Lost Ring at Swami’s Beach in Encinitas, Ca. Found!

On Monday, a lady named Allison called and asked if I could find her platinum/diamond ring that she lost in the surf at Swami’s beach in Encinitas, Ca. I told her I’d give it my best shot and we arranged to meet that evening. My wife and I took the 1/2 hour drive and arrived about 6:30 to find Allison already there with her daugher in tow. She explained how she took her daughter into the surf the previous afternoon and felt it slip from her finger as they played in the shallow water. The ring was quickly covered and she couldn’t find it. She had a pretty good idea as to location so I started my search in the middle of “ground zero” and worked my way each way of that. After an hour or so of parallel passes from dry sand to 3 feet deep water and nothing to show but one piece of scrap metal, I decided to work a pattern the other way and search parallel to the beach instead. I started in the deepest water I planned on searching and at the end of one pass I got a nice clear signal. As the surf calmed and water cleared between waves, I spotted half a ring jutting out of the sandy bottom and as I reached for it, a wave rolled through and obscured my vision again. I tried grabbing for it several times only to have it slip through my fingers with each wave that passed. After pinpointing it again, I made another grab for it and had it in my hand when a larger wave hit me and gave me a good drenching. I managed to hang on to it this time and was able to look it over to verify it matched the photo of Allison’s ring that she had showed me earlier. Heading back to the beach where the women were waiting, it was hard to keep a straight face as I displayed it on my little finger! Smiles all around as Allison made a phone call to share the good news.