Shallow Shore "Diving" possible or worth it?

[Trokair]

Hello everyone. I have been beach detecting now for over a decade and I'm looking to make a bit of a change. My local beach is the Fenwick Island/Ocean City area of Maryland and Delaware and though I have put in a lot of time hunting, I have yet to get that elusive first gold ring. This area has decent wave action right at shore so I spend a lot of my time along low tide lines and after storms where possible but I've always had an itch that the "good stuff" is in the water, right beyond where the waves break and the water is around chest high on me. In my years I don't think I have ever seen anyone in the water searching, most likely attributed to the wave action since the water is never still so it will be a bit of a fight. So I have a few questions before I possibly sink some money into equipment to try this out.

1. Is this feasible/does anyone do this in these kinds of conditions? I see a lot of people on Youtube in calm waters but nobody in harsh. Anyone have any experience with it?
2. Is the Nokta PulseDive basically it for handheld detectors? With the wave action I think it would be too much to try and get my Excal out there. I looked around but other than non-branded knockoff stuff I found Quest and Nokta and it looks like everyone says Nokta
3. Would it be worth trying to shore scuba or just go in short bursts? We are talking at most 10 feet of water though I would be concerned to try to get a full size rig back up on shore through the breakers. Maybe a smaller one for a half hour under water? My thought being a weight belt would help stabilize in the current but would be dangerous without air supply.

Any insight or advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[oldmxrat]

I have no experience with it personally, but I used to follow a NY guy on youtube that proved pretty consistently that the wave action actually pushes the jewelry up onto the beach.
I quit watching him once he sold out and took on being a rep for a MD company, but he had some very informative videos.
Seems like if you get out at low tide after some good storm waves, you'll be right in the honey spot.

 

[OBN]

I hunted OC Md 2008 to 2014, most of my gold came from the slopes down town near the pier up to 12th street. Occasionally, when I lived there I hunted deep in the water and would jumped/dodged waves. One thing about OC, the water can be deadly, but there are times it can be somewhat calmer. So its about being there when it happens. And in order to do that you must watch the web, surfer sites, wind conditions, wave action predictions and not just one site but several to get a good idea of what your walking into. Over time you learn when the best conditions are coming. From 2008 to 2014 I averaged about 25 gold a year and had some amazing high dollars finds.

2015 I realized I had gold in my own back yard, Chesapeake Bay. And it was the same, took me a few years to predict the best conditions.

OC info for this weekend

 

[OBN]

calm water days

 

[OBN]

I honestly don't think out deeper is the answer to OC's gold. I believe most is from the towel line out to about waist deep and remember the tides. High tide around 1 pm is perfect for by 8 pm that night you will be able to get into those areas easy, if the winds and waves are calmer.

Notice where everyone is in the video.. most are not very far from shore.... summer 2010 hightide, lowtide you will be right in the gold zone.


Video water is its ruff self, deadly.



One of my many shore hunts, where I did find most of my OC Gold, think this is around 2011?


All OC Gold (except the big fat one in the back, got that in Chicago 32grams), my last year hunting OC..