the OBX Beach Bum

the OBX Beach Bum Oh sure, there are plenty of beach bums on the OBX, but I'm the legendary OBXBeachBum. No kidding.

Roy Edlund is a prolific chronicler of life via photographic wonderment of the Outer Banks under the assumed name “the OBX Beach Bum.”

Sandie and I are going to be at Dowdy Park tomorrow morning for the first market of the season. Hope to see you there. 9...
06/10/2026

Sandie and I are going to be at Dowdy Park tomorrow morning for the first market of the season.

Hope to see you there. 9am -1pm.

A man and his dog on a boat on the sound at sunrise. :)
06/09/2026

A man and his dog on a boat on the sound at sunrise. :)

Sandie and I are going to be at the Wanchese marina tomorrow for Dare Day Dockside!Celebrate the Harbor Lifestyle! Come ...
06/05/2026

Sandie and I are going to be at the Wanchese marina tomorrow for Dare Day Dockside!

Celebrate the Harbor Lifestyle! Come out to celebrate Dare county with lots of local seafood, a kids’ area with rides and games, multiple food trucks, a petting zoo, a fishing clinic for kids, a silent auction, and instruction in how to shuck oysters. There will be short dolphin boat trips and a “meet the fleet” event where guests can get mini-tours of the local charter boats. Come out and enjoy Dare Day by the marina! It will be a great day for everyone

https://maps.app.goo.gl/AS6VrpY2ZVgkBwoD7

Hope to see you there. ❤️

Another photo from back in 2014. These stairs don't exist anymore.The cottage they belonged to got torn down several yea...
06/05/2026

Another photo from back in 2014. These stairs don't exist anymore.

The cottage they belonged to got torn down several years ago, and with it went these stairs.

They were weathered and a little crooked but they had character. You could tell somebody's bare feet had worn those treads smooth over a lot of summers by people who weren't in a hurry.

What stands there now is one of those giant mcmansions, and it came with composite "wood" stairs. Straight, square, code-compliant, and dull as a parking lot.

Oh, they'll get you to the beach, but they won't make you feel anything on the way. And nobody is taking pictures of those stairs.

Anyway, I don't have much of a point here, except that the Outer Banks keeps trading its old crooked soul for something bigger and blander, and most of it happens quietly, one cottage at a time.

Glad I caught these when I did.

Love from here. ❤️

Something from 2014 I found last night on an old hard drive. That was back when I used to take 300 photos to get one or ...
06/04/2026

Something from 2014 I found last night on an old hard drive. That was back when I used to take 300 photos to get one or two usable ones. I was just learning what my camera could do and when it would do it.

I had something less than 1000 followers on this page back then. I got more traffic when I shared my photos on Mark Lemmon's NC Artist page.

I take a lot fewer images to get good ones these days, but what I call good ones now, I didn't know how to take back then.

This spot is long gone and I'm so glad I have a photo of it. I wish I took it from a different angle, but you can't go back in time, well, not yet.

And is this the thing I'd change if I could?

Too many things I'd change before this, I'd probably never get to it.

Love from here.

Most of my best ideas washed up from somewhere else. I just can't tell you from where.Which is another way of saying tha...
06/03/2026

Most of my best ideas washed up from somewhere else. I just can't tell you from where.

Which is another way of saying that being original is the fine art of remembering something you learned but forgetting where you heard it.

Love from here.

The thing about a sunrise is it doesn't need an audience.Show up and it's yours. Sleep in and it happens anyway, just wi...
06/02/2026

The thing about a sunrise is it doesn't need an audience.

Show up and it's yours. Sleep in and it happens anyway, just without you.

The good stuff out here is free and happens whether you show up or not.

Be there.

-Beach Bum Code #37

Love from here.

And just like that May is gone and June takes its place.I've said this a number of times, but I marvel at how time is st...
06/01/2026

And just like that May is gone and June takes its place.

I've said this a number of times, but I marvel at how time is starting to blur.

When I was a kid, it seemed summer would last forever. Now it's over in a breath.

Watching the sanderlings, I start to wonder. Does he know he only has ten years, give or take?

It doesn't stand at the water's edge doing the math, knowing his time is running short.

He doesn't feel the summers getting shorter or notice he's run this same beach a thousand times.

He just runs.

The wave goes out, he follows. The wave comes in, he retreats. There is only this wave.

That is the whole of it, and it is enough.

But me, I'm sitting here keeping count.

Sixty-nine years, and another month just went by like pelicans gliding the dune line in a nor'easter.

And this bird with a tenth of my lifespan lives like it has forever.

And me, I'm the one watching the sand run through the glass.

Maybe the trick was never having more time.

Maybe it was learning to stand in one wave at a time, like there was never going to be another one.

Like I never needed there to be.

Love from here.

A favorite from my abstract sand art collection. Hoping you have multiple reasons to smile. Love from here.
05/31/2026

A favorite from my abstract sand art collection.

Hoping you have multiple reasons to smile.

Love from here.

Whatever's troubling you, bring it to the shoreline and set it next to all that water.Watch it shrink down to its real s...
05/30/2026

Whatever's troubling you, bring it to the shoreline and set it next to all that water.

Watch it shrink down to its real size.

Stand at the edge of something that doesn't end, and see if your troubles are still so large. Or you, for that matter. -Beach Bum Code #72

Address

Kill Devil Hills, NC

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 1pm

Telephone

+12523788844

Website

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