over the decades, as the brand was acquired by successive companies, it morphed into different styles and products and became a promotional juggernaut for corporate branding campaigns, due to its low cost, high visibility, and everyday functionality.
But it wasn’t exactly a smooth ride to the top.
First, the term “Koozie” became so commonly
used that it faced trademark challenges. Companies like Kustom Koozies argued that the term had become generic.
Legal disputes occurred throughout the 2000s, and while the trademark is still active, the term is often used broadly today to describe can coolers made from any number of materials and styles, from the thicker OG “boat” foamies to sleeker, stitched neoprene, to foldable, screenprint-able skins — customized in orders from 12 to 10,000 the perfect swag for any birthday party, wedding, band or beach biz (and beyond).
In 2013, Dr. Dargan Frierson and Dale Durran, scientists at the University of Washington, conducted experiments to assess the efficacy of the Koozie. The answer: Koozies really work!
“In hot, humid climates, two-thirds of the heating comes from condensation, and most of it goes into the can.”
The research found that the main threat to a cold drink is not heat conduction, but condensation. According to Dr. Frierson, “In hot, humid climates, two-thirds of the heating comes from condensation, and most of it goes into the can. Koozies block this by keeping the condensation off the can.”
While most Koozies are made of nonbiodegradable materials, there are many ways you can extend their useful lives after visiting the beach. For example, you can cut squares around the custom imprint to create personalized coasters, put them between fragile items when packing for moving day, or use them as crayon holders or hot pads.
In the end, the Koozie has proven to be much more than just a promotional tool — it’s a lasting symbol of both practicality and ingenuity.
— Brian Tress
A foamie for your foamie?
Photo: C. White
Not-so-scrubbing bubbles.
Photo: Daniel Pullen
IT’S LIGHT AND FLUFFY...
Off-white and a little silly looking. And it mostly appears on stormy days. We call it seafoam. But its real name is “spume.”
As kids, you trotted through spume, threw it at parents, plastered it in your hair and on each other’s faces — at least until that one weird friend screamed, “Gross! Fish poop beard!”
And for once, your weird friend was right. Kind of.
is sea foam
f ish poop? really
Spume is actually more than fish poop. It’s really a combo of all the different biological matter that lives, dies and decomposes in the ocean — deceased animals and algae, dissolved salts, proteins, fats — and, yes, feces.
Scientists put it all under the label of dead organic matter (DOM). DOM are also surfactants, substances that decrease surface tension between two liquids — just like soap. Which explains the sudsy similarities.
NOAA says spume forms in different ecosystems for different reasons, but dead algae produces the most oceanic spume. In fact, on the Outer Banks, large algal blooms off the coast often produce seafoam.
These billions of molecules of DOM are always in the ocean, but they don’t always turn into seafoam. What they need first is some rough surf and wind, or what North Carolina State University chemistry scholar Dr. Jeffery Enders calls agitation.
“Think of it as a bubble bath,” he says. “Essentially all the molecules that made up the algal bloom are now kind of dissociating. They’re breaking away from the organism because the organism is deteriorating, and many of the molecules that make up algae are very similar in appearance and chemical characteristics to soap molecules.”
“But soap poured into a bathtub without agitation will not produce foam,” Enders continues. “You need, essentially, the chemical, the water, and then the agitation — and then you can produce foam.”
Spume production is the same. Except the roaring ocean waves are the running faucet of hot water and the dead organic matter are the surfactant that collects into bubbles.
When a wave crashes in the ocean, the force leaves bubbles in its wake, and tides carry those bubbles closer to shore with every break. Eventually, a final wave breaks, even more bubbles emerge, and they wash up onto the beach, where the wind can whip them into big cotton-candy drifts.
But if you think making a fluffy goatee out of algae and fish poop sounds gross, wait ’til you hear what
else is appearing in seafoam these days: per- and poly-fluoroalkyl chemicals, commonly known as PFAS or forever chemicals.
Just like dead algae molecules and other surfactants, PFAS chemicals have a chemical need to stick together in the ocean. And studies are starting to show that the more time you spend around seafoam, the more PFAS might appear in your system.
In 2023, Danish researchers found that the stacked sea-surface microlayer that creates seafoam had concentrations of PFAS up to 100,000 times higher than the concentration in bulk seawater. They also tested the blood of 40 surfers for PFAS, all of whom frequented the Jutland coastline for more than five years. They accounted for diets, age, and drinking water. Ultimately, the researchers discovered that the forever chemical they found in the highest concentration in seafoam was also in the surfers’ blood.
The researchers determined surfers have a higher exposure to PFAS-heavy seafoam than swimmers because, well, surfers need that good ’ol ocean agitation to even be out there.
“Think of it as a bubble bath.”
A bit closer to home, southern North Carolina researchers have been studying seafoam to test for a PFAS chemical called “Gen X.”
In 2017, residents learned that a Dupont chemical plant had been releasing Gen X into the Cape Fear River for decades, contaminating the drinking supply for roughly 500,000 people. In an effort to raise awareness and bring accountability, Dr. Enders at NC State and Clean Cape Fear (CCF) — a nonprofit in New Hanover County, NC — are working together to track seafoam events. Just like the Danish study, they are not just discovering more seafoam events, but more dangerous amounts of PFAS.
And yet...
“There are no foam advisories along our shoreline, even though we’ve known for years that the Cape Fear River is polluted with PFAS,” says CCF co-founder Emily Donovan. “This is why it is so important to stop PFAS contamination at the source before it makes its way to our beaches or into our tap water.”
Nobody’s performed any PFAS studies on the Outer Banks. But whether it’s forever chemicals — or fish poop — it can’t hurt to follow any seafoam hijinks with a good shower. — Emmy Trivette
It’s a dog-eat-dogfish world.
why aren’t there on the outer
shark attacks more banks?
Photo: Daniel Pullen
YOU KNOW THE SCENE...
A young lady takes a late-night skinny dip... Duuuuh-dun. It’s calm and quiet...Duuuh-dun. Her heartbeat quickens with a primal fear...Dun-dun Dun-dun Dun-dun. Then a ferocious thrashing, horrible shrieking, and an eerie calm.
It’s arguably the most terrifying beach scene in Hollywood history. It’s also total BS.
“Here’s the truth,” says world-renowned shark expert Jim Abernethy. “People make a living scaring people to death. That’s why Jaws was so successful. Four hundred operators take people to swim with sharks on a daily basis. No bites, no fatalities. Sharks don’t eat people. Period.”
The numbers support his claim. According to the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File (ISAF), there were just 28 confirmed, unprovoked shark-human interactions in the US last year. There was only one unprovoked fatality.
It’s even safer here on the Outer Banks. Of the 78 confirmed unprovoked shark bites in coastal North Carolina over the past 90 years, three were in Currituck, 11 in Dare, four in Hyde, and 14 in Carteret — with only a handful of serious injuries.
And that’s not due to a lack of sharks. Just ask any charter boat captain who’s had a big tuna bit in two. Even better, ask Dr. Chelsea Black. As Postdoc Research Fellow at UNC Chapel Hill’s Institute of Marine Sciences, she studies spatial and temporal shifts in the shark population along the NC coast.
“We are in the middle of a shark superhighway, especially Hatteras, which is right on the migration corridor,” Black says. Furthermore, “Climate change is actually causing an increase in the number of sharks from southern states as the waters are becoming too warm for them.”
And it’s not as if there’s a lack of humans — approximately five million people vacation here annually, according to the Outer Banks Chamber of Commerce.
And yet, there hasn’t been a shark attack on the Outer Banks since 2011, and no fatalities since 2001. Not because the creatures are so bad at hunting, but because they have evolved to be among the best.
According to Black, “Sharks are extremely skilled predators that have been around 450 million years — older than trees.”
As a result, they can quickly identify when something is decent prey — i.e. it has to be fatty and have enough calories for them to expend the energy to hunt. Humans are primarily bone and water, with relatively low fat.
“Humans to them are like celery to us,” Black says. “We burn more calories chewing it than we gain.”
In other words, we’re just not worth the effort. Sound too good to be true? Consider the number of so-called “maneaters” tracked, caught or photographed every year moving off our coast — two white sharks were accidentally caught and released this spring alone — yet no surfers, scuba divers or skinny dippers get chomped.
And in the rare instance that a shark does bite a human, it’s an accident, which is why Abernethy bristles when people use the term “shark attack.”
“It’s a mistake, not an attack,” he says. “If sharks actually attacked people, they would finish them.”
Abernethy is an underwater filmmaker and conservationist whose efforts helped lead the Bahamian government to ban commercial shark fishing. He’s also the Original Shark Whisperer.
As a pioneer of cage-free shark diving, he’s spent decades interacting with large predatory sharks, such as tiger sharks and great hammerheads. He recounts how, in 2001, he removed a hook from a 15-foot tiger shark swimming past— within two hours, he had “made friends with it.”
Abernethy and the shark, who he named Emma, are still close today.
“She follows me around when I go to the Bahamas — a wild shark, not tagged; she just comes to meet me on her own.”
“Humans to them are like celery to us.”
And those are the sea’s apex predators. Locally, the most common sharks are smaller sharpnoses, sand-tigers and spinners. Even the occasional tiger or bull shark, which are famous for being territorial, still don’t rack up attacks.
As Black puts it, “Any time you are in the ocean, you are close to a shark — you just don’t know it, because that shark doesn’t hunt you.”
So, next time you’re feeling a bit squeamish about taking a dip, think about Abernethy and Emma. Or consider the century of stats that show you’re safe. Or remember these comforting words from Jeremy Lee Arnt Sr., Conservation Biologist II with the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries:
“There are many more things to worry about than being bitten by a shark — riptides, heatstroke, sunburn, for example. Just go enjoy the beach and have fun.” — Brian Tress
clam
Half-bushel of fun?
Photo: Jared Bramblett
HAPPY AS A CLAM
Nothing says “sweet, salty summer” like a basket of bivalves.
Some folks feel around with their feet. Others use a specialized rake. This lady throws ’em in a laundry basket buoyed by pool noodles — that dude overstuffs his cargo pants pockets. One kid’s scooping them into their hat by the double-handful — another opts to float on their back and stare at the clouds.
That’s the beauty of clamming: there’s no wrong way to do it. It can be as lazy or as intensive as you want. And even if you’re coming up empty handed, you’re still in the water and having a blast.
“Unlike other water related activities, there’s no pressure when it comes to clamming,” says Captain Kelly Schoolcraft Jr., who runs Countrytime Coastal Charters out of Oden’s Dock in Hatteras. “You can
bring your family, see lots of wildlife and have fun.”
With our healthy estuaries and ideal water salinity, a wide range of clams call the Outer Banks home. Littlenecks and quahogs. Razor clams and rangias. Even softshell clams. (Which is a misnomer; their shells are actually quite thin and brittle.) They all hide out just about anywhere along the shores of the Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds.
In fact, the toughest part is figuring out where to start digging. So, most experts say look for three things: shallow shorelines, a muddy bottom — and lots of sea grass.
“Clams and sea grass have a mutualistic relationship,” explains Jim Morley, PhD, and Assistant Professor in the Department
of Biology at the Coastal Studies Institute.
“Because of the protection that the grass provides, clams have a higher rate of survival. The grass in return benefits from the clams filtering the water and getting free fertilizer from the clam poop.”
A fine example of symbiosis, indeed.
Some folks seek out these little piles of poo as a sign to dig deeper around nearby depressions in the bottom. Others just wait for the tide to go low and aim for the right depth of water.
“We are usually in about waist deep water,” says Captain Kelly, “because the clams can be found about four inches down.”
Now all you need is a little gear. It helps to have a boat or hire a charter to find the least disturbed spots. Or go tromping around the back side of Hatteras Island until you see some marsh. (Some internet sleuthing will offer tips.) You’ll definitely want some sort of floating basket, either bought from a tackle store or made from a laundry basket, pool noodles and zip ties. (Online tutorials abound.) And a cooler to carry your haul home.
They also sell specialized clam rakes, although Kelly says they aren’t as effective in the mud. Instead, he suggests wandering ’til your toes feel the shells.
“Do the foot shuffle through the mud and feel them with your feet,” he laughs. “Some folks pay big money for pedicures — but clamming, you get one for free!”
Once you’ve perfected your shuffle, get ready to start grabbing handfuls. Clams tend to live in groups. But never take more than you need. Respecting limits is important to preserve a healthy population. So, educate yourself on the laws. NC allows 100 per person, per day, and they must be an inch thick.
But if you’re clamming by boat...
“Our state regulations dictate that no more than 200 clams may be harvested per vessel, per day,” Kelly notes. “When you have more than one person clamming, sometimes it doesn’t take long to hit that limit.”
Once your basket’s full, then comes the best part — the eating!
The first step is to make sure they’re clean. Clams, like oysters, are filter feeders, which means they can sometimes contain bacteria or other organisms.
“We are fortunate to have clean water that clams thrive in,” says Kelly. “But if you are looking to harvest some on your own, be sure to know the area you are in and the water quality. And make sure to clean and purge the clams well before eating them.”
To “purge” means soaking them in saltwater for an hour after harvesting; that ensures that any excess or unwanted matter is expelled and limits the chance of nasty viruses.
“ THAT’S THE BEAUTY... THERE’S NO WRONG WAY TO DO IT.
From there, the only choice is: what dish to cook?
If you find yourself with a bounty of ocean quahogs, or “sea clams” as many fondly call them, try a Hatteras style clam chowder. (The clam’s tougher meat is better minced; and the brinier flavor pairs with smokey bacon, creamy potatoes and aromatics.)
Littlenecks are smaller and tenderer, so a simple steam will do the trick — though overachievers and kitchen wizards might go digging online for a more complex ragout, paella and ciopinno (aka fishermen’s stew). Or just eat ’em raw! (If you don’t mind the shucking.)
When the scenery and weather dictate more time outside, simple is the move. In fact, all you need is a portable grill and a little lemon and butter for the most summery meal you can imagine.
“We like to pull up on a sand island and do a clam roast,” Kelly says. “Having them on the half-shell, being outside and enjoying the day is our absolute favorite.”
— Fran Marler
Commemorative placemats were just part of the promo campaign to preserve Jockey’s Ridge.
NIFTY…SHIFTY… LOOK WHO’S FIFTY!
A sneak peek at this summer’s 50th Anniversary Celebration of Jockey’s Ridge State Park.
It’s one of the Outer Banks’ biggest draws. (Literally.) Not only is it the East Coast’s largest living sand dune, but it also regularly ranks among NC’s most visited state parks. (No. 1 in 2022!) Moreover, it’s a symbol of our community’s love for open spaces — and fierce commitment to stand up to “the man” — immortalized in a legendary origin story of grassroots activism.
It started in 1973, when Carolista Baum — for whom the park’s entrance road is named — famously stood in the path of a bulldozer threatening to begin development of the dunes; and continued with a fierce campaign of fundraising, petitions and trips to the General Assembly in Raleigh. Finally, on May 31, 1975, Baum presented a ceremonial deed for the first tract of land to the state for what would eventually become the 426-acre state park — then everybody celebrated with a big old party.
“There was something called the Jockey’s Ridge Jamboree,” recalls Ann-Cabell Baum, one of Carolista’s daughters and vice chair of the nonprofit Friends of Jockey’s Ridge State Park. “Mom had an 18-foot flatbed trailer moved out in front of the base of that big dune.”
The festivities also featured live music and the raising of the North Carolina flag atop the dunes, she recalls.
“We’re using the Jockey’s Ridge Jamboree as a planning guide,” says Baum, “to celebrate how special Jockey’s Ridge is 50 years later.”
From June 5-8, the 50th Anniversary Celebration of Jockey’s Ridge State Park serves up an equal mix of nostalgia and never-seen-before elements, from live concerts to a shoreline planting project, to the Outer Banks’ first large-scale drone show.
On Thursday, families are invited to come
“We were able to hire Sky Elements, the drone company that was on America’s Got Talent,” says Colette Walker, executive director of the Friends of Jockey’s Ridge.
While the drone show will be viewable up to a half mile away, according to Baum, a live video broadcast will make it available for people unable to attend in person.
On Saturday, families are once more encouraged to swim and play in the sound via paddleboards, kayaks — or try out a 20-person canoe that will be on site. Then, that afternoon, Outer Banks musical legend Mojo Collins — who wrote a song especially for Jockey’s Ridge’s preservation fight in 1973 — will perform live, setting the stage for a traditional patriotic display.
“Saturday after Mojo plays, we’re going to have the national anthem [and] we’re going to raise the North Carolina state flag and the United States flag on top of the ridge,” Baum says.
paddle the sound with a ranger. That evening, a special, private homecoming dinner will honor park staff from past and present. (The only nonpublic event.)
“ THE DRONE SHOW WILL BE VIEWABLE UP TO A HALF MILE AWAY.
The action really heats up Friday. After a full day of outdoor activities, famous 90s indie rockers, The Connells, will play an outdoor stage set close to where the flatbed sat 50 years ago. (And near where the Mountainsto-Sea Trail end marker is today.)
Then, come nightfall, 300 drones will take to the sky for a first-of-its-kind, electrified light show, performing acrobatic feats set to music in an “all-encompassing” tribute to Jockey’s Ridge.
Plus, both Saturday and Sunday will also feature the return of the 43rd annual Outer Banks Rogallo Kite Festival. Giant, billowing kites will take to the skies, along with stunt kite demos and more, all to honor the late Francis Rogallo, a fierce defender of Jockey’s Ridge who was a NASA scientist and inventor of the flexible wing, which spawned stunt kites and sports like kiteboarding and hang-gliding.
Kitty Hawk Kites will also host hang-gliding demos all weekend. And Saturday and Sunday will both start with sunrise yoga on the ridge — adapted for the sand, says Baum.
Sunday will round out the weekend with a disc golf tournament, a horseshoe tournament and a sandcastle-building competition. And, for those who want to help preservation efforts firsthand, roughly 2000 marsh grass sprigs stand ready for volunteers to add to the ongoing living shoreline project.
Add the “Art From the Edge” exhibit hanging in the visitor center, and there’s something for everybody — or lots of everybodies.
Photo: Outer Banks History Center
“We’re prepared for eight-to-10,000 people,” says Walker.
As a result, online reservations are greatly encouraged. Some events are capped at a certain number; organizers also want people to have online tickets for safety purposes, including a general headcount and for a means of communication in case of any sudden changes.
Worried about parking? Free shuttles will be available from event satellite lots at the Outer Banks Family YMCA and Nags Head Elementary School.
Walker and Baum say none of this would be possible without the yearlong efforts of the 50th event planning committee, which extended beyond the Friends group and included many community members and local organizations. And they believe it echoes the widespread movement that originally created the state park a halfcentury ago, when some people donated parcels of land, and many more donated funds and time to the cause.
“Kids collected pennies and dimes and nickels and quarters,” Baum recalls. “Everywhere you went in 1974, there were round canisters with the fluorescent bumper sticker, ‘SOS: Save Jockey’s Ridge” at every register and in every store, even at the grocery store.”
This grassroots movement never really ended. Since 1990, the Friends of Jockey’s Ridge has continued to stand up for the dune, most recently speaking out against a state commission’s efforts to strip it of important environmental protections.
On Saturday, Ranger Austin Paul will present a documentary featuring people who have been involved since 1973, when the entire movement started.
In Baum’s view, the importance of these preservation efforts cannot be overstated.
“Jockey’s Ridge has literally touched every family and every person who’s been on the Outer Banks,” she says.
And while Baum grew up with this vast sandbox as her backyard, she still remains
LET’S KEEP THIS PARTY GOING!
Three ways to keep celebrating and supporting Jockey’s Ridge this summer.
MOVE THOSE FEET!
On July 4, the Killer Dunes 2-Miler invites joggers (and walkers) to kickstart America’s birthday by dashing up and down a national treasure. Proceeds benefit Friends of Jockey’s Ridge. Sign up at www. obxse.com/killer-dunes.
EAT SOME TREATS!
Join Friends of Jockey’s Ridge on Sept. 13 for Dune Day — an annual celebration with snowcones, hot dogs and a sandcastle-building contest. Learn more at www.friendsofjockeysridge.org.
RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE!
At press time, Jockey’s Ridge remained without its protective designated status as an “Area of Environmental Concern.” Email angela.willis@deq.nc.gov to voice your support for restoring this precious landmark’s protections.
awed by this precious natural resource. And she can’t wait to honor its lasting legacy this summer.
“It’s a magical place where families for generations have come to celebrate everything special in their lives, and we get to live there,” Baum says. “I just have the biggest grin on my face about seeing every little kid — and even the big ones — when they get to run up Jockey’s Ridge and just go out and enjoy music and community [and] celebrate.” —Corinne Saunders
Want to register for events? Sign up as a volunteer? Or just see a full itinerary? Visit www.jockeysridge50.com.
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CANDY
COFFEE
FUDGE
Bottle tops, balloons, sand toys, and cigarette butts — lots of cigarette butts. When you walk the beach as much as Allie Luciano does, you see tons of litter. But unlike most people out for a casual stroll, Luciano picks up all that stuff. Then, rather than dumping it into the nearest beach access trash can, she hauls it home and recycles it piece by piece.
Red bottle caps and straws might start in the center. Then maybe some orange sunnies and a few tooth-flossers. This yellow hat brim...that green Skoal can. Gradually, she works through the rainbow before filling in an assortment of white plastic utensils, cig butts and clear bottles. In a matter of minutes, she’ll sort it all out, converting the ugliest flotsam into a stunning work of abstract art. And yet, it’s the process that Luciano finds most captivating.
“It’s always just nice to be on the beach,” says the 36-year-old Manteo native. “And with the trash part, just picking it up, cleaning it and organizing it is something I can control. It’s calming.”
Beachcombing has always been a big part of Luciano’s life. Growing up on the Outer Banks, she fell in love with hunting for shells, glass, fulgurites, and other treasures.
“I’m just super curious about what washes up, depending on the tides,” she says. “There’s always something out there, and there’s always, always trash.”
Then one day in 2017, it occurred to her to try to make something out of the refuse she had in her bag.
“I just wanted to see what I had,” Luciano says. “I dumped it out and organized it by color and shape.”
When she finished, she liked the results so much she snapped a photo and shared it on Facebook. The positive response changed her perspective on what she was doing.
“People said it was art,” Luciano remembers. “And I was like, I love doing this, so I just kept doing it.”
Today’s mess is tomorrow’s masterpiece. Photo: Ashley Milteer
In 2024, she decided to give her creative outlet its own Instagram page — Pretty Trashy OBX. When one particular image started getting huge hits — a colorful collage of plastic toys, wrappers, flipflops, bottles, and slice-of-beach-life bits — Luciano’s sister commented that it would make a really cool puzzle.
Luciano’s followers agreed.
It’s a question she asks to this day as she hunts local beaches — mostly around South Nags Head, Coquina Beach or sometimes Kill Devil Hills. The more she walks, the more she notices changes in the types of trash, depending on the season and world events.
Her first batch sold out, so she ordered more. Now she offers five designs in 500or 1,000-piece sets — including the image on this issue’s cover — through Etsy, Instagram, and occasionally at Soundside Markets in Nags Head.
“
“PEOPLE ARE ALWAYS SHOCKED THAT I FIND SO MUCH IN AN HOUR.”
Local author Hannah Bunn West was one of Luciano’s first customers to scoop up a puzzle as a present for her husband. But she was surprised that her kids were the first to pick up on all the brands in the image — the Cheerios, Doritos and Coke labels. Meanwhile, West’s daughter, who does beach cleanups through her school, was amazed to see that someone could make art and a statement at the same time.
“Allie is an artist, and her artistic eye comes through in the image,” West says. “And it’s such a great way to raise awareness about the environment.”
In many ways, it’s the perfect take on Luciano’s art, since it allows folks to recreate the same experience: hunting-and-pecking for colored bits, then piecing them into a single work. Moreover, Luciano says customers have told her that the puzzle is an interactive way to think more about the beach litter.
“Instead of just glancing at a picture as you scroll by on Instagram, you really interact with the trash and consider each piece that I found,” she says. “You start thinking, ‘Why are there so many cigarette butts and bottle caps on the beach?”
Pandemic trash was all wipes and masks, of course, while post-storm trash tends to be a lot of fishing debris, plastic bags and boat stuff. Summer trash — beer cans, food wrappers, cigar tips, toys, fireworks, and glow sticks — is different than winter’s surge in building materials. No matter what, there are staples: balloons and ribbons, butts, bottle tops, plastic flossers, and sunglasses.
Whatever Luciano finds, she hauls it home and sorts it right then and there. No laboring over set-ups. Her fingers just move instinctively until it feels finished.
“I get into a flow, it’s meditative,” she says. The second she stops, she takes a picture, then discards the trash, so each photo is reflective of a single walk.
“People are always shocked that I find so much in an hour,” Luciano notes.
Whenever Luciano feels particularly frazzled, she finds refuge in her creative practice. As she creates her images, she ponders all sorts of questions about human behavior: Who flosses their teeth at the beach? When did “disposable” become the ultimate selling point? Who are the people who think it’s okay to litter? And why do we consume so much?
At the same time, Luciano says she doesn’t want to stop anyone from having fun — from using glow sticks or plastic toys, or drinking beer. She just wishes people would think twice about buying single-use items and first ask, “Is it really necessary?”
“I think the majority of trash didn’t get there on purpose,” Luciano says, giving humans a compassionate pass. “I just want people to be more mindful of the Outer Banks and where all that stuff goes after they are done with it. I’m certainly not perfect with consuming and using plastic, and I’ve lost a lot of stuff in the ocean, too, but we can all do better.” — Terri Mackleberry
WATERFRONT DINING
MIND IF WE PLAY THROUGH?
The Ramble will take a swing at just about anything — from rock’s greatest hits to the most oddball request.
Maybe you saw them with Graham Outten singing out front way back in 2015. Or when Chris Sawin tickled the ivories for a stint circa 2017. Might be you watched them win the Arts of the Albemarle Battle of the Bands as recently as 2023, while Myles Wood was still hitting the skins. But unless you’ve seen The Ramble rock a stage sometime in the last year, you really haven’t seen them at all. And even then, you ain’t seen what’s coming next.
“We started out way more jammy,” says lead guitarist and last remaining original member, Patrick Goller. “And we’ll still do some extended solos and jam out and stuff, but we’ve definitely gotten way tighter. And the sound itself has changed.”
Bound to happen when you shrink down from seven players — and up to three active guitarists — to four distinct roles, not to mention a totally different rhythm section.
It started post COVID, when they added former Betty on Patrol bassist, John Beaumont, whose “background has always been in 90s grunge.” Then, in 2024, James Ulrich hopped on the drums. In the early 2000s, his power pop band Runner Runner nearly broke big, opening up arenas for charttoppers like the Goo Goo Dolls and appearing live on Jimmy Kimmel and David Letterman.
“I like to say we had one foot in the door,” Beaumont laughs. “We just couldn’t get the other foot through.”
Together, they lay down a firm-yet-flexible foundation that can support any number of styles. Add in Goller’s jam-band mastery, and frontman Bobby Soto’s penchant for pure melodies, from the deep cut R&B to upbeat 90s pop, and you’ve got a random shuffle of potential songs that would short-circuit Spotify’s smartest tech.
“Our approach really comes from the fact that everyone in the band listens to way different stuff,” says Ulrich. “Like, my playlist would be way different than Pat’s, whose is way different than Bobby’s, whose is way different than John’s. But even through we’re all over the place, it still meshes somehow — it’s crazy. And, then of course, Bobby’s got some pipes.”
He’s not kidding. As a real-life former choir boy, Soto’s got the kind of range that’ll take on the likes of Shannon Hoon or Freddy Mercury without flinching. Meanwhile, Goller’s got no probs nailing Hotel California’s signature closing solo single-handed. In fact, if there’s a connecting element to the Ramble’s oddball selection, it’s sheer audacity.
Who else would have the cajones to tackle the slow-burn funk of Vulfpeck’s “Wait for the Moment” — then mix in a campy take on Frank Sinatra’s “That’s Life?” Serve up a super catchy hit by Third Eye Blind — then rip into a sonic assault inspired by Rage Against the Machine? Or drop a Queen anthem like “Don’t Stop Me Now?” — before lighting up a New Wave pop ear worm like “99 Red Balloons”?
“Yeah, that’s a fun one, because Bobby and I get to lock in and do some dual riffing and stuff on guitars,” laughs Goller. “And, I think, from playing on the beach so much, we’ve learned to adjust set lists to the crowd, because having a good, fun crowd makes us have fun, as well.”
Ulrich, Beaumont, Goller and Soto let the good times roll at Galaxy Golf.
Photo: Ed Tupper
The result is an infectious, everything goes energy, where anything can happen in any set, any song. Maybe you’ll hear a “Flogging Molly” song executed perfectly for St. Patrick’s Day. Might be a wandering, wordless “Althea” at the behest of some hippie chick.
“She was like, ‘Please! It’s my favorite Dead song!” Soto laughs. “And Pat knew all the chords...I just wish I knew the lyrics.”
“That stuff happens more often than we’d like to admit,” adds Goller. “But it’s also how we’ve added some songs. Like ‘Hotel California.’ Someone yelled it at Fish Head’s last summer. After that, I did the deep dive to learn it. Because songs like that, you gotta do it note for note.”
And sometimes, they just chase a random whim down a rabbit hole. Riffing away on chords, licks and phrases to create something totally new.
“Basically, one of us will start an idea that catches on,” says Soto. “And then you can’t just stop, so you just kind of throw words at it. And then before you know it, you’ve written the song in front of people, and they don’t even know what’s happening.”
That same creative spark that’s produced a collection of rocksolid originals, distilled from all their diverse influences. Songs like “Hold Tight,” a spacy, bottom-end-heavy groove that conjures up images of Modest Mouse meeting Blind Melon. (With maybe some stunt guitar by Jerry Garcia.) “Getaway” is a gritty, surf-rockinfused ditty with the heartbeat of a 50s ballad, exorcising the high-season’s human-induced demons with tortured lines like, “Take a piece of me home with you...”
“IT’S A RANDOM SHUFFLE THAT WOULD SHORTCIRCUIT SPOTIFY’S SMARTEST TECH.
“All of us have put our time in with the tourism industry here,” laughs John. “So we totally understand the whole love/hate relationship.”
Then there’s tracks like “Whatever That Was,” a classic mix of Motown soul and breathy movements, sweeping jams and heartfelt vocals that builds and releases with timeless appeal.
“Originally, Patrick wrote the song about somebody who woke up from a dream of the best party ever, and being like, ‘What was that?!’” Soto explains. “But that’s kind of like life, right? So it could be a love song, it could be a life song. And that’s the coolest thing about music and lyrics: you can write these songs that may mean something to you but could mean anything to anybody else.”
And that doesn’t include all the tracks cut over the previous decade and posted someplace on Spotify and YouTube. Or the list of future ideas living on various hard drives. In fact, the only thing that’s missing is a cohesive album. That’s why the goal is to get “at least a six-orseven-song EP out there for summer,” says Soto.
Until then, they’ll keep racking up the nightly gigs. (See ’em at Jack Brown’s every Monday through August.) Taking each set as it comes — and taking a swing at whatever comes next. Whether it’s a musical “eureka moment” that spontaneously erupts in a collective outburst — or some sloshed fan shouting anything but “Freebird” from the back of the room.
“As long as it’s fun,” Soto says for clarification. “But fortunately, at least one of us almost always knows the song — and everyone else is just sharp enough to follow along.”
“Hey,” Beaumont grins, “we haven’t fallen on our faces yet.” — Leo Gibson
FLIP THE SCRIPT
Stressed over crowds? Allergic to difficult personalities? Try Angstalta!
Angstalta is an uncontrolled Type-F medicine used to enhance everything from general crankiness to rage.
photofinish
Angstalta is especially effective when taken in the summer if you are in the service industry and work in a coastal environment overrun by millions of out-of-state vacationers in minivans.
Take Angstalta daily between May and October — or whenever you might come in contact with the influx of members of society who become apoplectic if you do not serve New England-style clam chowder.
Especially take Angstalta if you ingest vitamins, exercise regularly, are on a Mediterranean diet, or engage in positive life affirming behavior that does nothing to counter overworked parents ready to unload a year’s worth of pent-up frustration from raising five kids and eating canned tuna.
Warning: Angstalta may cause bruxism, bad breath, hysterical laughter, recurrent broken spider veins on the face, enlarged nostrils or brief periods of delirium. If you experience any of these symptoms, immediately quadruple your dose, or you will lose your edge.
If feelings of stress abate, DO NOT stop taking Angstalta. DO NOT call a doctor or any professional prone to recommend seeing a therapist, meditating, doing yoga, working out, deep breathing, or taking walks in nature. Instead, call the toll-free Angstalta hotline printed in bold threepoint Comic Sans font on the bottom of the bottle. The hotline will immediately double your prescription after asking you no more than two questions, then help you create a handwritten will so that you can leave a lifetime supply of Angstalta to your loved ones.
Angstalta is manufactured by Fast Fix in a remote area of the United States surrounded by a barbed wire fence and a dozen rabid dogs. A coupon is available for 50% off if the word “Ohm” is in your vocabulary.
Do not throw away, crush, dissolve or flush any remaining tablets. Angstalta cannot be returned and must be consumed. No backsies.
— Mary Ellen Riddle
Art by Jared Cera/Burnt Crust
Signature Events Historic Corolla Park
Yoga in the Park
Thursdays • June 5-September 4, 2025 • 7:30am to 8:30am
60-minute Yoga class for all-levels. Every session includes guided meditation to re-center you, breath work to calm you, and a series of seated and standing postures to make you feel like your best self. Classes are held outside in front of Whalehead overlooking the sound. Please bring a yoga mat, beach towel or tapestry, plenty of water and sun protection. In the event of rain or inclement weather, classes will be canceled. And best of all, it’s FREE to participants! So Relaxing…
Under the Oaks Art Festival
Tuesday & Wednesday • June 17 & 18, 2025 • 10am to 5pm
This popular festival brings together a collection of talented artists and visitors can expect to find paintings and prints, photography, pottery, jewelry, woodworks, and much more. Free for all attendees, local food concessions are available as well as a silent art auction that is open to the public.
Independence Day Celebration
Friday • July 4, 2025 • 5pm to 9pm
What better way to celebrate America’s independence than with free live music and a spectacular firework show on The Northern Outer Banks! Come out to Historic Corolla Park for the Independence Day Celebration with loads of fun family activities and food provided by local vendors. Activities and live music begin at 5:00 pm with fireworks at dusk.
Admission is free and free parking is available at the park until lots are full. Please note that no coolers, alcohol, or on-street parking is permitted. The Historic Corolla Park boat ramp and air-up stations are closed this day with no docking allowed. Dogs are permitted on leashes.
Corolla Cork & Craft
Wednesday • August 6, 2025 • 12pm to 8pm
Local wine, beer, and craft cocktails, live music and curated local craft artisans in the breathtaking and peaceful setting of Historic Corolla Park. Admission to this event is free. Beer, wine, food, and crafts will be available for purchase. Adults over 21 may purchase wine, beer or spirits by the glass or by the bottle. There will be no free tastings at this event. Please bring a photo ID if you are interested in purchasing alcohol.
For more information on these events and more, Call 252.453.9040 or visit our website CorollaEvents.com
GRANNY DON’T SURF!
“Did you get it? Was I in there?!” It’s all any surfer wants to know when they’ve scored an epic tube ride — or just a half-assed head-dip — especially when there’s a photographer posted up on the beach. But thieves don’t always dress like the Hamburglar. On a sunny, summer day, they can look a lot like your grandmother cruising for beach glass. And after snatching a big, blue piece from under your toes — and maybe your wife’s purse from beneath the umbrella — ol’ Maude’s coming for your surf shot.
SEQUENCE: ASHLEY MILTEER
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Brand new seasons. Fallen heroes. Salute them both, May 26, at Town of Duck’s Memorial Day Summer Kick-Off Concert, where the Town Green ripples with beach chairs, coolers and community pride — plus the patriotic sounds of the First Flight High School Band. 6pm. More at www.ducknc.gov. • Looking for cool stuff? Or just a spectacular sunset? Get ’em both any Mon. through Sept. 29, when Rodanthe’s Kitty Hawk Kites hosts the new Soundside Festival Series, where 40+ local vendors offer one-of-a-kind gear, plus live music, beer and wine, and tasty food by Good Winds. 4-8pm. Find updates on Facebook. • The evening drama continues all summer long at the Waterside Theater, where the 88th Season of The Lost Colony plays Mon.-Sat., from May 29-Aug. 23. Want a fuller experience? Try Tues., Fri. or Sat.’s Native Pre Shows, where indigenous cast members share stories, songs and dances. Find times, deets and tix — plus info on Backstage Tours and local discounts — at www.thelostcolony.org. • Then dig even deeper into our region’s Native American roots, May 30-31, when the Secotan Alliance presents, “In the Spirit of Wingina 2: Our Women...Our Words...Our Water. ” Starts Fri. at Manteo’s Virginia Tillett Center with presentations by academic and indigenous scholars (12-5pm), before Jennette’s Pier hosts live jazz by the Benjie Porecki Trio, plus indigenous flute, hand drum and poetry (7-10pm). Then, on Sat. morning, head to COA/ Manteo at 8:30am for some “coffee talk” with tribal experts about the indigenous earth ethic. Details and pre-registration at www.secotanalliance.org. • Shoot the breeze with fellow wind enthusiasts at Waves Water Sports Resort, May 30-31, when Kitty Hawk Kites’ Kiteboarding Kick-Off Weekend busts out gear, demos and the occasional badass trick from 10am-4pm. More at www.kittyhawk.com. • May 31’s all about the motorheads when the Sumospeed Beach Bash turns Nags Head’s Soundside Event Site into a pimped-out parking lot of sweet rides, rockin’ music, souped-up food trucks, and vehicular vendors. Cruise over to www.sumospeed.com for details. • Looking for a “sweet” bargain? Maybe a “honey” of a handmade item, or a “spicy” new look? Head to Manteo’s Downtown Market any Sat., where the stalls are chock full of unique flavors and one-of-akind finds. 9am-1pm. More at www.manteonc.gov. • Score locally grown produce and proteins — plus the occasional plant, pastry or piece of pottery — when Wanchese’s Secotan Market sets up every Sat. through Sept., 8am-12pm. Find a full list of producers at www.secotanmarket. com. • Feast your eyes on local flora and fauna — while consuming tasty educational tidbits — when Pea Island & Alligator River
National Wildlife Refuges offer a range of summer discovery tours, from ticketed tram rides to canoe trips to free Turtle Talks and Bird Walks. Get deets — plus pricing and reservation info where applicable — at www. fws.gov. • Meanwhile, Nags Head Woods offers free 10am guided hikes every Wed. in June and July — plus Fri. Open House Interpretive Talks at a TBD time. (See Facebook for updates.)
Photo: Cory Godwin
In between, hikers are reminded to stay on the designated trails while scoping out animals, and to carpool as much as humanly possible. Learn more at www.nature.org. • Want a killer view — and a killer workout? Bodie Island Lighthouse Climbs go up (and down) every 20 minutes from 9am-5pm. To buy advance tix and discover more ranger-led programs at Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, and Wright Brothers National Memorial, go to www.recreation.gov • Or dive south to Hatteras’ Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum any Tues. through Aug. for free Salty Dawg Lectures at 11am. Subjects cover everything from The Untold Story of North Carolina’s Coastal Patrol (June 3) to Sea Shanties (June 17 & July 29) to Lighthouse Keeping with James Charlet (July 1 & Aug. 19). Plus, from June 2 to Aug. 25, Kids Craft Mondays give li’l mariners some hands-on merriment at 10:30am. Sail over to www.graveyardoftheatlantic. com for a full calendar. • Got stamps? Don’t throw them in the trash! Bring ‘em to the Outer Banks Stamp Club Monthly Meeting, every second Sun. at Nags Head’s Grace Lutheran Church. 2:30pm. Call 336-512-0097 with questions. • Did someone say “school of hard knocks”? Kill Devil Derby Brigade’s New Skater Nights show 18+ adults how they rock and roll at Aviation Park every first Tues.: June 3, July 1, Aug. 5, & Sept. 2. Some loaner gear available. Email thekilldevilderbybrigade@gmail.com for more intel. • Or just run like a maniac around Historic Corolla Park as the 13th Annual Lighthouse 5K/1-Mile Race Series returns every Wed. through Sept. 10 at 8am. (Walk up registration from 6:50-7:50am.) Pricing and pre-registration at www.obxrunning.com
• Get loopy. Fly high. Maybe puke up some corn dogs and cotton candy. It’s all fun and laughs for the Children & Youth Partnership for Dare County, when June 5-8’s Soundside Fun Fair raises funds via carnival rides, concessions and games. 5-11pm. Free to attend. Single tix are $1.50; 20 for $25. All you can ride: $30. Get weather updates and more on Facebook. • Celebrate a half-century of saved dunes and sandy shoes, June 5-8, when the 50th Anniversary Celebration of Jockey’s Ridge State Park piles up four days of educational programs and recreational competitions — plus a first ever Drone Show, and concerts by The Connells and Mojo Collins. Find a complete calendar at www.jockeysridge50.com. • Live music and stunning skies steal the show every Thurs. at Sanctuary Vineyards’ Acoustic Sunsets. From 5:30-8:30pm, catch free concerts by bands like Manteo Murphy (June 12), Soul One (July 24), or The Mo-Rons (Aug. 28), plus tasty beer, wine and food for purchase — where 10% of sales support local non-profits. Find details at www. sanctuaryvineyards.com. • Or enjoy a sampler platter of strumming singers six days a week at Blue Moon Beach Grill, such as The Bar Cats (Wed.), Jeremy Russell (Thurs.), Kamea Blake (Fri.), Gerry Maddox (Sat.), Brad Privott (Sun.), and Bryan Campbell (Mon.). Learn more at www.bluemoonbeachgrill.com. • Meanwhile, The Blue Point puts the “sound” in “sound view” with weekly waterfront performances by The Twin Fins (Wed.), Kamea Blake (Thurs.), Bird Dog (Fri.), and Harry Harrison (Sat.). And every other Mon., the Good Wine Club invites would-be oenophiles to taste and talk tannins with top sommeliers. Visit www.thebluepoint.com for a full calendar. • Jack Brown’s weekly mix was a work-inprogress at press time, but here’s what they’ve nailed down so far: The Ramble (Mon.) and Shane Thomas (Tues.) are in the backyard from 7pm-10pm; OBX Silent Disco is inside on Thurs., along with live local bands on Fri. & Sat. (all 10pm-1am). And Sun. will rotate between DJ Josh Prairie’s Magic Cabana Time out back from 7-10pm, and Karaoke Nights inside from 10pm-1am. Follow @jackbrownskdh for the finishing touches. • KDH’s Swells’a Brewing will serve the bubbly rhythms of Suzie Jacuzzi on Sun., and the intoxicating hijinks of Harry Harrison on Thurs. — plus a range of home-brewed bands on select Fri. & Sat. (Get an earful of Hot Sauce on June 20.) Meanwhile, the Duck Dive Bar will belt out music every Mon.-Fri., including more local faves like Frozenhead & The Squirrels (July 15) and PSPSPS (Aug. 12.) All of them play 6-9pm. Follow @swellsa_ brewing and @swellsa_duck_dive for freshest deets. • Meanwhile, the Outer Banks Brewing Station offers breezy backyard concerts every eve from 5:30-8:30pm. (Weather permitting.) And the inside gets wild — and goes late — as Wed.’s Ladies Night with DJ Bruce and Fri.’s Dance Night with DJ Smilez both boogie ‘til 2am. Then, on Thurs. & Sat.,
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rock out with a DJ or live band, including legendary acts like Jamaica’s Inner Circle (June 1), jam-fans’ best friends Dogs in A Pile (June 15), and the spicy reggae of Pepper (June 17). Find a full sched and tix at www.obbrewing.com • Quench your thirst for a good party — and a cool souvenir — at Old Tom’s Beer, Wine & Provisions in Manteo, where Thirsty Thursdays top a night of live tunes and great beers with a free pint glass. 5-9pm. Tap into Facebook for the latest. • Got chops? Grab your axe and swing back to Colington for the Harbor Grill’s Open Mic with Scott Nickens the first Sun. of every month. Find ’em on Facebook. • Then go swing the microphone (metaphorically speaking) at the Wanchese Tiki Bar, where Open Mic wails every Tues. at 5:30pm. Or kick up your heels with fellow humans at Thurs. Line Dancing, 7pm. Or just rock along to top local bands every Wed., Fri. & Sat. at 7pm. And mark your calendar now for a kick-ass Labor Day Concert with the Eric Dunlow Band and Trick Fly Rock over to Facebook for updates, or call 252-473-5344. • And any evening’s a good reason to howl at the moon at Jolly Roger, whether it’s Karaoke Nights at 9pm, or a litany of live music options on TBD dates. See www. jollyrogerobx.com for a complete calendar. • Early risers can burn off any mental haze— and stretch all those muscles — at Dowdy Park’s Yoga on the Lawn every Tues. ’til Oct. 14. 7:30-8:30am. Weather permitting. See Facebook for updates. • Meanwhile, Duck’s Yoga on the Green (Tues.) and Dynamic Flow on the Green (Thurs.) flex in real life and via Facebook livestream at 7:30am through Sept. 23. More at www.ducknc.gov. • Wanna keep your first-thing fitness streak going? Strike poses with Whalehead’s Yoga in the Park every Thurs. at 7:30am, June 5-Sept. 4. Get enlightened at www.visitcurrituck.com. • Then join Outer Banks Health at Kitty Hawk’s Byrd Street for Namaste at the Beach on June 5 & 19 at 7:30am. Not a morning person? Try June 12’s 5:30pm class. Questions? Call 252-449-4529. • Down with dogs? Trot over to
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KDH’s Mary’s Paws Park Celebration, June 6, where you and your pooch can sniff out care tips, giveaways, products, and treats. Proceeds and donations feed local animal shelters. 1-4pm. Find deets on Facebook • Less yapping — more flapping! From June 6-7, the skies over Jockey’s Ridge will ripple with color as the 43rd Annual Rogallo Kite Festival celebrates the flexible wing in every form, from stunt kites to flying 50-foot sea creatures. 10am-4pm. Float over to www.kittyhawk.com for more. • And Downtown Manteo gets flooded with art, food and friends when First Friday returns June 6. From 6-8pm, cruise the sidewalks to hear live tunes by The Story Weavers, Jaidee Elliot, and Mama’s Black Sheep, while popping in shops to see what’s shaking. (Might we suggest Downtown Books’ meet-the-author event with John Railey?) Then join Dare Arts’ opening receptions for two fresh exhibits: original paintings by Wilson, NC artist Delayna Robbins, a mix of photography by Francesca Marie, and paintings by Olha Fidyk. Both stay on display through June 28. Get the full scoop at www.darearts.org. • Then the community spirit keeps flowing, June 7-8, via Dare Days! Starts Sat., when downtown bustles with local vendors, food, music, and festivities. Plus one-of-a-kind events, like Downtown Books’ Authorpalooza, where fans can meet local literary legends like Angel Khoury, Robin Daniels Holt, Kathleen Brehoney, Judith Fearing, John Railey, and Levern Parke. (11am-6pm.) Come Sun., head to Cartwright Park on Sir Walter Raleigh Street for a gospel concert and some old-fashioned lemonade with local churches. Find times and details at www.manteonc.gov. • Or revel in a fantasy island of festive music, first-rate storytelling, and fine artisan booths, when the Ocrafolk Festival returns June 6-8. Tix start at $25. Learn more at www.ocracokealive.org. • Making a day trip south on June 7? Stop by Salvo’s Ramp 23 and snag some trash as part of the NC Beach Buggy Association Beach Clean-Up. 9am-12pm. Email Tom.Brueckner@ncbba.org with
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questions. • Then enjoy two special out-and-proud performances for Pride Month! On June 10, head to Hi-Vibe Holistics Listening Room for Dare Arts’ Pride Project Open Mic Night, where LGBTQ+ community members and their allies will share songs, poetry, readings, theater, and comedy. 7pm. (Ages 18+. Sign up to participate at www.darearts.org.) Then, on June 14, Theatre of Dare will present The Laramie Project. This powerful true story of a gay man in Wyoming who was brutally beaten “explores the depths to which humanity can sink and the heights of compassion of which we are capable.” 7pm. Appropriate for ages 13 and up. Buy tix at www. theatreofdareobx.com. • Wanna see a wild pony without galloping up to Carova? On June 10, Meet a Banker Horse at Duck Town Park, where the Corolla Wild Horse Fund shows off a gentled mustang and shares details about how to keep these special creatures safe and thriving. 10am-12pm. (PS: Come back and do it again on Aug. 19.) Can’t hold your horses? Drive out to Grandy’s Betsy Dowdy Equine Center any Wed. through Aug. 27 for Mustang Mornings at the Farm, where you can meet more rescue success stories, ask the staff questions, and enjoy a free screening of The Secret of Corolla. 10am-2pm. Suggested donation of $10 per vehicle at the gate. More at www.corollawildhorses.com • On June 11, herd the kiddos to Outer Banks Pier Nags Head Pier Avalon Pier Jennette’s Pier, as the Fritz Boyden
Memorial Youth Fishing Tournament introduces anglers aged 4-to-16 to the joys of catch-and-release competitions. (Sign-ups at 7am.) Come noontime, everyone dashes to Jennette’s Pier for an awards ceremony from 12-2pm. Find Nags Head Surf Fishing Club on Facebook for updates. • And jogging’s “off the hook” all summer in Nags Head. Starts every other Thurs. when the 2025 Outer Banks Sunrise 5k /1 Mile Beach Race Series hops between Jennette’s Pier (June 12, July 10, & Aug. 7) and the Epstein Street Beach Access (June 26, July 24 & Aug. 21). Or, stick to the west side with the Village Realty 5K/1 Mile Road Race Series, June 19, July 17 & Aug. 14. 8am starts. Walk-up registration at 7am. Get pricing and more at www.obxrunning.com • Then shop ’til you drop every Thurs., June 12-Aug. 21, at Dowdy Park’s Summer Farmer’s Market! From 9am-1pm, you’ll find everything from candles and crafts to pottery and produce. (Be sure to stop by the Outer Banks Health tent for recipes and samples that encourage folks to Eat the Rainbow.) And come back for a full spectrum of weekly events, including: Fitness Fridays (June 13Aug. 22; 7:30-8:15am); Wed.’s Summer Concert Series (June 18-Sept. 3; 6:30-8pm); and Tues.’s Family Fun, a mix of performers and variety shows (June 24-Aug. 19; 10-11:30am.) Then it’s Fido’s turn to shmooze and sniff butts when Nags Head Dog Park hosts Yappy Hour every Wed., June 25-Aug. 6. 10-11am. Get weather updates and more on Facebook Music
Wild for horses? Meet a Banker Pony at Duck Town Green on June 10 & Aug. 19. Photo: Marley Pillow
hounds will love Town of Duck’s Concerts on the Green, where local and regional bands rock the stage for free every Thurs., June 12-Sept. 11. (6:30-8pm). Plus, the new Duck Unplugged series brings stripped down acts to the Duck Amphitheater select Tues. eves at 6pm, including Kim Kalman (June 24), MaryAnn Toboz & Bruce (July 29) and Haze & Dacey (Aug. 26). And no two acts are the same when Variety Shows play Duck Amphitheater at 10am on select dates, including: RePercussion (June 17); Ivan Pecel: Making Juggling Tolerable (July 8); Jef Lambdin’s Holiday Shenanigans (July 23); Wacky Chadd (July 29), and Soap Bubble Circus (Aug. 12). All events are free and open to the public. Find more info — and even more weekly events — at www.ducknc.gov • Wanna let the kids run a little wild — while learning about the natural world? Try Elizabethan Gardens’ Camp Discovery, where four weekly outings mix age-appropriate activities with lessons on local ecosystems and plant and animal species: Ages 4-7 (June 1620 & July 7-11; 9am-1pm); Ages 8-12 (June 23-27 & July 14-18; 9am-3:30pm). Registration includes a t-shirt, snacks, bottled water. BYOBL (Bring your own bag lunch.) Plus, Butterfly Releases will lift-off every Wed. & Fri. through Aug. at 10am & 2pm. Get details and ticket info at www.elizabethangardens.org • Or take the little braves to Frisco Native American Museum & Natural History Center, where summer programs happen every day at 11am & 2pm, starting June 17, including: Native Games (Fri.), Scavenger Hunts (Sat.), and Native Videos (Sun.). Plus, Tues. & Thurs. feature a range of speakers and demonstrations regarding indigenous life and local history. Free with admission. Hours, pricing and updates at www.nativamericanmuseum.org • Get blissfully lost in breathtaking beauty when Corolla’s Under the Oaks Art Festival returns June 17-18. From 10am-5pm, wander freely along Whalehead’s front lawn, enjoying a mesmerizing selection of photos and paintings, woodwork and pottery — plus lots of dazzling food, drink and tunes. More at www. visitcurrituck.com. • Be sure to schedule a stopover at KDH’s Aviation Park any ol’ Tues., June 17-Aug. 12, where First Flight Farmers Market’s itinerary includes inventive products and tasty vittles from local vendors. 9am-1pm. Follow their Facebook page for details. • From June 18-Aug. 20, spend any Wed. cruising Nags Head’s Soundside Summer Market Series, where shoppers can go ga-ga over 60 booths worth of one-of-a-kind Outer Banks creations — from arts to crafts to food to photography — and kids can go bonkers over games and activities. 9am-1pm. Peep Facebook for weather and vendor updates. • All eyes are on vintage spuds at Island Farm’s Tater Day, June 18, where folks can help historic interpreters dig potatoes from the Farm’s gardens, then run to the cookhouse and enjoy kettle-fried chips. 9am-3pm. $11. (Free for ages 3 and under). More at www.obcinc.org • Which do you love more: the history and science behind man’s first powered flight — or the mindblowing sensation of saving $10? Either way, Wright Brothers National Memorial has you covered, June 19, as the National Park Service waives admission fees in honor of Juneteenth National Independence Day. Learn more at www.nps.gov. • Then, for a truer sense of the word “freedom,” head straight to the Pea Island Cookhouse Museum on June 19 for the Pea Island Preservation Society, Inc.’s 5th Annual Juneteenth Celebration, where professional opera singer and Manteo native, Tshombe Selby, performs a free outdoor concert to commemorate the emancipation of our nation’s enslaved peoples, and remember all those who sought safety at Roanoke Island’s Freedmen’s Colony during the Civil War. 6pm. Visit www. peaislandpreservationsociety. com for the full story. • Then on
June 20, watersports are not-so-serious business at Meeting brings in various sales reps from your favorite surf and skim brands for yard games and special deals — then makes hitting the water your number one job. 10-4pm. Get a full daily resume at www.kittyhawk.com.
Run Hatteras Summer 5k Race Series or stroll — and refreshments and a light breakfast wait at the finish line. Starts every Fri., June 20-Aug. 8. 8am start; walk-up registration from 7-7:45am. Sign-up early at com.
• On June 20, get an earful of Appalachian instrumentation and rich storytelling when the Live From OBX folk song craftsman, Island Festival Park livefromobx.com
Surfrider Foundation’s but they’re reinvigorated and ready to protect our precious coastline from potential threats. On June 21, celebrate International Surfing Day longtime members, as they gear up to tackle major issues from big oil to microplastics. Follow @surfrider_obx for locations and times. go back into Theatre of Dare
Broadway production tells the legendary story of all that went wrong behind the making of Jaws — from faulty mechanics to on-set friction — perfectly timed with the movie’s 50th anniversary. Plays every Wed., June 25-Aug. 6. 7:30pm. Buy tix — and get gory details on Children’s Theatre Camps
25-Aug. 14, First Flight Adventure Park’s Night Climbs Thurs., by combining breathtaking sunsets and views with 50 blood-rushing obstacles and 14 ziplines. 6:30-9pm. Make rezzos at country music? Live From OBX Island Festival Park with Travis Tritt 28). Both shows start at 6:30pm. For tix and deets go to www.livefromobx.com. 29, enjoy free, family-friendly jams — and help raise funds for local charities — when Grateful Friends play Grace Lutheran Church donated will help WaterLife Pregnancy Care Center
From June 29-July 29, Glenn Eure’s Ghost Fleet Gallery with a retrospective of her watercolors and mixed media. Want to know more about this NC artist’s powerful work? Come meet the family at the opening day reception from 2-4 pm. Call 252-441-6584 for more. the Outer Banks Brewing Station Beer Mile, where joggers pound pavement — and plenty of beers — all while dressed in patriotic attire. 11am. Registration starts at 10am. More deets at www.obxrunning.com. storm south to the Ocracoke Independence Day Celebration fireworks (July 2), the Ocracoke Preservation Society Fish Fry Fundraiser Fashioned Ocracoke Square Dance and the 44th Annual Sandcastle Contest www.visitocracokenc.com. • with Outer Banks Health’s Namaste at the Beach 7:30am (weather permitting). All skill levels welcome. Questions? Call 252-449-4529. Little lazybones driving you crazy? Take ’em to range of outdoor activities will run them wild every Fri., from July 4-Aug. 1. 10-11am. Find deets on Facebook. • Think “these colors don’t run?” You clearly ain’t done the July 4 footrace circuit. Start by donning your star-spangled 5K/1-Mile & Little Sparkler Fun Run (Register on-site from 6:15-7:15am, or sign up early at www.obxrunning.com.) Then bolt straight to the 2025 Killer Dunes 2-Miler landmark to support Friends of Jockey’s Ridge race south to Kinnakeet Shores’ Four for the 4th Four-Mile Run Hatteras Island Meals, OBX Buddies
Discover the history and beauty of The Gardens. Colorful blooms, legendary Oaks, and beautiful soundfront views!
(7:30am start; same day registration at 6:45am. Or sign-up early at www.barrierislandgroup. com.)
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• Or just sit back and watch local legends strut down Scarborough Lane (and then some), when the Town of Duck 4th of July Parade and Community Celebration sends community leaders and crazy characters on a 1-mile promenade at 9am, followed by an afterparty of patriotic pomp-and-circumstance. Route and details at www.ducknc.gov
• Step back in time on Roanoke Island, where Independence Day at Island Farm invites families to bring a picnic lunch and celebrate our nation’s birthday with 19th century activities like musket-fire, traditional games, and a reading of the Declaration of Independence. 9am-3pm. $11. (Free for ages 3 and under. Visit www.obcinc.org or call 252-473-6500.) • Then pop over to Town of Manteo’s Fourth of July Celebration, where the live music and family-friendly festivities start flaring up George Washington Creef Park at 3pm — and finish at dusk with some dazzling fireworks. More at www.manteonc.gov • Or, make your way to Historic Corolla Park’s Independence Day Celebration, where a melting pot of creative expression (live music), culinary liberty (lotsa food trucks), and good ol’ fashioned capitalism (did someone say, “vendors”?) make for a most American party from 5-9pm — and the fireworks start flying around dusk. Free. Get parking suggestions and more at www.visitcurrituck.com. • Or stick with the basics of “beaches and booms,” as eye-popping pyrotechnics shoot fiery trails off Avon Pier, Nags Head Pier and Avalon Pier after dark. (See town sites for deets and parking tips.) • On July 6, it’s time for a “sea to shining sea” spitshine, as Outer Banks
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Surfrider and Kitty Hawk Kites, team up for Beach Clean-Ups on both sides of the sandbar. At press time, plans were to do the ocean side in the morning at TBD access, then meet up at Jockey’s Ridge State Park Sound Access in the evening. Follow @obx_ surfrider for updates. • July 6 is your chance to shake hands with history — sort of — as Manteo’s Lost Colony Cast Meet & Greet sees Phil Watson rocking the Magnolia Pavilion for Queen Elizabeth and company, while Old Tom’s Beer, Wine & Provisions keeps the food and drink flowing (for purchase, of course). 7-9:30pm. Let @oldtomsbeerwine keep you tuned in. • Then watch a modern singer-songwriter make sweet music when national recording artist and parttime Colington resident Kyle Davis plays The Tap Shack, July 7. Learn more and hear tracks from his latest release, Jericho, at www. kylewdavismusic.com. • Just want a “Cold Beverage?” Maybe some “Milk and Cereal”? Bust ass to the Outer Banks Brewing Station, where legendary Philly blues-and-beats man G. Love & Special Sauce will hype the late-night crowd on July 7. Tix and deets at www.obbrewing.com
• Come July 8, Live From OBX serves a triple shot of progressive bluegrass and cosmic country, when Railroad Earth, Daniel
Donato’s Cosmic Country, and Yonder Mountain String Band light up the stage at Roanoke Island Festival Park. 6pm. More at www.livefromobx.com. • On July 11, giddyap to Dowdy Park to Meet a Banker Horse with the Corolla Wild Horse Fund from 10am12pm. Then loop back and do it again on July 28. More at www.corollawildhorses.com
• What happens when two community celebrations collide? Second Friday! That’s right, it
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Featuring the Surf & Sounds STRING QUARTET: Thursday, August 21, 7:00 pm Cape Hatteras Secondary School, Buxton Friday, August 22, 7:00 pm Pioneer Theater or Dare Arts, Manteo
Crack a “Cold Beverage” with G. Love at the Outer Banks Brewing Station, July 7.
looks like our nation’s birthday is bumping Downtown Manteo’s favorite street party to July 11 this year. But don’t worry. From 6-8pm, you still get the same fun combo of later shopping and live bands about town — including The Rea Family Band, Bri Young, and the Kill Devil Kats. And there’s still a 6-8pm opening reception for two fresh Dare Arts exhibits: woodwork and ceramics by Buddy Terrell and oil paintings by KDH’s Iryna Welch. (Both stay on display July 4-26; more at www.darearts.org.) Plus meet local author Greg Smrdel inside Downtown Books at 6pm. • Or toast many years of tasty beers with back-to-back Swells’a Brewing Anniversary Parties: starts July 13 at the Duck Dive Bar with your musical master emcees The Yacht Dogs; come July 14, KDH’s flagship locale will rage on with Dalchord and special guests. Find more tasty deets by following @swellsa_brewing and @ swellsa_duck_dive. • Then cheer on a wave of feelgood surf events — and full-on battles — at Jennette’s Pier. Starts July 16-17, when our local town’s ocean rescue teams face squads from SNC to FL in sand challenges and swim events as part of the South Atlantic Lifesaving Association Regional Lifeguard Championships. (Find deets www.salausla. org ). And everyone’s a winner when Surfing for Autism introduces kids on the spectrum and their families to the ocean’s healing powers, July 19. (More at www. surfingforautism.org.) And from July 25-27, heaving shorebreak hurls humans sky-high with the return of our nation’s biggest skimboard competition, the OBX Skim Jam. Hit www. skim-usa.com for updates. • Don’t look down! On July 18-19, Kitty Hawk Kites’ Wright Kite Festival will festoon the Wright Brothers National Memorial skyline with floating 50-foot fabric creatures, plus free stunt and power kite flying lessons — and kite-making stations for kids. Free to participate; but the park charges $10 for ages 16+. 10am-4pm. Flutter over to www.kittyhawk.com for more. • What happens when jaw-dropping guitar acrobatics and high-flying vocals converge? Find out at the Tap Shack, July 18 & 19, when
Keller Williams’ Duck Down returns for two nights: Grateful Gospel with Gibb Droll on Fri., and a Sat. solo show. Both at 6:30pm. Get deets and tix at www.kellerwilliams.net. • Then enjoy two genre-busting country concerts, back-to-back, courtesy of Live from OBX, when Whiskey Myers plays Roanoke Island Festival Park on July 22 (with special guests Josh Meloy and The Droptines), followed by Aaron Lewis & The Stateliners on July 23. Both start at 6:30pm. Score tix and more at www.livefromobx.com. • Summer holidays take on a whole new meaning at Town of Duck’s Christmas in July. Starts July 22, when kids meet Sprinkles the Elf in the Duck Amphitheater at 10am; then, the whole fam can watch Will Ferrell flip-out when Elf is the week’s Movie on the Green at 8:30pmish. Then, on July 23, see how fun a silent morning can be when Jeff the Mime shares Holiday Shenanigans. 10am. Sleigh over to www.ducknc.gov for updates. • On July 26, summer sailing traditions take over Manteo when the Annual OneDesign Regatta sends youth and adult captains racing around Shallowbag Bay while fans and family can cheer from the shoreline. See www.manteonc.gov for more. • And Downtown Manteo keeps billowing with smiling faces and flowing music for Aug. 1’s First Friday. From 6-8pm, enjoy later shopping and live tunes by Connected, Jackie Burns, and the Morgan Creek Bluegrass Band. And pop into Dare Arts, where opening receptions celebrate two new exhibits: Rebecca Watkins’ Tight Lines pays tribute to our fishing culture; and The Outer Edge, a new video series where locals share their passion for home via coastal pursuits, from photography to boat building. Both stay live through Aug. 30. Deets at www.darearts.org. • Wanna know which top talents will be part of Duck Town Hall’s Local Artists Small Group Show? Pop in any weekday between 9am-4:30pm, from Aug. 1-Oct. 23. (Holidays excluded). But if you want to meet the artists in-person, you gotta go to Aug. 6’s Opening Reception, 5-7 pm. More at www.townofduck.com. • On Aug. 1, head to Kitty Hawk Kites in Nags Head for the
summer’s sweetest (and messiest) event — the 19th Annual Outer Banks Watermelon Festival — where painting faces and spitting seeds supports the Outer Banks Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Coalition’s mission to keep humans from splattering. 10am-4pm. Pricing and schedule at www.kittyhawk.com. • Or enjoy a fantasy island of never-ending fruit, when Aug. 1-2’s Ocracoke Fig Festival serves up figs in all their f’n forms, from cakes to preserves, plus crafts, live bands, and more. Too sweet? Come back Aug. 30, when Ocracoke Seafood Festival serves up bushels of salty critters and sizzling music to feed the Ocracoke Health Center’s coffers. More at www.ocracokenc.com • And the Outer Banks Brewing Station is an endless buffet of musical flavors and textures in Aug., from the saucy boogies of Funkamongus (Aug. 2), to the spicy punk-reggae of Bumpin’ Uglies with Kashed Out (Aug. 13), to the yacht-rock smoothness of Thurston Howell (Aug. 30). Set sail for www.obbrewing.com for a full itinerary. • On Aug. 3, work up a sweat — then hop down a slide — when the H2OBX Dash & Splash sends runners on a 2-mile race around the water park and its attractions — and entry fee includes a free 1-day pass. 8am. Register now at www. obxrunning.com. • On a tight budget? Love wide open spaces? On Aug. 4, Wright Brothers National Memorial waives the entry fee in honor of Great American Outdoors Act Signing Day — then save another ten bucks when they do it again for Aug. 19’s National Aviation Day. Learn more at www.nps.gov. (PS: The First Flight Society also hosts an annual National Aviation Day Celebration at Dare County Regional Airport every Aug. 19. Get the full scoop at www.darenc.gov.)
• On Aug. 6, treat yourself to a DIY beer or wine flight — while seeing local creators soar to new heights — when the Corolla Cork & Craft brings curated local craft artisans to the breathtaking setting of Historic Corolla Park, and sells local vino and suds to anyone 21+. 12-8pm. See www.visitcurrituck.com for specifics. • On Aug. 7, savor the soulful, potent sounds of Alabama’s Muscadine Bloodline, when Live from OBX serves ’em up at Roanoke Island Festival Park. 6:30pm. More at www. livefromobx.com.
• From Aug. 7-Sept. 12 Glenn Eure’s Ghost Fleet Gallery shows real “Empathy,” when Mary Ellen Riddle displays a diverse collection of symbolic paintings that share the struggles of “people who have been targeted due to their beliefs or have suffered from afflictions or conditions beyond their control.” Artist reception TBD. Got questions? Call 252-441-6584. • Looking for classic oil paintings that celebrate coastal settings and nostalgic experiences? Wanna know what makes the artist’s mind tick? On Aug. 8, meet Jackie Koenig at The Duck Gallery as she unveils her new exhibit, 5:30-7:30pm. Then come back and spend some one-on-one time with her work through Sept. 8. More at www.theduckgallery.com. • Youngsters get hooked on angling, Aug. 9, when the Annual Town of Manteo Kids Fishing Tournament encourages kids ages 4-17 to cast a line off the downtown docks. All you need is a pole and some bait — and a current NC Saltwater
Fishing License if you’re 16 or older. Visit www.manteonc.gov for deets. • Then it’s time for the big girls and boys to battle for huge prizes and bragging rights at Pirates Cove. Starts with Aug. 9-10’s Alice Kelly Memorial Ladies Only Billfish Tournament, where allfemale crews wrestle sea monsters to raise money to fight cancer. Then, from Aug. 11-15, the Pirate’s Cove Billfish Tourney sees top captains hunt more giant specimens — and massive foam checks. Both come with awards parties and nightly fun. Don’t wanna participate, but still wanna party? Check out Aug. 12’s Sailfish Social at the Pavilion from 11am-2pm. Full calendar at www.piratescovebillfishtournament.com. • Save Aug. 11 for the biggest and best locals party of the year, as the 4th Annual Shake Hatteras Music & Arts Festival returns to Rodanthe. Details were hazy at press time, but you can count on killer bands and DJs, tasty food, and top-notch vendors — plus the funnest ragtag crew of cool peeps you can imagine. Keep tabs on @shakehatteras for updates. • From Aug. 14-15, it’s the kids’ turn to celebrate our collective love for shady characters, when the Outer Banks Pirate Festival returns to Kitty Hawk Kites in Nags Head. From 11am-3:30pm, learn about how these coastal marauders made local history, then sign-up your little buccaneers for Scallywag School to see if they have what it takes to join Blackbeard’s crew. Registration and pricing at www.kittyhawk.com. • “Safety first” is the thrust of Aug. 26’s Back To School Tues. at Dowdy Park, where preschooland school-aged kids enjoy hands-on activities covering issues from bike safety to cross walks — plus snacks and goodies from local police and fire depts. 4:30-6:30pm. Get the full scoop on their Facebook page. • But safe surfing is the last thing you’ll find at Jennette’s Pier, Aug. 27-31, as Wave Riding Vehicles’ Outer Banks Pro Presented by Pacifico delivers top World Surfing League athletes for four-days of dizzying heats on land — and killer nightly parties at local watering holes. Find scheduling and live coverage at www.wrvobxpro.com. • Finish the summer with a real “Celebration,” Aug. 30, when the Live from OBX Concert Series brings Grammy-winning funk legends Kool & the Gang to Roanoke Island Festival Park. 6:30pm start. Jungle boogie over to www.livefromobx. com for tix. • On Sept. 3 & 4, two dozen artists create a symphony of creativity, when the OBX Arts & Craft Festival returns to Hilton Garden Inn, and proceeds help ring cash registers for three local charities: N.E.S.T., Beach Food Pantry and Coastal Humane Society. Wed.: 10am-5pm Thurs.: 10am-4pm. Find ’em on Facebook. • And, finally, Dare Arts invites up to 100 painters of every stripe to participate in Sept. 3-5’s “Fresh From the Outer Banks: A Plein Air Event.” This first-ever event challenges artists to set up outdoors between Duck and Hatteras Village, then submit complete works while the paint is still fresh. And everyone’s invited to attend Sept. 5’s opening reception, sponsored by the Don & Catharine Bryan Cultural Series, where judge Fen Rascoe will pick the winners. 6-8pm. Sign up and learn more at www.darearts.org.
Artists are invited to depict a favorite outdoor muse — then paint like the wind over just two days — when Dare Arts hosts “Fresh From the Outer Banks: A Plein Air Event,” Sept. 3-5. Art by Fen Rascoe
