Surfers also are good Samaritans. I have seen surfers rescue people who are caught in the rip tides near the Cape Hatteras lighthouse, says Ray Gray, a surfer and principal of Cape Hatteras Elementary School. A couple of years ago, another guy and I saved two girls who were drowning near the lighthouse. Despite the increased interest in surfing on the East Coast, it is still more accepted on the West Coast, says Orbach. In North Carolina, the dominant water-related activity is fishing.
Surfers also have to follow more regulations on the East Coast than on the West Coast.
Since piers are publicly owned on the West Coast, surfers aren t restricted from going under piers, says North Carolina Sea Grant researcher Jeff Johnson, an ECU sociologist who has traveled the world to surf. Piers make good surfing spots because of sandbars and better waves, he says. In contrast, most piers on the East Coast are privately owned. In North Carolina, the legislature has given municipalities the right to regulate surfing as long as the rules don t inhibit a citizen s constitutional rights, says Walter Clark, North Carolina Sea Grant and coastal law and policy specialist. The state has jurisdiction and ownership of ocean waters and land under the ocean from the mean high tide to three miles out, says Clark.