Both have there pro`s and con`s:
Wet pro`s: meaning ankle deep >>> deeper
Water shrinks skin
Waves catch people offguard
Frollicking around in the water
Wave action constantly moving objects
Wet Con`s: meaning ankle deep >>> deeper
Waterproof detector needed, (mandatory)
Wetsuit needed, (not neccesary but lets you hunt longer inwater below 70 deg.)
Strong enough to fight the wave and tidal action, (wears you out faster then dry sand hunting)
Fewer people then in dry area suntanning
Kamakazie surfers, skimboarders or body surfers
Toothy critters that think you look like a meal on wheels
jelly fish
Some oceans u can`t see area pinpointed so sometimes digging becomes hit or miss
Wet line pros: meaning ankle deep to the dry line
People leaving the water shaking off the water items fly
People walking down the beach on the firm sand wet feet toerings
Wave action deposits items after high tides or rough seas
Easier walking and swinging
Wet line cons: meaning ankle deep to dry line
Fewer people then in dry area suntanning
People walking up or down beach interfering with your tecting line
Dry pro`s:
Suntanning lotion
People take jewerly off to prevent whitelines in tans
Concession stand change laid on blankets
Watches laid on blankets
Dry Con`s:
Crowded beaches, (having to work around the crowds leaving many open spots )
Musicial interferance from radios, (very good headphones needed to block out outside noise)
Distractions from G-String clad gals laying on blankets(opps that is for both pro`s and cons )
People playing sports on the beach running into you
NO, you cannot run your detector over the gals laying there
Beach Sweeping
Beach replensing
I`m sure many people could add to both pro and con for all 3, this is just a small sample. Best of all worlds a tector like the excalibur wet when the beach is crowded then dry after the crowds have left. Work the wet til your tired then switch to the dry to recover switch back and forth.
One item that hasn`t been covered, ocean caches. All items have weight, wave and current action moves them to points of shore breaks, levees, jetties, or anything that will slow the wave, current action. "SOMETIMES" if you can locate one of these you can hit items lost mths,years ago that have settled into this area forming a nice cache. Naturally storms like canes, nor easters can possibly move them, but in protected area levee`s, jetties they sometimes sit there for years. Lighter items silver, watches, etc could be futher offshore perhaps to deep to hunt without a dive setup, heavier items gold, plat, closer to shore. Each item in its density and configuation(jewerly, coins, gold, silver etc) could be pooled up in different areas into caches.
I personelly have only found one such cache bout waist deep next to a jetty pulled out 6 silver rings almost all were same weight, various sizes, and all looked to have been lost at different times. Other items from this cache were very close in the same weight range all together 23 items were pulled out of this cache, but only 6 were keepers. This cache was formed by wave and current action moving items to a point of slowing, over maybe mths or even years, then depositing them there.