The Outer Banks (OBX) is a 200-mile-long (320 km) string of barrier islands and spits off the coast of North Carolina and south eastern Virginia, on the east coast of the United States.
Life Guards are only posted at designated areas. You can go to place along the national seashore and wildlife refuge in the Outer Banks and walk to the beach from the coastal highway, spend the whole day on the beach and not see another person until you walk back to the road.
The Life Guards ride up and down the beach on 4 wheel ATV’s and 4 wheel drive SUV’s with radios along the developed sections of some of the towns along the Outer Banks like Nags Head. You can sit on the beach for a pretty long time before you see a life guard.
Having a cell phone, knowing the name of the closest road and it’s mile marker is a good idea before going in the water.
Less than 40 miles of the 200+ miles is actually developed. When I started going there 35+ years ago less than 20 miles were sparsely populated.
A fascinating book about the history of the Outer banks is
and
Nine of the original 13 beach houses still stand and are still owned by the original families. One was move off the beach due to beach erosion and turned into the First Colony Inn.
https://www.firstcolonyinn.com/
Thanks for all that info.
I would not advise taking a cell phone into the water.