About FOWB

Jim Arnold & Rik Beitel met during college at UNCW in the mid 1970's , while working as waiters at the Bridge Tender Restaurant;  Jim, a lifeguard & Rik, a surfer.  40 years later, Jim returned to this area & over dinner they came up with the concept to re-unite the beach crew of that era to relive those grand days before I-40 & iphones.  Since 2018, many friends with similar interests have joined them & grown our community based group into a nonprofit organization that supports the WB Waterman Hall of Fame program,  local watersports, environmental & cultural groups in the entire Cape Fear region.  See the roster of our Community Grants for the complete list of active groups we support.

 We've held an annual fund-raiser benefitting our community since 2018,  even including a challenging, but successful, masked outdoor event during the pandemic. We support our community & its rich, long established watersport history, as well as it's bright & ever evolving future. Through our community support we've been able to contribute to established  programs like the WB Waterman Hall of Fame and also support newer charities like the Jimmy's Bike Drive, Wrightsville Beach Ocean Rescue or even jump starting the digital photo transformation of the Marshall Morgan Project & creating our own Beach-Walker Project. 

WB Waterman Hall of Fame 

Watersports has been the heartbeat & backbone of our island community from the beginning. Before any buildings were on the island, Wrightsville Beach was the watersports playground for the Wilmington area.  When construction began in 1853, the Carolina Yacht Club (CYC) was the 3rd building to be erected as  the 5th oldest yacht club in the United States. The Town of Wrightsville Beach was incorporated  46 years later in 1899. This rich ocean & maritime legacy has continued to flourish as evidenced by the regional, national & world class accomplishments of the members of the WB Waterman Hall of Fame.

Community Grants

We've provided community grants to 17 groups directly having an impact on our area. The groups vary from watersports groups to environmental groups to community assistance groups.  See our Community Grants page to learn more of each group.

Fins Up Festival

In 2024 our annual FOWB event evolved into the Fins Up Festival, a unique watersports & environment celebration  &  tribute to Jimmy Buffett, who turned many of our saltwater experiences into songs that we lived & still love. The entire festival was Free!  We hope you came, had fun, listened to the live music, saw friends & helped us raise money for our community while celebrating our town in its 125th Birthday year!

Beach-Walker Project

Since 2025 we've been closely working with the Town of Wrightsville Beach to launch a program called the Beach-Walker Project.  This is a Mobi-Mat system enabling beach access for disabled beach-goers.  We've launched this pilot program during the  Summer of 2026 just South of Mercer's Pier.  See our specific page on this website for more information on this exciting project & its future development.

FOWB Scholarship Program

Our next project for 2027 is providing scholarships to worthy students, active in our watersport & environmental communities here at UNCW & CFCC.  Watch for this developing program in the near future

Our Monthly Socials

Watch the FoWB schedule for our seasonal socials held with like-minded groups at various local restaurants that have supported our group & community.

We have an incredible staff of people that tirelessly work to promote & protect our area & it's beauty.  From the many photographers, who contribute a vast array of award winning images to the dedicated sportsman sharing every watersport known, to our crew of volunteers & donors that year after year make our annual fund-raising event so very special & better than the prior year.  We thank each of them!! 

In the picture above we honored local waterman, lifeguard, & philanthropist, Kevin Walker, our very first donor.  During our 2019 event Kevin was presented with a diving helmet & we dedicated "Kevin Walker Day" , Nov. 9th, for his longtime contribution to our community.

We've further honored Kevin by naming the Beach-Walker Project after him.  Watch for further updates on this beach access project to launch in the spring of 2026 at Mercer's Pier, which Kevin's company rebuilt in 2001.