Sand Swinger
Jr. Member
This questions for us diehard (and possibly crazy) detectorists; the ones who go out detecting no matter what.
What’s the Craziest Weather or Situation you’ve ever been in while Detecting?
For me, it was detecting on a beach in Ocean City as a hurricane was passing by off the coast. Back then, the wife and I had a place down in DE near Rehoboth. We’d go down there every weekend, along with a full week during the summer, for over 10 years, so I got to hit the beaches a lot during those years. I’ve loved bad weather ever since I was a kid, dark clouds, strong winds, pouring rain, snow, you name it. In fact, right this very minute while typing this, a strong thunderstorm is overhead, just heard a loud crack of thunder, and the power flickered a few times so had to reboot my PC and TV, lol.
I don’t remember the year or name of the specific hurricane, but we knew it was coming. After a tough week at work, we definitely needed to get away, so I told the wife, “We’ve got 4-wheel drive, high ground clearance, so we’re going”, lol.
This turned out to be probably the most surreal experience of my life. I got my Sov Elite & scoop packed up and started heading down towards the beaches of Ocean City. It’s raining and windy as sh*t, but I’m wearing waders, so I’m waterproof up to my armpits, had a rain jacket with hood, hat, so I’m all set.
I find a side street to pull into and interestingly, I didn’t have any trouble parking in the first space closest to the beach, lol. When I opened the door of my Explorer, I had to hold onto the door for dear life, because the wind was blowing so hard it might have ripped the door off. I get my gear together, zip up my rain jacket, pop the rain Hoodie over my hat and tied it tight to keep my hat from blowing off. Also popped on a pair of wraparound sunglasses to keep my eyes from getting sand blasted.
I’m walking to the beach, and it was so surreal. It was eerily still & quiet, except for the wind noise, but there was nobody around and it felt like I was the only human left on earth. I looked up and down the beach, not a soul, no cars driving in the streets, nobody in the parking lots, it was just me. So, I start detecting as I’m walking towards the wet and started finding some clad. I always like to hunt the wet and into the water when I’m hunting beaches so after detecting the wet a bit I start walking into the water until the water was just below my knees.
But then, I looked up at the ocean and saw one of the most incredible sights my eyes have ever beheld. The waves were ENORMOUS. I’m not talking 6 or 8 foot type waves. These waves were the biggest I’ve ever seen in my life, and I grew up boating so spent many years boating in the Chesapeake Bay, and waves in the Chesapeake can get VERY large during a storm. But these waves were monsters, maybe 15 or 20 foot high, and they weren’t far out at sea, they looked like they were just a few hundred feet from where I was standing. Maybe they looked that close because they were so huge, but they looked like they were right there in front of me, not far at all.
The waves were ripping and coming from the right, coming from the left, crashing into each other. The only way I can describe it is that in my mind, it reminded me of a scene from an old swashbuckling pirate movie, where the pirate ships are getting swamped and swallowed by massive storm waves.
So right in front of me and not far away are these massive monster waves, I’m standing in a little bit of water no deeper than my knees, but then I started thinking of rip tides, and how easy it would be for the ocean to drag me and my detector out to get swallowed up by those massive waves. So, I thought it would be a good idea to turn around and head back to dry sand and firmer footing.
I’m glad I was wearing a hat because once I turned around and started heading back to the dry, I had to lean forward and keep my head down because the wind was blowing so hard, I could see rivers of sand blowing into me and right by me. The brim of my hat protected my face from getting sand blasted. I can’t say how fast the wind was blowing, but I had to lean forward when walking, my rain jacket was flapping loudly, and seeing those rivers of sand blowing by me, there was no doubt that these were leftover hurricane winds, so they were moving fast.
At this point, I figured I’d pushed my luck enough, so I started walking back to the truck, detecting the dry as I went. When I got back to our place, my wife looked at me with an astonished wife look and said that she couldn’t believe I was out detecting on the beach as the hurricane was passing by. I probably was a wee bit crazy back then, but hey, no guts, no glory, and I was the only detectorist out on the beach, so no competition, lol.
If I wanted to go detecting, I went detecting, weather be damned. Of course, I was a younger and stronger man back then, and probably much less wise, lol. I’ll be 68 in a couple months, so I think my days of hurricane detecting are over, but I’m grateful to have had the experience and memories of doing it once and surviving.
And speaking of crazy detecting, I know I’m not alone. I know some of you guys have been out detecting in the water and got bumped by sharks. To me, if I got bumped by a shark out in the water while detecting, I’d be walking backwards quickly with my scoop and coil out in front of me, so I could jab any additional toothy critters that might be coming to investigate me. To me, detecting while a hurricane passed by was no biggie, but water detecting while sharks are present is pretty crazy. For me, that would definitely have the potential to lead to a “code brown”, lol.
What’s the Craziest Weather or Situation you’ve ever been in while Detecting?
For me, it was detecting on a beach in Ocean City as a hurricane was passing by off the coast. Back then, the wife and I had a place down in DE near Rehoboth. We’d go down there every weekend, along with a full week during the summer, for over 10 years, so I got to hit the beaches a lot during those years. I’ve loved bad weather ever since I was a kid, dark clouds, strong winds, pouring rain, snow, you name it. In fact, right this very minute while typing this, a strong thunderstorm is overhead, just heard a loud crack of thunder, and the power flickered a few times so had to reboot my PC and TV, lol.
I don’t remember the year or name of the specific hurricane, but we knew it was coming. After a tough week at work, we definitely needed to get away, so I told the wife, “We’ve got 4-wheel drive, high ground clearance, so we’re going”, lol.
This turned out to be probably the most surreal experience of my life. I got my Sov Elite & scoop packed up and started heading down towards the beaches of Ocean City. It’s raining and windy as sh*t, but I’m wearing waders, so I’m waterproof up to my armpits, had a rain jacket with hood, hat, so I’m all set.
I find a side street to pull into and interestingly, I didn’t have any trouble parking in the first space closest to the beach, lol. When I opened the door of my Explorer, I had to hold onto the door for dear life, because the wind was blowing so hard it might have ripped the door off. I get my gear together, zip up my rain jacket, pop the rain Hoodie over my hat and tied it tight to keep my hat from blowing off. Also popped on a pair of wraparound sunglasses to keep my eyes from getting sand blasted.
I’m walking to the beach, and it was so surreal. It was eerily still & quiet, except for the wind noise, but there was nobody around and it felt like I was the only human left on earth. I looked up and down the beach, not a soul, no cars driving in the streets, nobody in the parking lots, it was just me. So, I start detecting as I’m walking towards the wet and started finding some clad. I always like to hunt the wet and into the water when I’m hunting beaches so after detecting the wet a bit I start walking into the water until the water was just below my knees.
But then, I looked up at the ocean and saw one of the most incredible sights my eyes have ever beheld. The waves were ENORMOUS. I’m not talking 6 or 8 foot type waves. These waves were the biggest I’ve ever seen in my life, and I grew up boating so spent many years boating in the Chesapeake Bay, and waves in the Chesapeake can get VERY large during a storm. But these waves were monsters, maybe 15 or 20 foot high, and they weren’t far out at sea, they looked like they were just a few hundred feet from where I was standing. Maybe they looked that close because they were so huge, but they looked like they were right there in front of me, not far at all.
The waves were ripping and coming from the right, coming from the left, crashing into each other. The only way I can describe it is that in my mind, it reminded me of a scene from an old swashbuckling pirate movie, where the pirate ships are getting swamped and swallowed by massive storm waves.
So right in front of me and not far away are these massive monster waves, I’m standing in a little bit of water no deeper than my knees, but then I started thinking of rip tides, and how easy it would be for the ocean to drag me and my detector out to get swallowed up by those massive waves. So, I thought it would be a good idea to turn around and head back to dry sand and firmer footing.
I’m glad I was wearing a hat because once I turned around and started heading back to the dry, I had to lean forward and keep my head down because the wind was blowing so hard, I could see rivers of sand blowing into me and right by me. The brim of my hat protected my face from getting sand blasted. I can’t say how fast the wind was blowing, but I had to lean forward when walking, my rain jacket was flapping loudly, and seeing those rivers of sand blowing by me, there was no doubt that these were leftover hurricane winds, so they were moving fast.
At this point, I figured I’d pushed my luck enough, so I started walking back to the truck, detecting the dry as I went. When I got back to our place, my wife looked at me with an astonished wife look and said that she couldn’t believe I was out detecting on the beach as the hurricane was passing by. I probably was a wee bit crazy back then, but hey, no guts, no glory, and I was the only detectorist out on the beach, so no competition, lol.
If I wanted to go detecting, I went detecting, weather be damned. Of course, I was a younger and stronger man back then, and probably much less wise, lol. I’ll be 68 in a couple months, so I think my days of hurricane detecting are over, but I’m grateful to have had the experience and memories of doing it once and surviving.
And speaking of crazy detecting, I know I’m not alone. I know some of you guys have been out detecting in the water and got bumped by sharks. To me, if I got bumped by a shark out in the water while detecting, I’d be walking backwards quickly with my scoop and coil out in front of me, so I could jab any additional toothy critters that might be coming to investigate me. To me, detecting while a hurricane passed by was no biggie, but water detecting while sharks are present is pretty crazy. For me, that would definitely have the potential to lead to a “code brown”, lol.
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