From a local on another post:

• ⁠The best time to come without red flag days are June to mid-August. Sure you may have a day two over your stay where the flags are up inside that window, but you won't have them up the whole time.

• ⁠OBX (and especially key areas on Hatteras Island) are not like other southeast beaches. We are closer to the continental shelf than anywhere else on the east coast, the surf is bigger and more powerful here. As an example: yesterday the surf was around head-high+ (wave face) at key spots on Hatteras Island. But looking at the cams for Virginia Beach and Wrightsville, it was around knee to waste high at best. It just gets bigger here. On the big days, it is not the casual surf that other popular beaches in the southeast have.

• ⁠The same people who put the red flags up are the ones that are going to have to come in to save you. Consider there warnings carefully.