Lou from downunder said:
Hi TH, nice neat set up you have on your machine.
I agree that the amount of spiral wrap required to protect an Excals coil cable, if it was even possible to put on, would create an enormous amount of water resistence.
Seeing as most of us are getting on a bit and are seeking to reduce rather than increase the amount of effort required to swing a coil, I, personally, find Allens suggestion to be unhelpful.
I agree that only a careless operator would allow his scoop to come into contact with his machine.
It appears that Allen can be so.
The reason he refused to answer my question regarding his technique is because he was unsure as to whether or not I had read an article he had published in Gold, Gem and Treasure addressing this very issue.
In the article he states categorically that on occasions he had hit his shaft quite hard with his scoop.
It was only after some thought that he realised the possible consequences and rather than correct his technique, he wrapped the cable instead.
Its unfortunate that Allen has chosen to activate his ignore button, for there are one or two matters that I would like to address and I would have been interested in his responses.
But just in case he has had a change of heart and not hit the button.......
Firstly.
I refute Allens claims to have been the first underwater detectorist in Australia.
There is absolutely no evidence to back these claims up, only his say so!
Detectors were already widely in use at this time. As an aside.... my father, having read about the use of detectors in America, in a treasure magazine, imported a machine from the states as they were unavailable at the time here in Oz. It was basically a grey plastic box with a telescopic shaft that did beep when it passed over metal.
Shortly after, he imported a Garrett and had a lot of fun with it. It was only a couple of years later that detectors became widely available here. And no, dad doesnt claim to be the first detectorist in the country.
He did get this info from a treasure magazine. As water detecting had already taken off in the states, articles on it were circulating and would have been seized upon by opportunistic individuals.
It was after reading one of these articles that the old man, knowing of my love for diving, suggested I have a go. At age 20 I was only interested in girls or spearing fish, not in looking like a dork hunting for treasure!
So, I find Allens claims of an epithany at the beach after his car broke down on the way to the goldfields, and in so doing becoming Australias first ever underwater detectorist, to be fanciful. I suggest he just read about it, just like everyone else did at the time, and got into it, just like everyone else did at the time.
Still, if want to sell articles, you need a good story. Poetic license is what writers call it. I have another name for it.
Secondly.
Allen makes much of the fact that "after 4 years of having it all to ourselves, WE decided to share with others etc".
There is no WE.
I suggest that instead HE realised that there was money to be made from publishing articles on the subject.
He alternates between claims of ..."over 50 articles that G&T published and PAID me for since 1982"
and
"Over the years I have done a great deal and made my knowledge and information available FREE to anyone and never asked a red cent or thank you in return."
These two quotes are used freely, depending on the situation. Both have been used just in this thread.
Allen has written professionally, his works are copyrighted and it was only after their commercial usefulness had expired that this information has been made freely available.
However, before this had occurred, truly selfless individuals, The Golden Olde comes to mind, had written and given freely of their knowledge without constantly reminding us of what a great guys they are for doing so!
Thirdly.
I remain highly suspicious of claims of a deep desire to further the expansion of the hobby and of desires to aid newcomers.
As I had stated on an earlier occasion, attempts were made to bully others off what had been claimed as his beach.
When ignored, threats were made to dump large amounts of, aluminium shavings I believe, in the water thereby ruining it for everone.
Hardly the actions of someone professing to want to help others.
Strong accusations that even though had been aired earlier remain unchallenged. Why?
Oh, by the way, am I the only one to have noted that Allen is writing a book?
And is it once, or twice that he has mentioned and attempted to direct others to his website?
If I have offended anybody, please accept my humble apologies.
My intention is not to upset, but to question.
I believe that if a claim is made in a public forum, then I, as a member of the forum has the right to question and refute said claims if I believe them to be misleading or untrue.
Thank you.
Lou.
If you dont sign in and read threads one can see new posts even ones by people you figure unworthy of talking too.
I was mystified by Lou's outburst and personal attack on myself for no apparent reason. Something was bugging Lou and I had no idea what could of cause his outburst.
he talks about misrepresentation over my writings which were published over 26 years ago, and why i wrote some fanciful terms like owning your own bank hehehe. For gods sake, you try entering any bank in the world and asking for a gold ring hehehe the staff would be in fits of laughter so would the manager hehe.
Banks dont own money, they use other peoples and that's exactly why after their abuse of other peoples money the world is suffering right now because of their stupidity. As for misrepresentation there was none intended at the time it was entirely up to the reader to interpret my writings their own way.
Remember, that was over 26 years ago too and sure a lot of people have been attracted to the hobby some were successful some were not. There are no guarantees for anyone that they will find anything its up to the individual themselves and how hard they work at it.
Remember too 26 years ago in Australia no one apart from John Crowley and Jack Bosanquet, myself and a few others that I became interested were detecting in the water.
There were no statistics of what could be found, what had been lost or what the potential of finding anything was. So how can anyone claim it was misrepresentation of using a few elementary statistics to come up with a rough estimate of what could or might be found on a beach?
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I had forgotten that Lou had sent me emails here's one he might of thought i had put in the trash can.
Allen Hassell, you old wanker, how are you going? You might remember me from the old "Oscars" days in Frankston. l was the abalone poacher that used to be there on a nightly basis some 16-17 yrs back. Lou, big, sauve, sophisticated. Well big anyway. You tried to get me interested in U/W detecting to no avail. However interests change. I've purchased an xterra70 and am cleaning up on the coins with the odd piece of jewellry thrown in. Stumbled onto your website and thought l'd say hello.Being the expert diver that l am U/W detecting seems like a natural progression [ clearly l am also a modest man], so l'm saving my coins to buy a water machine. Was planning on the Minelabs Excalibur, you still reckon Fisher is better? Most of my detecting will be in the bay obviously. Hoping for sound advice.
Not diving anymore? Health problems l believe. Bugger, you seemed pretty fit back then. Are you in England now? no wonder your crook what with there weather and all. Just kidding, my daughters over there on a working holiday, loving every minute of it, lucky little bugger.
Had to give the shellfish away. Big trouble with the dept. Huge court case, been going on for years $200,000 out of pocket so far and rising but we,ve pretty well got them beat. Then its our turn! Will write a book one day.
Anyway drop me a line if you care to chat, all the best, Lou.
Lou sent me another one telling me about how hard it was to find anything these days because of sand build up inn the bay and wanted to have an edge on other guys who were still detecting in the water.
He asked me for details about geomorphology, which means basic information re tides and sand movement in oceans and tidal area's.
Yahoo, had closed my old website down, the information that had been available for all to see was now gone. I had retired, and was recovering from a heart attack so I told Lou to go to a library or look it up on the internet, this is the cause of Lou's outburst and attempt at character assasination.
As for Lou's remarks about dumping scrap in an area that I searched on a daily basis is total madness no one in their right mind would do it, especially if they loved the hobby as much as I did, thats why I promoted it.
Now think of this I never sold detectors, I was not out to make profit from the sale of them, but there were plenty of people who did minelab was one of them. After a few years of guys chasing gold on the goldfields the finds were hard to come by the only other place they could find gold was in water.
I have no idea as to how many detectors were sold by minelab and others but it would be in the thousands. What I had actually done was build a market for underwater metal detectors. I could not cover the entire Australian continent by myself so I let people in on this great and wonderful hobby.
What Lou fears more than anything else is a resurgence of interest in shallow water metal detecting in Australia and because of that Lou took it upon himself to have a go at me and my past writings.
Lou in his own admission was an abalone poacher meaning he dived for and sold shell fish ileagally when people were paying huge licence fee's to do it legally. Now he's fighting a battle with the authorities he tried to cheat and its costing him money.
The first detector I bought was a MinRad geophysical instrument made in Geeling in 1964. Well the makers claimed it could find gold.
I was gullible at the time and bought one dreaming of going to the gold fields finding huge gold nuggets hehehe i was a dreamer.
But it was great on the beach even for an old BFO in finding coins.
Whites bought out an improvement in the early 70's I saw a 2nd hand one and bought it for about $100 and had a lot of fun on the beach with it but gold still eluded me. A photographer from the Sun newspaper caught me using it on the beach and took pics of myself and it appeared in the Sun Newspaper.
I'm sure if anyone did a search they would find that pic to prove i was detecting back in the early 70's long before the gold rush took place in 1979.
My mail box always had loads of emails thanking me for putting that website up with all the information on it, the first one up was in 1989-90 the University of Shallow Water metal detecting. Maybe some of you oldies will remember it. It was there to promote the hobby thats all.
On reflection, had i responded and given Lou the information he wanted maybe this reply would not be neccessary but it appears to be that Lou wanted to have a go at me for failing provide him with the information he wanted.
People are lazy and cant be bothered doing their own research when someone else has already done it for them.
Lou may your worst fears could come true maybe its time to write a new article and publish it in G&T and get more newbies interested in the hobby giving you more competition... hehehe
Remember the old saying Lou Sticks and stones can break your bones, names can never hurt you.
Your a loser Lou, a bad one at that. You give your father a lot of praise about his detecting while you were out trying to sow your wild oats chasing girls and diving. You weren't even detecting and you come on here with a load of old crap trying to discredit me?
How pathetic can a grown man get? How petty minded can a man become? How about all those people who took up the hobby and never complained once? You should be ashamed of yourself Lou, your a disgrace to Australia and to the hobby.
I have always said GREED is a terrible thing and its true.
What you want is all of Victoria to yourself so you can enjoy your little hobby and reap all the finds. You certainly havent done anything to promote the hobby? Anyone can now see you in the light of day and what you are.
A pathetic grumpy old git with nothing better to do than have a good old whinge and it got you no where.
Go bite your bum Lou get back in the water. You can't change the past and your not going to change the future either.
If you cant beat them join them and your havent beaten me not by a long shot stop this idiocy your only making a bigger fool of yourself than you already are. Good luck to you Lou, may the fleas of a 1000 camels infest your underpants hehehe Im just not interested in your delusions of granduer so get lost your not worth knowing.
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