55.9 F
Wrightsville Beach
Monday, March 18, 2024

Wrightsville Beach reviewing new beach access products

Must read

For many, the beach is a paradise. But for those who are confined to a wheelchair or have limited mobility, the beach is a barrier, with its soft, fine sand blocking the path to the crystal blue water of the Atlantic Ocean.

“I’ve lived here 26 years and I’ve never been able to put my feet in the water,” said Mike Purvis, a Landfall resident and disabled veteran with multiple sclerosis who is confined to a motorized wheelchair.

To remedy that, Wrightsville Beach and other area beach communities are starting to look at ways to clear a path for Purvis and others in wheelchairs to reach the ocean. On Monday, Wrightsville Beach hosted a demonstration with four vendors offering new methods to reach the beach, including a hardened matt that can support Purvis’ wheelchair and the latest in wheelchair design.

Like many other beach communities, Wrightsville Beach offers special sand wheelchairs that can be checked out free-of-charge. The town has five of the chairs, which feature large wheels that make it easy to push people to the edge of the water.

Shannon Bordeaux of Rocky Point, N.C. , and son Joren, 6, test a "Water Wheel" brand sand wheelchair Monday on Wrightsville Beach. Staff photo by Terry Lane.
Shannon Bordeaux of Rocky Point, N.C. , and son Joren, 6, test a “Water Wheel” brand sand wheelchair Monday on Wrightsville Beach. Staff photo by Terry Lane.

Wrightsville Beach is looking into the new beach access products after some people have asked more options. The sand wheelchairs are only available at the town’s parks and recreation department and users are responsible for transporting the chair to the beach by themselves. Katie Ryan, the town’s parks and recreation program supervisor, said the town would need to find grant money to fund any new beach accessibility products.

The sand wheelchairs aren’t for everyone. Transferring occupants can be an imposition or in some cases impossible, especially for people like Purvis, an adult who would have to be fully lifted out of his chair.

Instead, two vendors demonstrated special mats that can be laid onto the sand and accommodate wheelchairs like Purvis’. One style included a more durable “deck” of thicker plastic, which Purvis said worked better for his chair.

Purvis has experience with beach access mats, as he’s visited Hilton Head, S.C., which has 12 of the mats installed at beach access points around the island.

“I’ve seen it work. I know it works,” Purvis said of the mats. “It would give an opportunity to experience the beach to a lot of people.”

Shannon Bordeaux of Rocky Point, N.C. was there on Monday to test the beach access products.  Her 6-year-old son Joren is in a wheelchair and they helped test the town’s wheelchair-accessible “Liberty Swings” that were installed in May at the Wrightsville Beach Park playground. While she can move Joren to a beach accessible chair now, she knows that might not be the case when he grows up.

“Right now, I can do it, but when he gets older, the transfers will get more difficult,” Bordeaux said.

Bordeaux said Wrightsville Beach’s Access No. 4 provides better infrastructure to reach the beach than anything available in Surf City, the other beach town her family often visits. In addition to pushing him over the different mats, she also tested some of the beach chairs brought out for the demonstration, pushing him up and down the incline at the Access No. 16 at Salisbury Street by Johnnie Mercer’s Pier.

Representatives of Carolina Beach, Oak Island and the N.C. Division of Coastal Management were also there to see the demonstration. Like Wrightsville Beach, Carolina Beach and Oak Island also offer sand wheelchairs free of charge. There is high demand for the chairs in all three towns, they said.

“They were checked out all summer long and used by all demographics,” said Rebecca Squires of Oak Island Parks and Recreation. “People really appreciated it. We’ve had a terrific response.”

Email [email protected]

- Advertisement -spot_img

More articles

1 COMMENT

- Advertisement -spot_img

Latest articles