The summer of 2019 Garth was at a private reservoir with his family. Out in deeper water the reservoir had floating docks with diving boards on the docks. As his family made their way onto the dock for a bit of sunning Garth swam over to a log that was nearby and gave the log a spin. When he spun the log a piece of bark somehow caught his platinum wedding band and pulled it off his hand. He attempted to dive down to recover the ring but the depth made free diving difficult and the weeds that lined the bottom of the reservoir made such an attempt very dangerous.
Garth never gave up on the idea of someday, some how he would be able to get his ring back even though his family was urging him to get another ring. This winter season those in control of the reservoir lowered the water level well beyond normal. Garth seen this lower level and started searching for a way to recover his ring, that is when he found my profile on TheRingFinders.com and we set up a date to search for his ring.
When Garth and I talked he mentioned that the ring was in what he thought would be chest deep water. The calendar was only in January, there was a sheet of ice on the reservoir and the water temperature was not above 35 degrees. I knew that this search was not going to be comfortable for me physically. I needed my neoprene waders, my water scoop and a good bit of luck. We set a date for me to come and conduct a search on a day that the forecast was looking good for Colorado in January, highs were expected to be in the 40’s. I arrived at Garth’s residence and we set out for the reservoir which was with their private community. I searched for a little over an hour that day but I had to give up do to my arm being numb (a bare arm in 35 degree water isn’t recommended) and the sun had set. So we left an open search agreement for me to come back and search again when the weather cooperated.
A week passed by and weather looked good enough to conduct another search on the weekend which would give me more time to search. I met Garth at the reservoir and this time I had added a pair of neoprene gloves and a 5.3 mil wetsuit to protect my arms from the cold water water. After a couple of hours of searching I received a good signal on my CTX, it it took me several scoops to get the target into my scoop, it was Garth’s wedding band. When I shouted out to him (he was on the shore) that I had a ring in my scoop he sank to a crouching position with his face in his hands. He was a bit taken over with emotion that we had finally found his ring.
Ring recovered January 30, 2021
Great work Jeff!
This reminds me of the “RULE OF 120” – Add the air temperature and he water temperature to ge the combined temperature. If the combined temperature is less than 120, wet or dry suits are recommended.
Glad they left the cold water recovery work to a professional!
Cheers, #SeattleRingHunter