cottesloe beach Tag | The Ring Finders

Quick Response Jags A Lost Gold Wedding Ring, North Cottesloe Beach, Perth, Australia.

  • from Perth (Australia)
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This search began with a call from Chris who’d lost his wedding ring somewhere on the beach or in the water whilst fishing with two friends from North Cottesloe Beach.  One of his friends had seen his wedding ring still on his finger a few hours later but by about 2pm he noticed it was missing. He and his friends had been searching for a while with no success when he spoke to a friend who did a google search for metal detecting services in Western Australia where he found ‘theringfinders’ directory and through the directory my local website www.RingRescues.com.au. Chris called me about 3 pm to ask if I could find his ‘precious’ for him. Thats what I do so as they were still at the location I hopped in the ute and headed off to the rescue..

About an hour later Chris met me in the carpark and led me down to his friends on the beach. I asked Chris to walk me around the various places he’d been fishing from and even established the area he’d walked to to answer a call of nature! From that information I prioritised 3 areas to search first and marked them out with flags. I was anticipating a lot of junk and knowing the approximate weight and composition of the ring I decided for that reason to use my trusty Garrett AT-PRO metal detector which would allow me to leave most targets in situ. After checking them all and not finding Chris’s ring I was now looking at having to fill in a large area of beach between the three areas. I hadnt found as much junk as I thought I might so I switched to my more powerful Whites Surfmaster Detector which I can swing even faster than the PRO allowing me to cover more ground in quicker time and performs much better on the wet sand and in the water if I had to go in! It was also possible the ring had been ‘cast’ into the ocean but I was trying not to think about that. Anyway that possibility was still at the bottom of the list, probability wise.

Chris’s precious..

I began to search away from the area he and his friends had made thier ‘fishing operations base’, the first place I had searched and recovered various junk, a few coins and one of THEIR fishing lures! A few minutes later bingo! I looked up to find that Chris was not looking at me at the time which is unusual as most people are alerted that I’ve found something when my pinpointer starts screaming!

Smiling again!

As I was a fair distance from him he did not realise for a moment and until he did I witnessed the range of facial expressions one goes through as you transition from unsure to realisation to shock and finally joy! Now look at that smile and you may guess how rewarding for me that moment was.

Cheers Chris!

 

 

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The Stuff Of Legends! Gold Wedding Ring Found @ Cottesloe Beach, Perth, Western Australia

  • from Perth (Australia)
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The Stuff of Legends – Cottesloe Beach, April 2, 2018.

Last week, I flew to Perth to visit my brother Sean who I hadn’t seen in ten years.  It was going to be an epic catch up and I was hoping I would get the chance to see him in action on a ring find – a new talent he had developed since we last saw each other.  I was fascinated with the whole process, and eager to share in what I was convinced would be a wicked feel good factor, reuniting someone with their lost ring.

On our last afternoon, we were chilling out at home before heading to the airport, when Sean took a call from a distressed woman who had just lost her wedding band running out of the surf at Cottesloe beach. It had simply slipped off as she ran up the beach, and was flung into the sand –  somewhere… Lucky for her the Cottesloe lifeguards told her she could find Sean’s contact details on The Ring Finders website – a glimmer of hope in an otherwise hopeless situation.

Sean went from woah to go in an instant, and we were on the road bound for Cottesloe – the importance of getting on to a search quickly was not lost on me – so many factors that could impact your chances of ever finding your lost jewellery – the weather, the sea conditions, whether

Sean and Angie discussing the search area.

you can accurately pinpoint an area in which it was lost, and of course the risk of someone else finding it, or worse, the evening  sand sieve machine chewing it up and spitting it into the unknown…

We arrived and met Angie above the beach. She took us down to where she thought she had lost her ring.  In an excellent move that would prove pivotal to the outcome, she and her friends had placed coffee cups in the sand to mark the points between which she thought the ring had been lost. Sean then quizzed Angie on the circumstances surrounding her loss, and clarified details before commencing his search.

Angie, her friends and I watched as Sean methodically covered the area.  His technique was a fascinating ‘shuffle’ that was systematic and almost dance-like.  I was surprised at the speed he was moving, as I thought it would be much slower.  Every minute or so, Sean would pause, hovering his detector back and forth, testing for the right signal and honing in on a target.  Sometimes he would move on, but other times, he would drop to his knees and used a pinpointer that beeped wildly as he felt round the spot.  Our hearts would leap to our throats every time  – and they would sink again as he retrieved a piece of lead, a coin, or some other debris left behind on the beach.

As he approached the second and last coffee cup at the far end of the area Angie had indicated, we began to resign ourselves to the possibility that the ring was lost for good.  Angie had been married 22 years, and this would be devastating – sure a gold band can be replaced, but not the fact that for 22 years it had been on her finger and with her every step.  A new one just wouldn’t be the same.

Angie’s precious… rescued!

about 10 minutes into the search, Sean once again dropped to his knees in the sand as he followed a target. A moment later, he lifted his hand in the air and exclaimed “yeaaaaah – woohoo”. Angie and her friends were so excited, squealing with delight as

Thanks to life gaurds giving Angie my no..

Angie rushed over to Sean and threw her arms around him.  “Oh My God, What a Legend!!!  Thank you so much!!” she exclaimed over and over. 

There it was, the feel good factor.  This is why Sean does this, right there, that moment.

After thanking the lifeguards for connecting them, Sean and Angie took a few pictures before we headed to the pub across the road for a celebratory drink before I departed for the airport on a high.  What a way to round off an awesome week!

 

 

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Third Time Lucky? Lost Wedding Band Found. Perth, Western Australia.

  • from Perth (Australia)
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Bodan had been playing with his son in the water when he lost his wedding band at a remote stretch of beach which required a 4wd to access. As usual with water searches I explained to Bodan the ‘need for speed’ and organised a search the same day despite the conditions looking marginal at best.

Lost Ring GPS mark

Bodan’s GPS mark was a great idea and significantly increased our chances!

I met Bodan at his house where we transfered my equipment including my SCUBA gear into his 4wd and set off  through the sand dunes north of his house. Unfortunately we had no joy as the swell was just a tad big and I was having real trouble keeping my feet on the bottom and with the larger waves I was swimming! The wave zone is one of the hardest areas to detect at any beach as it can be just a bit rough and or deep to work by wading and is too surgy and low visibility let alone dangerous to dive.

Second time lucky? The following day we repeated the exercise but things were against us once again. A comedy of errors ensued and ended the day with my detector becoming waterlogged! Not good, not good at all as I don’t currently have a backup underwater detector and besides I have become rather attached to “Shupriah” my detector as she has found me a small fortune in jewellery over the years and I shuddered to think I may have killed her!

Third time lucky? I must admit the chances of finding a ring lost in the wave zone in deep, soft and constantly moving sand after 6 days are deminishing rapidly. A number of days had passed with rough ocean conditions at the site which was only good for one reason, it would allow me time to try and revive “Shupriah”.

Bodan’s Gold Wedding Band

After completely stripping, washing, drying, drying and more drying, rebuilding and finally testing my “baby” I found that not only did she work but the threshold seemed more stable than ever! Great news and just in time for the much better weather conditions that had arrived. I rang Bodan and told him the good news and organised with him to have one more go at finding his ring.

This time I was able to work the loss area methodically and after 15 mins and a couple of heart starters I suddenly got that rising warmth of recognition upon hearing the soft, full sound of a gold ring come from my headphones and after a couple of attempts with the scoop found what we were looking for, Bodans Gold wedding band glowing in the bottom of my scoop. I simply yelled ” you wont believe it..” Bodan ran into the water and as he neared me I picked the ring up and passed it to him as I said “and bobs your uncle!” Bodan was exstatic and so was I just quietly.

Dylan and Bodan are most happy about the result!

Well not that quietly actually. I started with “and bob’s your uncle” and then given the remote location we yelled and hoorayed for a fair while before packing up and returning to North Mullaloo, mission achieved.

On our way back Bodan confided to me that he had pretty much given up hope of ever seeing his wedding ring again so it was extra special after all the up’s and downs of this search to reunite him with it and to see firsthand what it really meant to him to have it back.

All the best Bodan and cheers..

 

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9hr Search For 10th Century Viking Ring, Lost While Kitesurfing! Perth, Western Australia.

  • from Perth (Australia)
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Standing in of all places ‘The Prospectors Patch’ metal detecting supplies store I was called by Curt to ask if I could find his 10th century viking wedding ring, which he’d become separated from during a kitesurfing whoopsee in the Swan River at Applecross. I organised to meet Curt at the loss site when he’d finished work.

After meeting Curt and hearing the loss story in full detail, I asked him to take a milk bottle float and a weight out and put it where he believed he’d lost his ring. My  initial thoughts were “mmm in our first conversation on the phone you’d said you were about 25m out, that floats about 40m out, oooohkeydokey.”

Map of the search areas

I took some warratahs (marker poles) out to the chest deep area and formed a search grid around the float about 20m squared and began to search the area, by the time I completed it the conditions had changed and meant I could not be 100% confident I had not missed anywhere in it. More on that later.

It was now nearing dark and was none too comfortable by this stage so I called it a day and agreed to resume the search in a few days time when the weather had improved.

Three days later the weather was looking great for resuming the search for Curt’s ring.  I began by extended the search area to the north where amongst various other junk I did find a ring , though it was not Curt’s but a tarnished old silver wedding band. I then ‘detected’ to the west and south along the back edge of the first two search areas, zip. My feeling about the quality of my detecting in the first search area was nagging me so although it would take another hour I searched it again, recovering only two items I had missed the first time and still no ring. At least I could definately eliminate the area as not holding any gold! It was also comforting to know that despite my feeling I had covered the area very well misssing only two targets in 20 square meters whilst being bullied around by the weather.

Various items found during the serach!

Curt’s 10th Centuary Viking Snake Ring!

“just find the bloody thing would ya”

I spoke with Curt afterwards and he felt I should now try further south, and added that he’d been having trouble sleeping going over events and could I “just find the bloody thing would ya”. The next day I did search to the south and still no ring.

I thought my way through the puzzle again from start to finish and remembered my feeling that perhaps Curt had not been as far out as he remembered and that the ring was closer to shore. I tried detecting another 1m slice along the front edge of the searched areas and a few sweeps of the coil after turning at the end of this I heard a lovely full tone in my ears which could easily be a gold ring! Sometimes you think mmm that could be a gold ring and sometimes you just know. Now was one of the latter and all of a sudden my heart was racing.

Pulling seagrass and gooey debri from my scoop I suddenly saw a flash of gold amongst the weed. When I turned the ring over I could see the snakes diamond eye and after 9 hours spread over 3 days of searching knew I’d finally found “the bloody thing”. When I’d washed it off I could see the diamond eyed snake Curt had described to me and yelled a big yehaa and felt the weight of frustration that had been steadily building, disolve in the water around me. Sweet Success! Now to tell Curt..

As you can see Curt was pretty darn chuffed to get his ring back and I can tell you I was pretty chuffed as well. It’s always nice to find rings fairly easily but there is a special warmth I get when I can return a ring that doesn’t want it that way!

All the best Curt and please, leave “the bloody thing” at home when kitesurfing!

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