Big waves, big problems at Mirlo Beach

MIRLO BEACH

With surfboards stacked three and four thick on roof racks, surfers arrived like swarming seabirds feeding on baitfish. The word was out: 6- to 8-foot surf at Mirlo Beach, epic barrels some compared to the "Pipeline: in Hawaii.

In no time, parked vehicles lined the highway, straddling sand and pavement. Surfers, mostly young men, hastily changed into wetsuits on the street, an opened car door or towel serving as a makeshift shield. Suited up, they rushed across the street to the beach, where dozens more were already bobbing in the water.

To some property managers and owners at Mirlo, a subdivision on the north end of Rodanthe, last week's great surf near "S-curves" off N.C. 12 might as well have been dubbed "Surfers Gone Wild."

"There were so many just running crazy through all of our houses," said Brenda Morris, a New York resident who has owned an oceanfront house in Mirlo for 18 years. "There were so many footprints in our yard."

Morris said the most disgusting thing the surfers have done is defecate in the showers - an unwelcome surprise she and her neighbors have experienced numerous times. She said rocks have been thrown in a swimming pool, and surfers have stripped naked and urinated in public, used sand fencing as a clothesline and rearranged furniture on her deck.

This year is worse than ever, she said, because apparently the best swell has moved from S-curves to Mirlo.

"They have this attitude like, 'Hey, I can't help it if your private property is in my way,' " she said.

Jenny Hooper, property manager at Midgett Realty in Rodanthe, said that property owners are getting little help from the sheriff's office.

"We don't have a problem with people surfing," she said. "The problem we have is where they congregate. They take free use of the houses that are there."

Of the 70 lots in Mirlo, 21 are on the oceanfront. Hooper said that when the houses are not booked, surfers routinely come off the beach and use outdoor showers. They help themselves to hot tubs. They block driveways. They park on private roads and in no-parking zones.

"You go up to them and say, 'You're trespassing,' and they say, 'I'm not hurting anything,' " Hooper said. "It's just been a battle."

No-parking signs that warn violators will be towed have been posted on private roads. Other signs say, "You are entering the community of Mirlo Beach, a family-oriented neighborhood. Parking, grounds, roadways and recreational areas are for the use of residents and their guests only."

Dare County Sheriff Rodney Midgett said that no one in a resort area, including his department, wants visitors on private property to be accused of trespassing unless they are identified by the owner or manager as a trespasser.

"Not only is it a foolish thing to do," he said, "the law doesn't give us the authority to do that.

Midgett said his officers and the North Carolina State Highway Patrol issue parking violations on the east side of the state road that has no-parking signs. Property owners have asked the state to put signs on the west side. Midgett said he does not have the staffing to post an officer on the road to write tickets all day long.

The bottom line is that S-curves, also called "S-turns," is one of the most popular surf spots on the Outer Banks and is renowned as some of the best surf on the East Coast, said Randy Hall, an owner of Rodanthe Surf Shop.

And he said he has heard the same complaints since he moved to Rodanthe in 1985.

"Nothing's new," he said. "The only thing that changes is the location of the surf breaks. This is usually the traveling surfer. It's not the local surfers who do that."

But there's virtually no public parking between Pea Island and south of Salvo, except for N.C. 12, he said. The closest public day-use area is in Salvo, miles from Rodanthe.

"The weird thing is that they do all these things to encourage people to come here," Hall said. "And then when they come here, there's no where for them to park their cars and actually get out."

Catherine Kozak, (252) 441-1711, cate.kozak@pilotonline.com