Home Care In Folly Beach, SC

The South Carolina Aquarium continues its ongoing sea turtle rehab and release. (WCIV)

FOLLY BEACH, S.C. (WCIV) — The South Carolina Aquarium continues its ongoing sea turtle rehab and release. On Wednesday the aquarium and its Sea Turtle Care Center brought its number of released turtles to nearly 500.

"For the sea turtle release, for the turtles it means finally being rehabilitated enough to go back to their watery home," said aquarium volunteer and turtle supporter Robin Wagner.

Dozens of supporters made their way to Folly Beach County Park to see five turtles, all of the Kemp's Ridley species, head back home.

"And for the people that work with them, it gives us a sense of honor and pride," said Wagner.

Folks young and old lined the beach with signs supporting the creatures.

The five turtles were all hurt when caught up in fishing equipment and then rehabbed at the aquarium's turtle hospital.

"To be able to rehabilitate five of the most endangered species knowing that we can get them out there and help them become part of the breeding population and keep the species going is so important," explained the Sea Turtle Care Center's manager Melissa Ranly.

Working with the turtles is a sense of inspiration for many.

"Sea turtles [are] how I got involved in conservation at the aquarium back in 2000 when we first opened," said Sherry Fox.

Fox, Ranly, and Wanger are part of a bigger community who care for the creatures.

"It's such a huge collaboration between you know the turtle teams and rescuers who help get these animals to us," Ranly said. "Our team who, our veterinary staff and our turtle team that help rehabilitate them. To the educators who help educate the public about the issues that sea turtles face. It's such a huge community that are involved with sea turtle conservation. And so to be able to see this full circle is always so special to us."

The aquarium says it's cared for 33 turtles this year so far.

FOLLY BEACH, S.C. (WCSC) - As Hurricane Erin continues its path well offshore, beachgoers in the Lowcountry are still feeling the storm’s impact, particularly in the form of dangerous rip currents and elevated surf along the coast.

While officials and meteorologists have warned swimmers to stay out of the water this week due to the high risk, that hasn’t stopped everyone from diving in, especially surfers.

“I came out to surf before work this morning because the waves are just awesome,” one surfer who was enjoying the early-morning swells at Folly Beach and identified herself only as “Casey,” said. “They don’t look too big, and I feel really good about it. There are a lot of people out here.”

Rip currents are narrow, fast-moving channels of water that pull swimmers away from shore, according to NOAA. While not inherently deadly, they can be extremely dangerous, especially for people unfamiliar with local beach conditions.

The surfer acknowledged the risk but said she thinks experienced surfers are often better equipped to handle it.

“I don’t think swimming is a great idea right now,” she said. “Surfing is a little bit different. Most surfers know their limits. Swimmers, especially visitors, might not know how the rips or jetties work here. I think that’s a good idea for people not to swim. I think experienced surfers might be good, but beginner surfers might think twice.”

recommends avoiding the ocean altogether during high rip current risk periods. But, for those who find themselves caught in one, the advice is clear:

The surfer, who regularly surfs at Folly Beach, says the key is understanding how the ocean moves.

“You’re not going to fight against a rip current,” she said. “Let it carry you down the beach. Eventually, you’ll reach a spot between swells and that’s your chance to come back in. But definitely don’t try to swim directly against it.”

The risk of rip currents from Erin is expected to remain high through the end of the week. Lifeguards and first responders are encouraging anyone planning a beach trip to check local flag warnings, surf advisories, and stay within designated swimming areas.

FOLLY BEACH — There’s an old Corky surfboard mounted on the wall in the new Folly Beach Museum, its fault lines and worn spots a testament to the storied surfing history encapsulated in the 200-square-foot room.

The small-yet-mighty museum opened Aug. 9 inside the Folly Beach Library and Community Center at 55 Center St. The renovated space, which used to be a porch, is showcasing the “Edge of America” surfing history exhibit packed with artifacts and memorabilia gathered from residents by the Folly Beach Historical Society.

The Corky surfboard was donated by longtime Folly Beach resident Foster Folsom, who remembers seeing the craftsman of that board, Corky Carroll, working away at the little shop off Folly Beach Road he would pass by on his way home from James Island High School in the early 1960s.

“He was building the surfboards from start to finish,” Folsom said. “He was blowing the foam himself and doing the fiberglass and woodwork and the shaping.”

Carroll, widely considered the first professional surfer in American history, is known for handcrafting a limited number of Corky surfboards in the 1960s, first in California and later in South Carolina. Folsom restored the 60-something-year-old board now on display after a local woman found it under her house.

“Like any living thing, each board has earned its scars,” said Folsom, who restores antique boards as a hobby. “I call them ‘memory boards’ because you can look at them and think about everything that happened while you were riding them.”

To him, Corky was the real beginning of surfing on Folly Beach.

Folsom also happened to cross paths with another significant figure in Folly Beach surfing history when he was 16 years old in 1963.

“The gist of the story is that I was near Smoak’s Float, which had a little stand right there on the Plaza boardwalk,” he said. “There was a fellow waxing a surfboard. I asked him what he was doing, and he said he was going surfing. We grew up being told you couldn’t surf on Folly because the waves weren’t good. But then he took to the ocean, and it was the first time I actually saw someone surf on Folly.”

That fellow was Sarge Bowman, a U.S. airman who is credited as the harbinger of Folly’s surf culture. His picture hangs in the new museum.

A look inside the museum

As you browse, you’ll see an assortment of surf club jackets, a pair of authentic Huarache sandals (referenced in The Beach Boys’ “Surfin’ USA”) and one-of-a-kind hand-sewn surf shorts crafted by a Folly woman known as the "mother of surfing."

There's a homemade wooden skateboard donated by acclaimed SC surfer Glenn Tanner, a circa-1965 Hobie skateboard with clay wheels and an array of surfboard fins from throughout the decades, courtesy of Folsom.

As you move between cases housing antiques and keepsakes, the walls display a timeline of Folly surf shops and a brief history of the ebb and flow of the area’s surf culture.

You’ll learn how the town’s push to limit surfing to the area now known as The Washout in the late 1960s and early 1970s led to a successfully won Civil Rights lawsuit and a surfing ordinance that included ankle leash laws for boards. You’ll also read about the Folly couple who coined and copyrighted the phrase “Edge of America” in the 1980s.

Another interesting story posted in the museum is about South Carolina’s first professional surfer Nancy Polk-Weckhorst, who learned to surf on her grandmother’s ironing board. Plus you can read brief overviews of local surfing organizations including the Warrior Surf Foundation, Surfers Healing and Waves 4 Women.

“There's a lot of people that are not represented here, so we understand that this first exhibit is going to be a seed and out of this is going to come a flowering of things,” said former Folly Beach mayor Richard Beck, who’s a board member of the historical society.

The mini museum also has an interactive kiosk with a sizable storage space that will serve as a catch-all for stories and photos shared by members of the community, Beck said, and the historic society is professionally archiving items using the same software as the Charleston Museum.

Construction for the Folly Beach Museum started in 2024, but the planning began more than a decade ago, with the $200,000 project added to the city’s 2015 comprehensive plan. Admission is free, with limited hours that vary. Check @follybeachhistoricalsociety on Instagram for updated hours.

The plan is to install rotating exhibits that will focus on different aspects of the island’s past. Possible topics include Folly’s role in the Civil War, beach erosion and nourishment, Folly in the 20th century and the area’s music traditions.

Time will tell.

Beach erosion is an issue for many beach communities across the East Coast and a pressing matter on the Isle of Palms. (WCIV)

CHARLESTON COUNTY, S.C. (WCIV) — The Lowcountry is breathing a sigh of relief after Hurricane Erin passed roughly 400 miles off the coast.

However, the region still faces a high risk of rip currents and coastal flooding. Another pressing concern is beach erosion, as high tides have removed significant amounts of sand from protective dunes across the area.

Breach Inlet was one of the many areas impacted. The shoreline sees up to 10-foot drops between where the beach began and where it now begins, showing a dramatic line of where the water came up and pulled the sand back into the water.

On Folly Beach, Nicole Elko, president of Elko Coastal Consulting, explained the situation.

"You can see the surge actually reached just to the bottom of the dunes," Elko said. "And that elevation almost acts like a natural sea wall protecting the community."

Elko noted that while dunes sometimes survive the impact of storm surges and damaging waves, the decision to reinforce them is not taken lightly.

"Sometimes we wait till after hurricane season to address major damage," she said. "The renourishment projects come along every five to seven years."

Maintaining the dunes is a costly endeavor.

"The project was $18 million," Elko said, emphasizing the importance of daily management. "We're essentially managing them every single day, and there's a huge return on investment from beach management."

Wes Wilson, the Charleston District project manager for the Army Corps of Engineers, said, "We would much rather have a hurricane come through and take the sand away than the homes and the businesses."

Wilson works in tandem with the town of Folly to help reinforce the dunes and keep the area safe, monitoring the beaches year-round, watching for the next storm.

"We'll do a pre-storm survey, which will quantify the amount of material that they have on the beach, and then, based on whether there's been significant damage or not, we'll go out there and determine whether we need to add nourishment if there was a lot of sand lost," Wilson said.

Despite the hefty price tag, Elko stressed the value of the dunes.

"We maintain these beaches to have a buffer of protection," she said. "The reason that we maintain our beaches is for tourism, but also for storm protection, and the beaches functioned exactly as we hoped they would during the passage of Hurricane Erin."

Elko expressed confidence in the current hurricane season, stating they feel good about their dunes but will continue to monitor them after each storm.

When you are walking along the beach, you may see some signs saying, “please, keep off dunes.” These dunes are a key to protecting coastal communities from disastrous flooding. (WCIV)

FOLLY BEACH, S.C. (WCIV) — When you are walking along the beach, you may see some signs saying, “please, keep off dunes.” These dunes are a key to protecting coastal communities from disastrous flooding.

Dunes act as a natural buffer against storms and erosion, absorbing wave energy and reducing flooding. As a community, it's important to help keeping these barriers healthy, especially after weather events, to prevent any damages.

The City of Folly Beach is doing just that, working with Elko Coastal Consulting to protect the dunes so they in turn can protect us.

“If a hurricane is approaching Folly, we want all of that wave energy and surge breaking on the sandbar and out on the beach base not up on our infrastructure,” Nicole Elko, the President of Elko Coastal Consulting, explained.

"The dunes are giving us the elevation needed to hold off the hurricane surge, almost like a natural seawall to protect the community," she continued.

After storms, these barriers can be weakened and cause future damage to inland communities, which is why the City of Folly Beach has a proactive plan.

"Over the course of about 2015 to 2018, we had a lot of hurricanes just hitting us back to back in the Lowcountry and that resulted in a lot of dune erosion here on Folly Beach," Elko said.

The city then made it a priority to restore and manage the dunes.

“That prompted the initial Dune Management Plan in 2018," she continued. "We were looking at things like how to increase the elevation for improved storm protection and how to benefit the ecosystem for turtle nesting and other environmental factors.”

Especially with Hurricane Erin offshore of the east coast, that coastal impact stays top of mind. "We are preparing for them out here on the beachfront," Elko said.

“We are expecting about four feet of storm surge on top of our usual high tide this evening and tomorrow evening in particular," she continued. "So, we'll be looking for impacts to the dunes.”

Elko said the dunes are in really good condition, and the community can help keep them that way.

"The community can help by obeying the regulations, staying off the dunes," she said. " It doesn't take much foot traffic to create a little indentation in the dune, and that's where the storm surge will really take hold, and it will get funneled into the community.”

Their plans continue to help the dunes to increase in elevation naturally through improving access, raising walkovers to go over the dunes instead of through them, planting vegetation, and adding sand fencing. "We have a project right now getting ready to start at the Washout to install fencing and vegetation after Hurricane Erin," Elko added.