The latest etiquette fight in Ocean City: Saving beach space for hours

The photo seemed harmless.

Beneath the towering high-rises of Condo Row in Ocean City, someone had cordoned off a wide circle of beach with empty folding chairs, unopened umbrellas, and even a few orange Home Depot buckets — all positioned to block the unoccupied sand from trespassers.

For some tourists in the know, however, the image was akin to a crime scene.

The offense in question? Claiming an oversized swath of prime real estate — and then abandoning it.

“The beach is packed and this huge area is unused,” wrote the author of the July 13 Reddit post, who described a predawn setup left untouched at mid-morning “by a bunch of inconsiderate jerks.”

The post blew up, garnering 29,000 upvotes and 3,400 comments. Many other Redditors cheekily suggested snatching the gear and usurping the space.

“I don’t see how people can claim a spot if there’s not even one person there to hold the spot,” one commenter wrote.

“I’m sure the beach doesn’t have dibs rules,” wrote yet another.

But there are rules for dibs here, part of Ocean City’s unwritten beach guidelines that help keep the peace.

Throwing a football is fine, but do it near the dunes. Play music at a volume that doesn’t annoy. Your stuff will be left alone when you run down to the water for a dip. And never walk through someone’s area while they’re in it, unless you’re planning to flirt or start a fight.

Etiquette also dictates that a daybreak arrival to pitch your encampment isn’t the problem — it’s leaving your shantytown untouched past lunchtime, hoarding territory as the beach fills up.

Holly McGrath of Mount Airy said she personally observed the offending encampment that was made infamous on Reddit.

“I was like, ‘When are these people going to show up?’ They took up so much space,” she said. “I think in general people have become increasingly — they don’t have any consideration for other people.”

Butch Arbin, longtime captain of the Ocean City’ Beach Patrol, has noticed this sort of claimant creep is a growing trend, especially for people who want prime space closest to the water.

“What happens is, people don’t get front row,” he said. “By the end of the week, people are coming out there at 4:30 in the morning and putting stuff out there to get front row.”

“You’ll literally see hundreds and hundreds of chairs between 94th Street and the Carousel [hotel] along Condo Row, and everywhere else in Ocean City, too,” he added.

Last summer, a new breach of etiquette emerged: Not only were visitors leaving unattended canopies for hours, they started zip-tying together multiple canopies, four and five at a time, creating a blockade between the dunes and the surf.

Ocean City officials reacted by outlawing canopy encampments before 10:00 a.m. and mandating an arms-length distance between them. A team of six code enforcement officers is empowered to fine repeat offenders up to $5,000. So far, about 1,350 warnings have been given, but no one has been fined, Arbin said.

But there’s no ordinance about marking your space with chairs and umbrellas — that arms race is just a fact of life in a resort town.

By 7:30 a.m. on a Tuesday along Condo Row, the early birds had come and gone: A tidy row of empty chairs and canopies stretched down the beach as far as the eye could see.

Jennifer Davis had nine empty chairs around hers, where she sat with a thick novel in hand at 7:45 a.m. Four of the chairs were child-sized.

“I think it is unfair when people come set their chairs up and leave them until, like, 2:00 in the afternoon,” said Davis, of Bel Air. “But I can assure you, my crew will be out here in about 40 minutes, so this mom is enjoying her quiet read-a-book and then it’ll be a little bit of chaos the rest of the day.”

“I will say,” she added, “each year, the early birds get a little sooner.”

Beth and Tony Sturba of Mount Airy were camped out beside the Golden Sands building with canopies and chairs that Tony had schlepped out early for one important reason: so their young grandchildren could enjoy the water’s edge.

“With little kids, and them going back and forth, it’s just so much more convenient,” Tony said, wiggling his toes in the sand. “I’ll sit out here and pay the price for, like, four hours before everyone comes out, just to get something up close. … It kind of stinks that you have to sit out here with the stuff, but it is what it is.”

Eric Reifinger of Winchester, Virginia, was out early, too, assembling a camping table for his family’s setup. Wearing green sunglasses and a face full of fresh sunblock, he compared sunrise claim-stakers to folks showing up early to a movie theater to snag the best seats.

“You may not have as good of a view if you come out later,” he said, “but you still get to come out to the beach. And it’s hard to say that a day at the beach with a bad view is better than any day at work.”