Experiences with people while detecting at the Beach

[Soflhunter]

I am starting this thread to heard about other experiences while metal detecting at the beach.

So I usually hit the beach early in the morning before the beach gets crowded.
Today was different, there was a negative low tide at 3:30 pm.
I arrived at the beach about 12 pm and headed for the water and wanted to follow the tide out.
I walked over to a snorkel spot that's usually in about Three or Four feet of water, But today as the tide was going out
it was only about a foot or so.

Usually at the beach while detecting I get asked some questions and have good experiences with people.
Ex :"What is the best thing you ever found" or "What are you looking for".
"What is all the stuff you have on' .

Today was different, Lets get back to the snorkel spot.
I walked over to the snorkel spot and I moved my metal detector around the rocks and I banged into a rock.
A woman popped here head up and said to me" Your not supposed to touch the coral reef"
My response was "it was a accident that I banged into the rock and its not a coral reef its just rocks"
She then said " Do you know what a coral reef is?" and I responded "Yes a coral reef is made up of hard and soft corals and these are just rocks"
She then said to me " I just wanted to know if you knew what a coral reef is" My response " Yes but theses are just rocks'
She then walked away and headed back to shore.
Then a man , maybe he husband said "Your selfish" and I said " They are just rocks"
and he headed for the shore also.
She then preceded to watch my from shore with her hands on here hips as if I was destroying the ocean with my metal detector.

They both collected there things and headed for the Life Guard tower.
As I watching them move toward the Life Guard tower, i decided to meet them there.
So I headed toward the tower also.
But before I met them at the tower, they were already leaving the beach.
So I asked if they complained about me and he said "Yes they did"
He also said 'I explained to her they are just barnacles on the rocks'
He also said to me " No Worries" and I headed back to the rocks.

What bothers me is she made me out to be the bad guy ,when she had no knowledge of what a coral reef is.
Me like many others detecting at the beach pick up all the plastic and trash off the beach.
I believe all of us should receive my credit for what we do in taking care of the beach.

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

 

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[ARC]

So how many feet should you be away from someone when detecting?

Like I said...
I see people... any amount... I go the other way...
If there are many people nearing me OR I am sorta nearing them... I steer away...
I see someone heading my direction IE: Runner... walker... etc... I plot my route to not interrupt / intersect them.

It just basic common courtesy / consideration for my "fellow mankind". heh

PS )heh)
Whats funny is...

Sometimes I steer away... they steer topward me... I steer again away... they steer toward me...

Then I realize... they are coming on purpose :P

ALSO >>>When I "stagger stagger Crawl crawl" is when I "hit"...

Like the "odd ball" path that leads to finds. :P

 

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[kcm]

Don't think of it in feet. Think of it in social boundaries.
If you walk into a public restroom and there are 10 urinals, and just one is being used. Do you saddle up close to the guy using it, or keep your distance? Personal space dictates you move away. Where as if 9 of them were being used, you have no choice to use the last one, and no one thinks your creepy about it.

If I walk into a bathroom with 10 urinals and 9 are being used, I grit my teeth and try again later! I don't "fear" people, per se, but I also don't allow myself to get into ANY potentially compromising situations.

On my last trip to Finland, I had the opportunity to travel to Karelia Russia with a Finnish business class. One night, the group split into two smaller groups. One group went to a bar and another went knocking on doors with a Bible in their hand. I speak Texan. They were Finnish, but speaking Russian. Being a total non-drinker, I went to the bar with the larger group. While there, this one big, hairy Rusky came up to me, drunk but still somewhat cognitive. I made it clear I didn't understand what he was saying and started to walk away.
...THEN HE STARTS TALKING BROKEN ENGLISH!!
Come to find out, the hairy drunk Rusky was propositioning ME to go back to his place for a little ?? and a LOT of !! You ain't never seen two feet moving faster than mine that night!