North Myrtle Beach, SC  ·  June 1, 2026

By the Thomas Beach Vacations Editorial Team

Myrtle Beach Moves Closer to Free Beach Wheelchair Program

City Council approved initial funding for a 16-chair accessible beach program — and the Grand Strand is watching to see if Myrtle Beach finally catches up.

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Myrtle Beach City Council gave initial approval in late May to set aside $125,000 in hospitality tax money for a proposed beach wheelchair program. The move marks the most concrete step the city has taken in years toward making its oceanfront accessible to visitors and residents who use mobility equipment — and it brings Myrtle Beach closer to matching what other Grand Strand communities have offered for some time.

The plan calls for four automated lockers — operated through a partnership with RentFun — with four beach wheelchairs at each location, bringing the total fleet to 16 chairs. Proposed locker sites include 15th Avenue South, Second Avenue North, 26th Avenue North, and 53rd Avenue North, all of which have handicap beach access parking and accessible walkovers. Use of the chairs would be free to the public, with a credit card held only as a security deposit.

The initiative follows years of advocacy from the Adaptive Surf Project, a Grand Strand nonprofit that stepped in to fill the gap after Myrtle Beach discontinued its city-run wheelchair program during the COVID-19 pandemic due to staffing shortages. For the past several years, the organization has managed the service on a volunteer basis — a workload that has stretched its resources thin.

How the Program Would Work

The ordinance authorizes the city to use hospitality tax fund balances to purchase the beach wheelchairs, storage lockers, and an automated no-fee rental system — with the stated goal of improving beach access without adding additional staff. The RentFun system uses QR codes built into the lockers and its app, allowing users to reserve a chair, unlock the storage unit, and return the equipment entirely on their own — no city employee needed on-site.

RentFun already manages the city’s kayak rental program at Thunderbolt Park, so the partnership is an extension of an existing relationship. City staff said that if approved, 15th Avenue South would be the first location to have both a beach wheelchair kiosk and an access mat. Council members are still working through finer details — including whether a wheelchair can be checked out for four hours or a full 24-hour period. If permitting moves forward on schedule, city officials estimated the program could be operational within roughly two months of final approval.

The Beach Advisory Committee had also called for the city to explore a delivery option for residents and visitors with extreme mobility limitations — a request that Adaptive Surf Project director Luke Sharp has been particularly vocal about. While the current approved plan centers on self-service kiosks, Sharp has made clear that he sees delivery as the next frontier, not an optional add-on.

The Backstory: Why Myrtle Beach Fell Behind

Myrtle Beach has been the only town from Cherry Grove to Pawleys Island that has not provided beach wheelchairs or accessible mats for those in need. That distinction has not gone unnoticed by advocates, residents, or neighboring municipalities. The Adaptive Surf Project’s CEO has publicly described it as a source of embarrassment for a city of Myrtle Beach’s profile — especially given that smaller communities up and down the Grand Strand have found ways to make it work.

North Myrtle Beach, for its part, has already moved. The city unveiled a new accessible beach access point on May 21, 2025, at 46th Avenue South, where multiple beach wheelchairs are available for borrowing as needed. That access point features accessible ramps and parking and represents the kind of infrastructure that disability advocates have long pushed Myrtle Beach to replicate at scale. Visitors staying in Cherry Grove Beach or Ocean Drive have had accessible options within reach — a point not lost on anyone following this story closely.

The Adaptive Surf Project’s relationship with Myrtle Beach stretches back years. A previous arrangement had the city building storage boxes for beach wheelchairs — but only one box was ever constructed, and after COVID it sat unused. The current push is, in many ways, the second attempt to get a structure in place that actually holds.

Residents Speak: What Access Really Means

The policy debate is one thing. The human reality behind it is another. Market Common resident Myra Boswell, a T4-T5 paraplegic, told the Beach Advisory Committee in May that she specifically relocated to the Grand Strand to have access to the ocean — and that the current situation forces her to borrow a friend’s wheelchair just to visit the beach. She currently drives to Myrtle Beach State Park because it offers more accessible facilities than the city’s public access points.

Boswell’s message to the committee was direct: a view of the ocean from the boardwalk is not enough. She wants to be in the water — and she wants that option to exist without borrowing equipment or driving to a state park. The beach, she told the committee, is healing. Being denied access to it is not a minor inconvenience. It is a loss of something real.

That framing landed. Beach Advisory Committee Chairman Steve Taylor acknowledged that the city had fallen short on this issue while defending Myrtle Beach’s overall accessibility record — noting that among its 143 public beach accesses, 39 feature recently constructed accessible ramps and parking. Progress on the broader infrastructure, he argued, is real. The wheelchair gap is the specific problem the new program is designed to close.

What Comes Next

The budget amendment approved on first reading still requires a second reading before it can be finalized. Once that clears, the city will move into permitting and procurement. City staff has estimated the program could launch within roughly two months of final approval — which, if the timeline holds, could put beach wheelchairs at 15th Avenue South before the peak of the 2026 summer season winds down.

The Adaptive Surf Project has indicated it will remain involved as the program develops, and Sharp has made clear he intends to keep pressing for a delivery component. For disability advocates along the entire Grand Strand — from Crescent Beach to Windy Hill — the momentum in Myrtle Beach represents more than a single program. It represents a long-overdue acknowledgment that the beach belongs to everyone.

Sources: Post and Courier Myrtle Beach; WBTW News13; WMBF News; WPDE ABC15. Reporting reflects publicly available information as of June 1, 2026.