Tried my first detecting beach dive today

[cz70pro]

Hey all. The water was calm,and the lifeguards gave me the go ahead. In the 15 years I have been diving,It's all been from a boat. I learned real fast today I was under weighted.When I could get down,I could only detect a few seconds before I popped back up.Next time I will wear more weight.I really want to see how the finds are in the deeper water, we can't normally get to when surf hunting. I also learned today how phisically demanding getting all geared, up and just walking to the water is! I am very glad I tried today,I've been wanting to do this for a long time.I am going to give water hunting a break, and concentrate on my upcoming Virginia civil war relic hunt. Man,this hobby is addicting!

 

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[davest]

that's very interesting. I have decided this is the year for myself to get certified and thought about the third lung way etc, but really want to finally be able to stay underwater the right way.. Your thoughts about needing more weight interest me because I didn't know that it was different than going off a boat. why is that?

 

[Jason in Enid]

One thing to keep in mind is the surge. When you are go out beyond where you can wade, you are talking about the 5 - 10 foot depths (most likely). It can be very difficult to detect and recover targets if the surf is pushing you back and forth, back and forth. You will just have to learn to judge the wave height to what you can handle on the bottom. Also, when doing this, you want MORE weight than normal scuba diving. You aren't striving for neutrality in the water column, use your BC to keep you neutral but vent it if you need some help staying in a single spot to recover a target.

I have found that an AL80 which will last 45 - 60 minutes in a normal dive (in the 30 - 80 foot range) will easily last 2 hours or more on shallow detecting dives.

 

[Jason in Enid]

.. Your thoughts about needing more weight interest me because I didn't know that it was different than going off a boat. why is that?

It's not different. Could have been a change in gear that made him too bouyant.

 

[smokeythecat]

I feel those chicken feathers popping out. Not for me, but I'm envious.

 

[G.I.B.]

Agree with previous post, you have to be heavier to work the bottom. When you are floating you don't have much leverage to dig. All you will end up doing is pushing yourself around when you dig.

Some folks carry a ping-pong panel to fan the sand with verses digging. I like to be heavy with an extra weight belt. It has the old solid lead weights and are not integrated in the BC. That way I can dump the belt easily if I need to. I still have my regular integrated weights in the BC.

Watch the tides and currents where you are diving. It makes a big difference as to how hard you will work.

 

[cz70pro]

Thanks everyone for the comments.Davest when you dive in deeper water, as from a boat the deeper you go down the more "negative" boyant(sink) you are.Thats where the divers boyancy vest comes in.You can add air right from your tank to become more "positive"(rise) or neturally boyant. I was a volunteer diver for a mel Fisher sub contractor in the summer of 2000. We were on the FL East coast 1715 wreck sites.We used surface supplyed air(hooka).We were in only 15' of water,and I remember it took more weight to stay on the bottom and swing a detector. I even had to put the" clip on" upper stem weight on my CZ20,to keep it from floating up.I didn't find anything,(no beginners luck for me)but on one hunt the Capt.of the boat came up with Two eight reale silver coins. On the next dive he came up with a four escudo gold coin,plopped it in my hands and said: DO NOT MAKE A SOUND. There were other salvage boats right next to us.What an experience.