San Francisco Bay Area water hunting??? Any locations that arent off limits?

[time4me]

I think I posted something similar around a year or so ago, but thought I'd try again to see if any new ideas.

I am dying to do some shallow water hunting, but I live in Marin County California just north of the Golden Gate Bridge / San Francisco. It seems like every beach in a 200 mile radius of me is protected under Golden Gate National Recreation Area laws, and there is no detecting allowed.

I know there is a small private stretch of Stinson Beach that it is ok to detect on, but I have never had ANY luck there whatsoever. I've never tried wading out in the waves at Stinson, as the waves seem way to powerful and the undertow would probably suck me in, never to be heard from again, which would really give my wife a reason to be pissed at me. The sand up to the surf seems like it is always about 10 feet deep of new sand, and I never get any detections. I've also had real problems on Stinson beach with mineralization in the sand or something, and this is even with a Minelab Excalibur - very erradic behaviour at that beach.

So, aside from this private stretch of Stinson beach, are there any lakes or SF Bay swimming beaches that people have tried in the past with any success?

I fear my only option is to get up at 3am some morning and drive to Santa Cruz to detect the main beach there, but even then I don't know if the waves will prevent me from wading out a bit into the shallows / surf. I also think Santa Cruz is on fire at present, so I don't want to venture down that way.

HELP!

Jim ~ Desperate to water detect in Northern California