BK:
Wilmington is crowded and expensive, but probably not as much so as oahu. Surf can get pretty good in this area too but largely being a surfer here is more about talk and frustration than actually riding waves, hehe. Everyone seems to be wanting to live at the coast these days, surfer or not. We have a major sewage problem in the city now and had several hundred thousand gallons of the raw stuff pumped into our estauries just last year.
I suppose by inner banks you are referring to sound side waters. Whew, up north that is truly the ‘sticks.’ You’re between the pamlico sound and the great dismal swamp and that’s about it. You’re a good distance from surf there too. I can’t imagine too many women who would be happy with that situation.
Further south, interior areas like harker’s island, cedar island, sea level, are also the sticks but really beautiful and peaceful. I’ve heard though that land there is more expensive now and there is a push to build marinas and all that crap (I can’t for the like of me figure out where all these rich people come from). These spots are a ferry ride away from some cool surfing spots and the beginning of the obx. Also, the people there have a crazy accent folks call ‘high tider’ (pronounced hoi toidah). It sound’s like they’re from southwest england (it’s a real dialectal phenomenon). This area is actually where my family is originally from–I have some relatives who are high tiders.
Further south Emerald Isle and Topsail Island are cool areas and get some decent waves out of the south–usually set up well with the southerly hurricane swells and the preceding northerly winds.
If you can afford 100K per year in homeowners association dues, then private figure 8 island may be for you. All kinds of famous people have places out there. I’ve employed guerilla tactics to surf there with decent results.
That brings us back down to wrightville beach then carolina beach–which sort of fall in the wilmington category.
If you really want to live in a cool, quaint town near surf, you might want to check out Beaufort (near atlantic beach) or Manteo (across bridge from nags head on the banks). If I had my druthers, I’d live up there in manteo. My wife would go insane though.
Cool towns not quite so near the surf (but within 1.5 hrs and nearer to sound waters) include Bath, Little Washington, New Bern, Southport.
As far as kiting goes, there is a pretty heavy kiting community up on the outbanks as far as I can tell. There are also a growing number of kiters on wrightsville beach, and my firm actually represents a new kitesurfing shop and school on topsail island to support that community there (contracts/organization stuff–no lawsuits…yet!hehe).
I’ve never seen a dry suit in the water in nc, but hell… if you wanna stay warm… do what you gotta do.
feel free to rock the pm if you have any more questions.