Is it a beach day, and where do I set up?
Fine out — and 26 crossings are ADA-signed
Live: National Weather Service forecast · NOAA CO-OPS tides & water temperature · Beach Patrol's published 10am–5:30pm window · the town's ADA access chart. Refreshed every 5 minutes.
- Right now
72°F · Partly Cloudy · W 7 mph
Sun's down — back up at 6:42 AM. The sand stays open till midnight; the water is unguarded now.
Show me the signed crossings - Water78°
Warm enough to just walk in.
78° on a 55–80° swim scale - Tide
High 10:49am
Next sandbar window 3:31 PM to 6:31 PM.
Then low 5:01pm, high 11pm.
- Beach Patrol
Guards up at 10am
Feet in the sand until the lifeguard is in the stand. No swimming before then.
Guarded season: Memorial Day weekend to the third Sunday after Labor Day.
No guard in sight? Call (410) 289-7556.
- Accessible crossings17 of 26keep a free beach wheelchair
14 have roll-out mats in season; 5are signed with none of the three. Say where you're staying and this names your nearest.
Ten miles of free, guarded Atlantic beach — and a handful of rules that make it work for everyone. Here's the cheat sheet: how the flags and guard hours work, the rules stated plainly (not as a citation list), the surf-beach rotation, bonfires, rip currents, and the town's free beach wheelchairs.
Official rules govern.
This page is a friendly summary, not a legal document — Ocean City's ordinances and Beach Patrol's own guidance always take precedence. Details change seasonally; verify before you go, especially anything safety-related. When in doubt, ask a lifeguard or call Beach Patrol at (410) 289-7556.
Beach Patrol & the flags
Daily 10am–5:30pm, from the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend through the third Sunday after Labor Day. At 5:25pm guards signal everyone out of the water. Don't swim when the Beach Patrol is off duty.
Beach Patrol motto: 'Keep Your Feet in the Sand until the Lifeguard is in the Stand.' Lost child? Go straight to the nearest lifeguard stand — they relay descriptions beach-wide by semaphore.
Source — oceancitymd.gov, verified July 2026
How the flag system works
Guards don't shout down the beach — they signal stand to stand with a two-flag semaphore system. It's how a lost child's description gets relayed the length of the beach in seconds and radioed to the 911 center. Beach Patrol handles roughly 1,000 lost/found cases a season, so the system gets real use.
Lost a kid, or are you the lost kid?Go straight to the nearest lifeguard stand. That's it — that's the whole plan.
Source — oceancitymd.gov, verified July 2026
Beach Patrol HQ
109 Talbot St
Call Beach Patrol · (410) 289-7556Source — oceancitymd.gov, verified July 2026
The rules, plainly
A cheat-sheet, not a citation list — but every rule below still links back to its source.
Dogs
No — dogs are prohibited on the beach and boardwalk May 1 through September 30. October 1–April 30 they're welcome on both, leashed. Year-round option: the Dog Playground at 94th St bayside.
Source — oceancitymd.gov, verified July 2026
Alcohol
No public drinking or open containers on the beach, boardwalk, streets, parking lots, or in vehicles.
Source — oceancitymd.gov, verified July 2026
Tents & canopies
Tents with sides are banned. Open-sided canopies are allowed if: open on all 4 sides, max 15×15 ft, 3 ft from neighbors, set up behind the lifeguard stand, and not left unattended before 10am. Baby tents up to 3×3×3 ft are fine.
Source — oceancitymd.gov, verified July 2026
Hole-digging
No official published depth limit — Beach Patrol guidance is: don't dig deeper than knee-deep on the shortest digger in your group, and always fill holes back in before you leave.
Source — phone verification, verified July 2026 (unverified)
Smoking / vaping
Beach: only in designated smoking areas, within 15 feet of the marked receptacles. Boardwalk: entirely smoke- and vape-free. Applies to cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and e-cigarettes; public cannabis smoking is illegal statewide.
Source — oceancitymd.gov, verified July 2026
Beach hours
Beach is open 5am–midnight. No sleeping on the beach 10pm–6am (overnight mechanical cleaning runs then). Never swim when Beach Patrol is off duty.
Source — oceancitymd.gov, verified August 2026
Surf fishing
Banned on swimming beaches from the Friday of Memorial Day weekend through Sep 30, 10am–5:30pm. Always fish at least 50 yards from swimmers. Maryland fishing license required.
Source — oceancitymd.gov, verified July 2026
Everything else
No vehicles on the beach. No fireworks — handheld sparklers only. Finned bodyboards aren't allowed on swim beaches; soft-tops up to 54 inches are fine.
Source — oceancitymd.gov, verified July 2026
Surf beaches
Two rotating surf-only beaches operate daily in season (they move two blocks south each day — check the town's published schedule), plus a permanent surf beach at the Inlet on non-holiday weekdays. Ankle leash required; no swimming in surf zones.
OC rotates which beaches allow surfing day to day — the 2026 rotation schedule (PDF) has today's spots and their tide windows.
Source — oceancitymd.gov, verified July 2026
Bonfires
Yes, with a (cheap) permit from the Fire Marshal via ocbonfires.com. Key rules: 75 ft from the dunes, natural untreated wood only, max 3 ft high × 4 ft wide, attended at all times, out and cleaned up before midnight. No permits south of 30th St May–September.
Fire Marshal: 301 Baltimore Ave · (410) 289-8780 · permits at ocbonfires.com
Source — ocbonfires.com, verified July 2026
Rip currents
Stay calm and don't fight it. Swim parallel to the shore until you're out of the current, or float and wave/yell for help. Rip currents cause 80%+ of surf rescues — always swim near a lifeguard.
Odds of drowning at a lifeguard-protected beach are about 1 in 18 million (USLA). If you see someone caught: alert a lifeguard or call 911 and throw something that floats — don't go in after them.
Source — oceancitymd.gov, verified July 2026
Sea nettles (jellyfish)
Most summers there are jellyfish in the Ocean City surf, and in a bad year there are a great many of them. They are sea nettles — Chrysaora quinquecirrha — and the sting is unpleasant rather than dangerous.
Vinegar is the wrong thing to put on a sea nettle sting. So is fresh water. Both set off more stinging rather than stopping it.
This is the opposite of the advice for the box jellyfish of Australia and the tropics, where vinegar genuinely helps — which is where most of the folklore comes from. On Chrysaora, acetic acid triggers the stinging cells, and vinegar, ammonia and ethanol all made the pain worse in testing. The Ocean City Beach Patrol says the same thing about this beach.
Source — pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, verified August 2026
The Beach Patrol's advice: get out of the water, pick off any tentacles still on you, and blot the skin dry — once it dries, the stinging stops. Rinse with seawater, and a paste of seawater and baking soda helps most.
Lifeguards on the beach carry sting-relief swabs for the itch and the sting.
Source — wtop.com, verified August 2026
Most stings are redness, a rash, itching. Allergic reactions are rare. Trouble breathing or nausea is the point at which to get medical attention.
Source — wtop.com, verified August 2026
Clothing keeps the tentacles off the skin. A rash guard cuts down what gets through.
Source — wtop.com, verified August 2026
This is not medical advice. There is a lifeguard on the beach, and 911 works.
The jellyfish in the surf at Ocean City is the Atlantic sea nettle, Chrysaora quinquecirrha.
Until 2017 it was thought to be one species up and down the coast. DNA work split it in two: the nettles inside the Chesapeake are their own species, Chrysaora chesapeakei, and are more closely related to jellyfish off Ireland and Namibia than to the ones swimming a few miles away off Ocean City. The bay nettle is about half the size and matures with roughly 24 tentacles against the coastal animal's 40.
Source — umces.edu, verified August 2026
Sea nettles spawn in mid-summer and die after spawning.
Source — chesapeakebay.net, verified August 2026
The larvae drift for a few days, then settle and attach to a firm surface, where they become polyps that bud and grow all winter — and by spring they release the next generation.
The firm surface can be natural or man-made; oyster shell is the one the field guides name.
Source — chesapeakebay.net, verified August 2026
Fewer than one percent of a jellyfish's stinging cells fire on first contact, so a torn-off tentacle is still loaded — and disturbing it sets off more of them, away from where it first touched you.
Which is why breaking one up does not make it fewer.
Source — pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, verified August 2026
August 2026 was a bad one. Around two thousand people were stung in two weeks, and jellyfish accounted for most of more than three thousand first-aid calls to the Beach Patrol in a single week.
The captain put the surge down to how much rain fell in the spring, the amount of wave action, and the temperature of the water, which was running about 77°F — warm for the time of year.
Source — wtop.com, verified August 2026
These are not the jellyfish that make the news. As the Beach Patrol captain puts it, the ones in Ocean City are not the kind you hear about being deadly in Florida and Australia.
Source — wtop.com, verified August 2026
The jellyfish that made science glow is a different animal from a different ocean — the crystal jelly of the Pacific, whose green fluorescent protein turned into a Nobel Prize and a laboratory revolution. It is not the one in this water.
That protein fluoresces: it absorbs blue light and gives back green. It is not the same trick as making your own light.
Source — universityofcalifornia.edu, verified August 2026
Beach wheelchairs (free)
Free, two ways: (1) on-beach chairs at designated streets Inlet–145th — ask any lifeguard or call Beach Patrol (410) 520-5231, complete the QR waiver (driver's license needed), 10:30am–5pm in season; (2) reserve a collapsible chair 1–3 days ahead from the Welcome Center, 4001 Coastal Hwy, (410) 289-2800.
Blue beach-access mats run at many street crossings Memorial Day–Columbus Day.
Source — oceancitymd.gov, verified July 2026
Accessible beach access, point by point
Ocean City has a beach crossing on virtually every block. The 26below are the ones carrying the town's blue ADA sign, south to north — and the three facilities vary independently, so the columns matter. 5 are signed but have none of the three.
| Access point | Beach wheelchair | Boards to beach | Mats to beach |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inlet Lot | beach wheelchair | boards to the beach | no mats to the beach |
| Somerset St. | no beach wheelchair | boards to the beach | no mats to the beach |
| Talbot St. | no beach wheelchair | boards to the beach | no mats to the beach |
| N. Division St. | no beach wheelchair | boards to the beach | no mats to the beach |
| 1st St. | beach wheelchair | boards to the beach | no mats to the beach |
| 7th St. | beach wheelchair | no boards to the beach | no mats to the beach |
| 12th St. | no beach wheelchair | no boards to the beach | no mats to the beach |
| 25th St. | no beach wheelchair | no boards to the beach | no mats to the beach |
| 27th St. | beach wheelchair | no boards to the beach | no mats to the beach |
| 30th St. | beach wheelchair | no boards to the beach | mats to the beach |
| 35th St. | no beach wheelchair | no boards to the beach | no mats to the beach |
| 37th St. | no beach wheelchair | no boards to the beach | no mats to the beach |
| 40th St. | beach wheelchair | no boards to the beach | mats to the beach |
| 48th St. | beach wheelchair | no boards to the beach | mats to the beach |
| 59th St. | beach wheelchair | no boards to the beach | mats to the beach |
| 66th St. | no beach wheelchair | no boards to the beach | mats to the beach |
| 70th St. | beach wheelchair | no boards to the beach | mats to the beach |
| 81st St. | beach wheelchair | no boards to the beach | mats to the beach |
| 89th St. | beach wheelchair | no boards to the beach | mats to the beach |
| 94th St. | beach wheelchair | no boards to the beach | mats to the beach |
| 107th St.Mat is at 109th St., between the Capri and Golden Sands condos. | no beach wheelchair | no boards to the beach | no mats to the beach |
| 109th St.Mat sits between the Capri and Golden Sands condos rather than at the street crossing itself. | beach wheelchair | no boards to the beach | mats to the beach |
| 120th St. | beach wheelchair | no boards to the beach | mats to the beach |
| 130th St. | beach wheelchair | no boards to the beach | mats to the beach |
| 139th St. | beach wheelchair | no boards to the beach | mats to the beach |
| 145th St. | beach wheelchair | no boards to the beach | mats to the beach |
Beach wheelchairs: 17 locations · Mats in season: 14 · Boards to the beach: 5
Source — oceancitymd.gov, verified August 2026
Beach Smart
0/8 answeredEight questions on flags, hours, rip currents, and the rules — answer all of them (right or wrong, no pressure) to earn the Junior Lifeguard badge. No account needed; it saves right here in this browser.
1. How do Ocean City lifeguards communicate with each other up and down the beach?
2. What hours is Ocean City's Beach Patrol on duty in season?
3. You're caught in a rip current. What should you do?
4. Which of these is actually true about holes and shade structures on the beach?
5. When are dogs allowed on the Ocean City beach?
6. What happens at 5:25pm on a guarded Ocean City beach?
7. Can you build a bonfire on the Ocean City beach?
8. How do Ocean City's surf-only beaches work?
Answers
The questions people actually ask about the Ocean City beach. Official rules govern — check before you go.
Which Ocean City beach access points are wheelchair accessible?
26 street-ends between the Inlet and 145th Street carry the town's blue ADA beach-access sign. 17 of them store a free beach wheelchair, 14 have a blue roll-out mat across the sand in season, and 5 have boards to the beach.
5 of the 26 are signed but have none of those three, so check the table on this page for the specific crossing you need rather than assuming any signed street will do. Ocean City has an ordinary beach crossing on virtually every block; this shorter list is the accessible one.
Where can I borrow a free beach wheelchair in Ocean City?
Free, two ways: (1) on-beach chairs at designated streets Inlet–145th — ask any lifeguard or call Beach Patrol (410) 520-5231, complete the QR waiver (driver's license needed), 10:30am–5pm in season; (2) reserve a collapsible chair 1–3 days ahead from the Welcome Center, 4001 Coastal Hwy, (410) 289-2800.
Blue beach-access mats run at many street crossings Memorial Day–Columbus Day.
What are the beach wheelchair hours and rules?
Memorial Day through Labor Day, 10:30 a.m. until 5 p.m., daily, on request, first-come first-served. Call Beach Patrol on 410-520-5231 (10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) or speak to the lifeguard at the stand.
A Day Use Permit & Waiver must be completed on the day of use — scan the QR code on the blue storage box, or wait for a Beach Patrol member. Driver's licence information is required. Usable only on the beach sand between the Inlet and 145th Street, east of the boardwalk or dune, and within one block of the storage box named on your permit. The weight capacity is 300 lb. Return it to the lifeguard stand once you reach your setup so it is free for others, and before 5 p.m. on the day of your permit.
Can I reserve a beach wheelchair in advance?
Yes — the Welcome Center, Ocean City Convention and Visitors Bureau at 4001 Coastal Highway (40th Street, bayside) keeps a limited number that can be reserved 1–3 days ahead on 410-289-2800. Memorial Day through Labor Day, 8:30 a.m. until 3 p.m., weekdays only, closed federal holidays. reservable 1–3 days in advance.
These chairs are collapsible and fit the boot of most cars — you transport it yourself and return it before 3 p.m.
When are the blue beach access mats out?
Memorial Day weekend through Columbus Day weekend, at 14 of the signed access points.
Mats may be removed temporarily for inclement weather or special events, so confirm before relying on one. Confirm on 410-524-4733 (Public Works Construction).
Are dogs allowed on the Ocean City beach?
No — dogs are prohibited on the beach and boardwalk May 1 through September 30. October 1–April 30 they're welcome on both, leashed. Year-round option: the Dog Playground at 94th St bayside.
Town Beach Activities Ordinance Sec. 106-94. Clean-up is required everywhere in town. Official rules govern — check oceancitymd.gov before you go.
What are the Beach Patrol hours?
Daily 10am–5:30pm, from the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend through the third Sunday after Labor Day. At 5:25pm guards signal everyone out of the water. Don't swim when the Beach Patrol is off duty.
Beach Patrol motto: 'Keep Your Feet in the Sand until the Lifeguard is in the Stand.' Lost child? Go straight to the nearest lifeguard stand — they relay descriptions beach-wide by semaphore.
Can I put up a tent or canopy on the beach?
Tents with sides are banned. Open-sided canopies are allowed if: open on all 4 sides, max 15×15 ft, 3 ft from neighbors, set up behind the lifeguard stand, and not left unattended before 10am. Baby tents up to 3×3×3 ft are fine.
Can you smoke on the Ocean City beach?
Beach: only in designated smoking areas, within 15 feet of the marked receptacles. Boardwalk: entirely smoke- and vape-free. Applies to cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and e-cigarettes; public cannabis smoking is illegal statewide.
What do I do if I'm caught in a rip current?
Stay calm and don't fight it. Swim parallel to the shore until you're out of the current, or float and wave/yell for help. Rip currents cause 80%+ of surf rescues — always swim near a lifeguard.
Odds of drowning at a lifeguard-protected beach are about 1 in 18 million (USLA). If you see someone caught: alert a lifeguard or call 911 and throw something that floats — don't go in after them.
Can I have a bonfire on the beach?
Yes, with a (cheap) permit from the Fire Marshal via ocbonfires.com. Key rules: 75 ft from the dunes, natural untreated wood only, max 3 ft high × 4 ft wide, attended at all times, out and cleaned up before midnight. No permits south of 30th St May–September.
Where are the designated surf beaches?
Two rotating surf-only beaches operate daily in season (they move two blocks south each day — check the town's published schedule), plus a permanent surf beach at the Inlet on non-holiday weekdays. Ankle leash required; no swimming in surf zones.