Before and after pix from Santa Barbara area, from the CA storm

[Tom_in_CA]

A friend of mine from the Santa Barbara area sent me these before and after pix of some beaches in his area. Look close and you can see the same features (stairs leading to the beach, cliffs in the background, etc...) to get a sense of benchmark measures.

https://goo.gl/photos/tsycNdhApAtHErGT9

A lot of the beaches in his area (and perhaps in all of So. CA coast-side developed areas?) are riddled with "rip rap" to protect the beach side homes, roads, parking lots, etc... If it's anything like up here where I'm at (Monterey bay), we saw that when they installed those refrigerator sized boulders @ spots (after the '82-83 storms), that we never again got old coins from those zones. Only coins/rings that post dated the installation of the rip-rap. But on another spot I can think of, old coins do continue to show up. So I guess it depends on the individual dynamics of the beach in each place, as to good-vs-bad on the rip-rap.

Anyhow, Enjoy the pix ! Did anyone in Santa Barbara area work these beaches after last weekend's storms ??

 

[nutsdad]

Never have I seen that much sand moved at one time.

 

[cudamark]

That would sure be some miserable hunting in those rocks! With a real low tide, there might be some great finds though. You heading down for a try?

 

[Tom_in_CA]

.... You heading down for a try?

I wish ! I'm 3+ hrs. north of there. And 4+ hrs. north of Los Angeles. I was stuck here working our beaches. And to add the misery, was working a beach which was loaded with industrial cr%p (lead globs, brass fixture stuff, etc....). But it's a very old beach (we got barbers, some Morgans, etc...). So I kept having visions of a gold coin in my basket . I did manage my 2nd only Large Cent (beach toast). But in retrospect wished I'd gone to the touristy beaches to angle for rings

 

[ChampFerguson/TN]

Nice pics, Thanks for posting!

 

[cudamark]

We've had a few washed out spots, but, not as good as last year. The spots are just in certain areas. Most other areas are still sanded in. I have one spot I'm working right now where I've found 4 rings, but, no gold ones yet. TONS of fishing weights though, which is a good sign for me. When I say TONS, I mean probably 400-600 in a 100 square foot area. It takes a while to hunt through all that for the good targets!

 

[Tom_in_CA]

.... The spots are just in certain areas. Most other areas are still sanded in.....

That's what inexplicably happened here: A few beaches got eroded during the swell a week ago. But inexplicably others seemed flat, un-damaged, etc......

 

[Goldfleks]

I know at some beaches here in SoCal, the touristy ones, they truck in beach sand before/after the big storms to "repair" the beaches after a swell. That could be what you're seeing. Or it was just the direction of the storm vs the beach. Those beaches may not have had enough tidal forces to erode the beach compared to beaches that were hit strait on.

 

[cudamark]

That's not what's happening here. Same beach.....some areas down to fishing weights and big iron, 100 yards away, nothing but sand. Walk another 100 yards and find another producing area......then for the next 100 yards, only sand. When you look at the beach, it looks level and even, but, some areas have targets and some don't. I figure there were "camel humps" formed years ago and then covered by new sand. Items sunk down to that lower level and now we're hitting the targets on top of the humps, but not in the valleys.....yet. We need to get another good storm to get a bit lower.

 

[have2fish]

There has been some movement to try to ban lead in fishing... soon the time may come that "vintage" fishing weights will have value and be worth seeking out on the beaches... lol...

I know that the dredgers get a ton of lead in the rivers and keep it to sell or reuse...

 

[Harold in Fla.]

That hs happened to me when I lived up north in R.I I went to this certain beach and always walked from the car first and look to see how much incline there was, well me and my friend walked over to the wall and looked down and the same thing you see nothing but rocks and down to the hard pan, I told him grab your detector and lets get down their, we were plucking gold and silver out of that area for four days, and then a club got wind of it and it was arm to arm hunting, we got a lot of class rings, and all kinds of rings and silver halfs back to barber coins, you don't get to many shots like that. HH

 

[Peyton Manning]

when I hear about the landslides out there, I expect to hear that some gold was uncovered

 

[boogeyman]

Have any of you guys tried hooking up with any of the Dredging companies Years back I made friends with some of the Shellmaker guys in Newport. Great source for spots. My hunting partner & I followed the dredge through Newport Harbor. They were nice enough to mark my chart where they were working for a week or so. Some spots like around Balboa & Linda Isle they blew the sand up on the beach. The top layer of muck went in the barge & out the harbor to get dumped. Lots of nightshifts, but it was well worth it!! Find out what companies are covering your area and have a talk with them. If they are concerned with safety, tell them you'll wait until they've moved on further. They might be nice enough to let you mark up your chart from their maps & sounding charts so it's easy to figure out where & what got blown up on the beach and where.

 

[Back-of-the-boat]

On the news here in the central valley I saw the beaches in Goleta and they showed the sand trucks rolling to replenish I almost cried.

 

[Goldfleks]

On the news here in the central valley I saw the beaches in Goleta and they showed the sand trucks rolling to replenish I almost cried.

Beaches gotta look pretty for the tourists.