Is there a good choice for underwater and the park, or would it require 2 detectors?
If you plan on going deeper than 10' in the water, yes, two machines would be a better choice. There are lots of choices in PI and VLF machines for that. For the water you can add the Garrett Infinium, Fisher CZ21, and the Whites dual field to the recommended list. For land, I like the E-trac but there are many others that are good machines too, like the White's V3i, Fisher F75, Garrett AT Pro, XP Deus, Minelab Explorer, Quattro and Safari, and probably more that I'm less familiar with. If you're only going into shallow water (under 10' deep) I'd go with the Minelab CTX 3030, hands down. If you're hunting fresh water only and your budget can't stand the CTX, the Garrett AT Pro is a good affordable substitute in an all-around water/land machine. You'll have to decide which is best for your area (sometimes a difficult task without an existing detector to compare), which features you like in a machine, (one programmable for changing conditions or custom settings, a VID screen, multiple coil options, for instance) and what your budget can stand. You might also want to consider where they're made (USA, overseas?) reliability, and customer service/repair history/guarantee. I know, it can be overwhelming trying to weigh all the possible combinations but just sit down and make a list of what you're most likely going to search for, features you want/like, and your budget. Then pick one from one of the major players, and choose a dealer to buy from. Hopefully one of our supporting members here, or a local detector shop you know that can give you hands-on training or at least some good advice. Good Luck!
