Want to sun your buns? Not in Myrtle Beach. Law tells you to cover up or face ticket

Yahoo

19-06-2025

Myrtle Beach has some strict laws when it comes to its beaches.
Many of the ordinances are an effort to keep the city's 10 miles of beach front safe and family friendly, officials have said previously.
Anyone looking to soak up the sun confronts restrictions against drinking alcohol, sleeping on the beach, and facing a $464 ticket for wearing a thong bathing suit on the beach.
Myrtle Beach has ended up in national news for its laws, which to some could be considered too tough or outdated. However, its law policing how people cover their bodies when they choose to visit the beach goes a step further than its other coastal neighbors.
'I think someone saying we are stricter than other towns is very subjective,' Myrtle Beach spokesperson Meredith Denari wrote in an email. 'You have to have a set of ordinances in place to protect the public, wildlife and the beach itself, especially in cities such as Myrtle Beach that get millions of visitors each year.'
But it appears Myrtle Beach is inconsistent in what ordinances its law enforcement enforces.
Online records by Myrtle Beach Police often show people being cited for carrying glass containers on the beach, damaging sea oats or using lewd or obscene language. But Myrtle Beach's ordinance against beach nudity has been enforced eight times since May 2024.
None of those incidents involved someone wearing revealing swimwear, according to incident reports provided to The Sun News from a Freedom of Information Act request.
Incidents included nude adults apparently engaging in sexual activity and a woman revealing her upper body after drinking too much rum during her 21st birthday.
Denari said that although citations or detainments for the ordinance are uncommon, the ban on thongs is a part of the city's community policing efforts they call 'voluntary compliance.'
'Enforcement doesn't always result in a citation,' Denari wrote. 'Under voluntary compliance, if someone is found wearing a thong on the beach, officers may first ask them to cover up or leave the beach. If they comply, no citation is issued.'
Myrtle Beach Police spokesperson Randolph Angotti said that many incidents regarding beachgoers typically come from calls for service from other community members.
'All of our ordinances and laws are applied fairly, without prejudice or bias, and enforcement is based on officer discretion,' Angotti said in an email. 'When responding, officers assess each situation and determine the most appropriate course of action, whether that's offering education, issuing a citation, or making an arrest, depending on the circumstances and severity.'
Back in 2020, an aerial acrobat and dancer Sam Panda was detained by Myrtle Beach Police for wearing a thong bikini. A video recording of the incident went viral and received national attention.
Panda explained in an hour-long video responding to the national attention that she was detained after being reported by a man who had been recording a video of her and her friend without their consent.
A city ordinance was passed in November 2021 after the controversy and remains years after.
Myrtle Beach is the only beach city in the area, including Ocean Isle Beach and Sunset Beach in North Carolina, that bans thongs.
Myrtle Beach's ordinance states that 'G-strings, T-Backs, 'dental floss' style, and thongs are prohibited in public.'
North Myrtle Beach, Surfside Beach and Horry County beach ordinances specifically prohibit the exposure of the buttocks.
North Myrtle Beach and Horry County have not enforced that ordinance in the last year, according to a Freedom of Information Act request.
The city of Sunset Beach, North Carolina, which is just across the state line from North Myrtle Beach, passed a ban on the exposure of the buttocks, inspired by one of Myrtle Beach's ordinances, Police Chief Ken Klamar said.
In less than a decade, the ordinance was amended, Klamar added.
After complaints from the community about the conversations officers had to have with people in violation of the city's ordinance, the law changed to remove the word 'buttocks' from the ordinance.
'When you have these patrollers out there trying to make a determination, it's awkward; it puts them in a tough situation,' Klamar said. 'It was easier to just say, 'let's just remove that word, leave the other stuff in there.''
Everybody is not the same, Klamar said. Removing the ordinance prevents a beach patroller from any awkwardness when enforcing the code to the 'T.'
Sunset Beach codified two public nudity bans and found that the two contradict each other. A motion to modify its codes will be on the city's public safety agenda for July 14, 2025, Klamar said.
Daytona Beach, Florida, also has a city ordinance banning people from wearing thongs under its public nudity clause.
The Daytona Beach Police Department was not available for comment on the enforcement of its public nudity ordinance.
South Carolina and North Carolina state laws have no bans on any swimwear.
Instead, both states prohibit indecent exposure, which both prohibit revealing one's private parts in a public place.
Neither state's code of laws define the exposure of breasts or buttocks as part of indecent exposure.
A North Carolina Supreme Court opinion went as far as to explicitly state that the exposure of the buttocks does not constitute nudity in a 1998 decision.
'To hold that buttocks are private parts would make criminals of all North Carolinians who appear in public wearing 'thong' or 'g-string' bikinis or other such skimpy attire during our torrid summer months,' the court opinion read. 'Our beaches, lakes, and resort areas are often teeming with such scantily clad vacationers.'