What do piers mean to Myrtle Beach area? Family, friends and fishing reign in wake of Ian

Leigh Ann Stinson wasn’t going to let anything going to stop her from fishing from her favorite spot. Not the fact that rotator cuff surgery had her right arm in a sling, nor that a hurricane less than a week earlier had claimed a big chunk in the middle of her beloved Cherry Grove Pier.

The only pier open to the public in North Myrtle Beach was one of at least four along the Grand Strand beaches to suffer significant damages from Hurricane Ian’s impact.

“We were watching the cameras (overlooking Cherry Grove Pier) when it happened,” Stinson said of the storm surge splitting the pier in half. “We just all cried.”

That emotional attachment was evident at all the Myrtle Beach area piers in the days following Hurricane Ian — just the latest in a long line of storms that have threatened the integrity of the above-water structures.

To repair or not repair?

Each time, the pier’s owners are left with expensive repairs, sometimes complete rebuilds, that leave them questioning whether it’s worth it, knowing the next devastation could be just around the corner.

“We all know one day our number is going to be up,” admitted Paula Green, whose family has owned The Pier at Garden City for about 30 years. “You just don’t know (what you’ll do) until you’re actually faced with (that decision).”

But for Green and the others, that decision has always leaned toward rebuilding, in part, because of the strong communal bond the piers have helped form among locals and tourists alike.

Edgar Stephens, manager of the Cherry Grove Pier, said he and the Prince family, who owns the pier, were on the phone with contractors within an hour of seeing the waves wash away the middle section. They’re fully committed to rebuilding, he said, with hopes of fully reopening by next May.

Stephens admitted its been emotional knowing customers can’t fish the whole pier — resigned solely to casting lines during high tide — but heartened by the continued support of their community.”

“We’ve been coming here 53 years; this is family,” Stinson said, pausing to try to reel in a whiting one handed, but still smiling as she realized it fell off her hook. “We’re here to support the pier. We take care of each other.”

Tourism draw of Grand Strand piers

A group of nine men seemingly alternate reeling in one fish after another every few minutes at the far end of Pier 14 in Myrtle Beach. They came from different states — South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia — but met at this pier more than 20 years ago and have been meeting back here for one week in September and another in October ever since.

“Nope,” Albert Nunn, of Virginia, responds confidently when asked whether he’d still visit the area if the pier didn’t exist, prompting laughter from his friends. “This is all we do.”

Just about a mile south, J and Sung Pae Song are simply enjoying the view from the Second Avenue Pier as they wait for the tide to rise before casting their lines again. The couple from Atlanta, Georgia specifically visits five or six weekends per year to fish from this pier, usually targeting ribbon fish, they said.

Much further south, The Pier at Garden City is playing host to the Rail family, visiting from Utah, as 8-year-old Miles and 6-year-old Lucy patiently wait for their fishing lines to tighten while their mom covers her youngest with blankets, hoping he’ll take a quick nap.

Green, the Garden City pier owner, said her favorite part of ownership has been seeing all the families come back year after year, with kids growing up, getting married and having kids of their own that they bring to the pier.

“It’s more than a business,” she said. “It’s the community anchor ... part of the beach experience. You go to the beach, walk on the pier, rent a golf cart and get ice cream.”

Troy Crider, manager of the Myrtle Beach State Park, called the pier “the heart” of the park, noting it is one of the most visited locations of any state park in South Carolina.

Pier culture of the Myrtle Beach area

Park Ranger Ann Wilson said fishing piers are memory makers — noting all her most notable wildlife observations came from a pier — but it’s the people that frequent the piers that truly make them special.

The park regularly hosts children’s programming on the pier, and Wilson said the “regulars” are always so helpful in helping to educate the kids about what animals live in the ocean.

“We’re totally dependent on anglers donating what they catch so we can observe,” she said. “We always go out there with a lot of noise, a lot of laughter, bugging them ... and they always help us out.”

Horace Jones, a frequent visitor of Springmaid Pier behind the Hilton DoubleTree hotel, said he and his friends that he met fishing at the pier are always giving fish away, knowing they’ll have plenty of fish for themselves over time.

Jones said he used to primarily fish off the state park pier, but ended up moving to Springmaid when it reopened in 2020 because the park pier was closed for repairs. Springmaid Pier was destroyed by Hurricane Matthew in 2016.

Local piers have a history of damages

The current iteration of the state park pier is the fourth in its history, according to Wilson. The first one was destroyed by Hurricane Hazel in 1954, and the one they rebuilt ended up getting moved so that it was out of the flight path of airplanes approaching the airport, she said. That pier was subsequently destroyed in 1989 by Hurricane Hugo, she said.

Hurricane Hugo, which hit the Horry County coast as a Category 4 storm, completely destroyed almost every pier, according to Sun News archives. Some of the demolished structures, including Tilghman Pier in North Myrtle Beach, were never rebuilt.

Hurricane Matthew then destroyed the Springmaid and Surfside Beach piers, and ownership for both decided to rebuild using concrete in hopes of avoiding a similar fate from the next severe storm.

The Surfside Beach Pier, owned by the town, remains closed and has cost nearly $20 million to rebuild, with much of that money awarded to the town by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Town officials hope to fully reopen the pier by spring 2023.