If you are coming to the beach from May 15th to September 15th, don’t worry about packing the big pop-up tents and canopies. The City of North Myrtle Beach just passed a ban on these devices during the summer months and shoulder season for what they claim is safety reasons. I can see where it could be a problem, but it seems a better solution that requires a 10 foot space between each tent would have been better.
Umbrellas
You can still have an umbrella up to 9 feet in diameter. It may look like Umbrella City out there on the beaches of the Grand Strand this SUMMER!
I wonder if they will copy the city Myrtle Beach and prevent the hotels and resorts from providing umbrellas to their guests. I sure Hope NOT! Check out this post below from their facebook page about the tent rule changes in NMB.
Post on City of NMB Page with additional comments
Why does John have to trash northerners? Does he have any clue at all about the good old southern boys who make these laws about tents? I personally am sick of being persecuted by the south. I built a home down here with my hard earned money and have fought for so many ridiculous codes you would not believe. I made a mistake. Now the south(cherry grove) has my money but not my heart.
I completely agree with the lone comments that agree with the ban. We have been coming for years and each year the idiots with the tents keep hogging up more and more space and basically building small tent colonies. These clowns will often mark their territory in the wee hours of the morning and many times throughout the day(s) the tents wont even be in use. As if that isnt enough, many of these clowns also bring all sorts of games with them and take up even more space.
If you want a beach to yourself where you dont have to have any consideration for the other hundreds of people in your direct vicinity GO AND BUY YOUR OWN PRIVATE BEACH!
I have never seen an umbrella go flying but have seen countless tents go rolling down the coast during storms. In fact when a storm hits I will stand on the balcony and watch them go flying. It’s always comical to see these things all mangled up and in the city’s trash cans after storms.
And finally an umbrella DOES indeed take up less space.
My family and I usually make a couple of trips a year to Myrtle, but because of this ridiculous ban we won’t even stop in Horry county for gas on the way to the other beaches.
Complete idiots are in charge if this was the only solution a group of educated adults could come up with.
Banning tents is a terrible rule. People love coming to the beach, enjoying the ocean, digging in the sand, etc., but as you know it gets hot at NMB. Getting out of the Sun makes a Hugh difference in the temperature. Having a shade to cool off, have a snack and enjoy your family and friends is wonderful. We can swim in a pool at home, this is vacation.
As far as the safety issue, we spent 2 weeks this year and it was a lot worse with the pods of umbrellas than the tents. We couldn’t’ even get to the water at times because of all the extra umbrellas. Instead of one tent, we ourselves used 4 or 5 umbrellas to try to be able to enjoy the beach. This took up more space and was much less efficient.
A designated area for emergency vehicles to enter and leave the beach should be sufficient. This is very personal to me because my husband has been diagnosed with melanoma 5 years ago, due to too much sun exposure. I am not sure safety is the issue. My opinion is NMB is wanting to make more money on umbrella rentals.
Please reconsider this ban, so we can come back to the beautiful SC beaches instead of going to NC.
My family has also been coming to this beach for more than 15 years. We purchased a new tent at Walmart and proceeded to the beach to put it up when a police vehicle approach us letting us know we had to take it down. So my 71 year old mother now has to sit in the sun. This is crazy. Just like the previous person posted, we will be look for another beach for next year.
We were regulars in myrtle and cherry grove. We went in june and set up our 3’x4′ sun tents for our young daughters. The chair sales person( lifeguard ) waited for us to get comfortable and then told us we needed to take them down. Did not know about the law but he was happy to hand us a magnet made by the chair rental place that told us tents were banned. Thought it was pretty ridiculous. We need shade for our kids. We bought a sportbrella for this past week at north myrtle, within minutes I had 2 lifeguards telling me I had to set it up straight as a regular umbrella, really? I said ok, I set it up and used the anchors that hold the umbrella down. 10 minutes later they came back and told me I could not have any strings attached to my umbrella. I asked the to show me where the law said that. They couldn’t but showed me pictures of umbrellas with tethers that had a big red x on them. I laughed. Unless they fix their mistake I will be spending my money in NC. I drove a little further to myrtle because its typically a little cheaper to get a place, but now I will spend a little more to enjoy the beach with my children. Sorry MB YOUR LOSS!
My family has been coming to NMB for 25+ years. We put up a tent for elderly parents, infants, & children to get out of the sun. It is ridiculous to ban these tents yet allow the life guards to put up expensive umbrellas/chairs in a row that prevent anyone from walking through let alone an emergency vehicle. Sounds like a money thing to me. Vacation was paid for this year but rest assured we will be looking at a different beach for next year!
We’ve followed this for awhile – umbrellas take flight and dangerous, popup shelters no more than popup saunas and tents cumbersome however there is a need for shade. We go to the beach for enjoyment so to disagree is crazy, skin cancer is a real issue here in Australia and incidence rates even higher in the US and EU (yes true) according to stats. If tourist destinations want tourist dollar, then keep tourists happy. What we don’t understand is even though CoolCabanas are voted The Worlds Best Beach Shelter and overcome all issues posed at Mytle it seems because they’re “square” thereby providing double the amount of shade of an umbrella they’re “outlawed” at Mytle. Can anyone clarify this? or is it true? in which case you can only summize the ordinance is simply about promoting the local rental company who rent “round umbrellas” at the cost of tourist dollars and skin cancers.
Like any political thriller, all you have to do is follow the money. Politicos don’t lift a finger without financial gain.
I have been visiting North Myrtle Beach since 1978. Our family has older family members are to stay out of the sun when not in the wonderful water. The tent we have used for the past 5 years has been secured with sun bags weights and kept low so that the wind does not take it. We have had no problem. However, when we used umbrellas, we did have them take off on us during high winds. Umbrellas are so much more dangerous with their points. This law is so stupid and I really agree with many of the other comments that it is all about the revenue from umbrella rental.
In this day of money being very tight sometimes most families cannot afford to pay for umbrellas and chairs each day.
I also like the idea of a weekly permit for the tents. Everyone is a win-win this way. They get their money and we can use our tents with proper secure tiedown methods.
Would hope they might reconsider their decision.
I have owned a condo in North Myrtle Beach for 5 years. Each time we are down we get our tent out and set it up each morning so that the large group of us that come can have shade from the hot sun. The enjoyment we get from the beach will be completely changed. My older parents can no longer come down and spend the day. Two small umbrellas will not do the trick. I agree with the other comments that umbrellas are much more dangerous than the tents that can be anchored. I have personally witnessed several umbrellas blowing down the beach into the path of unsuspecting beachgoers. This will become a nightmare. I believe NMB will suffer the loss of tourists and subsequently income as a result of this ridiculous ban. Why not spend your money to enforce the spacing law and requirement for no ropes which are reasonable requirements.
This tent ban is the most absurd one yet. So let’s say that we all start burying a 9” umbrella and a big wind comes and blows this umbrella out of the ground that has a pointy end… so many people are going to get hurt from the ends of these umbrellas… it is much harder for a tent to blow over than an umbrella. When we come to Myrtle we bring the proper set up to secure our tent so that it will not blow away. The banning of tents because they are a safety hazard for emergency vehicles to get through is total bull. I believe that the City is doing this because they earn money from renting the umbrellas and since so many people have begun to bring their own tent not many people have been renting the umbrellas (I saw many empty last year). If the City is trying to make money somewhere why don’t they sell permits for burring tents at $30 a pop and along with that give instructions on how to properly burry them so as not to cause injury. Have the person applying for the permit sign that if the tent is found to not be secure and they are in violation they could receive a fine…. Hello CITY wouldn’t that make you some money there????? No let’s let our vacationers risk cancer by sitting in the sun’s rays along with a really bad sun burn… North Myrtle beach is going to lose many vacationers because of this ban, and in the end you will be losing money!
We are a family of 6 who have a timeshare in North Myrtle Beach.
Instead of a canopy, we will have to put up three umbrellas next to each other, taking up more space than our canopy.
Does that make sense? The long rows of rental umbrellas and chairs also block access to the beach more than canopies. The logical remedy would be to require a certain spacing between them, not an outright ban.
I have been going to Myrtle Beach or North Myrtle Beach for the last 22 years, and this is the stupidest rule I have seen implemented in all that time. How greedy can the city council be to try to force people to rent the chairs and umbrellas from the besch servcies. Just wait to see how many people are injured by umbrellas flipping down the beach. If my reservations were not pre-paid I would cancel and go somewhere else this year. I say everyone vote with their wallet and boycot the beaches until they recind this ridiculous rule. My wife and I plan on retiring to the beach within the next 5-7 years. Guess which beaches are no longer on the list…
I have been going to NMB for 30 years.I have seen many beach umbrellas blowing across the beach and slam into people that are unaware. I have never seen an anchored canopy blow away.It seems to me that if they are so concerned about safety they would want a properly anchored canopy.I’m just wondering who is responsible for injuries from a flying umbrella.hmm sounds like a lawsuit to me.I enjoy setting up my canopy and enjoy spending the entire day on the beach,not to mention all of the money my family and I spend at the local businesses.I will now be considering selling my property and looking for property in North Carolina or Florida.
I am going to agree with everyone else’s comment to this new stupid law that has been put on the books. We come to Cherry Grove every year now for 23 years and spend alot of money at local eateries and shops not to mention the grocery store (IGA) i guess you are not wanting our money anymore so i guess i will stay in my home state of NC from now on and keep my thousands of dollars there.The folks that passed this stupid law i bet are not even locals from the area they i bet moved here from up north, go back up north and pass your laws
How can appropriately spaced tents and canopies be any more obstructive than the “Umbrella and Wooden Sand Chair Parade” the city and the hotels line up on the beach faithfully every morning?! Sometimes the umbrella line is so dense, you can’t even walk to the ocean. It sounds to me like the issue is the city and the hotels are losing out on some summer income because people realized they didn’t have to pay $60 for a few days of shade when they could just buy a more permanent solution.
So what is the big difference between a 9′ round umbrella and a 10′ square canopy?
Umbrellas are hard to anchor and frequently fall over, or worse, blow away. I can envision it now…these 9′ umbrellas falling over, blowing away and injuring people in the process, not to mention angering everyone that is in the path of a loose umbrella.
I used sandbags on my canopy to weigh it down thereby eliminating any ropes staked out. The sandbags hung from each corner and were just barely touching the ground. It was nice not having ropes to trip over. If I needed to move it, just unhook the sandbags and two people could pick up the canopy and move it in a matter of seconds. It never moved even in gusty wind that would topple my prior umbrella.
So if I rig up an umbrella, and attached like 4 sandbags around it the perimeter to anchor it to keep it from flying away (making it safer and less hassle), would that be legal?
That brings us back to my original question? What’s the difference between a 9′ umbrella and a 10′ canopy?
I hate it when they put stupid people in charge…
I’ve been spending a week or two a year in NMB for many years (more than I’d like to admit). I’m personally happy about the ban. The number of canopies over the past several years has exploded. Furthermore, canopy enthusiasts tend to plant them on the beach for the entire week, creating an obstacle course to negotiate every time you want to go down to the water. I’ve also noticed that the canopies breed a certain level of territorial behavior amongst the canopy crowd. I am happy to see them go.
Also, the difference between a 9, umbrella and a 10′ canopy is that the size of the canopy is over 50% larger than size of the umbrella. 100 square feet as opposed to 63 square feet. Add to the canopy issue the fact that many employ guy lines, and you have an even greater “exclusion zone” presented by each canopy. I say “take the canopies to NC”. They will be just one more feature that makes the Outer Banks inconvenient and over-rated.
It’s nice to know that all the idiots are on the city council in N. Myrtle Beach and not up here in NC. I also hope that U enjoy your 63 square feet of blissful shade. I personally am not that enthused about melanoma so I utilize all the shade and sunscreen the law allows. I’m guessing your are one of those people that carry all the rugrats that make all the noise to the beach so I can’t enjoy th esurf fior their crying and hollering. U have a nice day.
Purchased our first condo in Cherry Grove 6 years ago, love the area. Last year we purchased a new home to move to in retirement years. Every year since we have owned a home here NMB has done nothing but pass new rules and regulations. This one is the dumbest one yet. I understand the safety of emergency vehicles needing access to the beach but what about the safety to be out of the sun and still enjoy the beach for children and older folks. I hope the council will reconsider but in the near future I hope the news gets out slow so that I can list and sell my property and move to a beach in NC before the property values drop.
I consider myself a local, born and raised in Florence and NMB, still own a condo there, but live out of state … we only use a tent during SOS, but this law is just about as @#$%& as the “dig a hole – fill a hole” … just curious how or if that was enforced ???? I guess the next thing you will ban is my golf cart !!!!