February 10th, 2010 by Brad Lovell

Narrabeen Lagoon

I always enjoy a challenge when it comes to metal detecting. Some jobs are simple, and it literally takes me minutes to recover the lost item. But this has been a tough summer for the “Metal Detector Man”! Under water jobs are always difficult for too many reasons and variables to list. Which means my recovery rate for such jobs it low. I always mention this to my customers before starting a new job. I am not trying to talk myself out of business, but I like to be realistic. Here are some jobs below which had disappointing endings..

• Sam was attending a wedding that myself and Layne Beachley had to sneak around to get to a harbour side beach her ring was lost. The word soon spread via the wedding guests that Layne Beachley had lost her engagement ring, and she had hired the metal detector man to try and find it. The following weekend, Sam was at his friends holiday home throwing a ball in waist deep water. After diving for the ball, Sam believes this could have been the point when the ring fell off. I drove up to the central coast (Bonnels Bay) to search for Sam’s lost wedding ring. After a good 3 hour search covering the area with both my metal detectors, we decided to call it quits.
• Jan had this misfortune of losing the keel off her boat in the dirty Parramatta River. Jan knew of the area where she believed the keel to have dropped. Because it was a metal keel, I decided I could try searching for it with my under water metal detector. It wasn’t until I arrived to the spot I realised how bad the conditions we’re. The water was literally brown…with zero visibility. In fact I could not even see my air gauge pushed up against my mask. Anyway, I wasn’t going to let this stop me…I did my usual 360 degree rope search covering a 20 meter diameter. A few big signals but none of them the keel. After a couple of hours searching in darkness I ran out of air. If anyone has an idea or a service which could help Jan recover her 250 kilo keel, please contact me!
• Paula lost her diamond engagement ring at Narrabeen Lagoon. I actually had 2 attempts at this job, but could not perform the search with any sort of efficiency while my underwater detector was in for repairs. My 3rd attempt was a couple of weeks later, armed with my repaired detector. After completing both a north-west, and east west grid search of the area following my ropes, I was not able to find Paula’s engagement ring. If any metal detector guys to manage to find a diamond wedding ring at Narrabeen Lagoon, please contact me. Paula is more than happy to offer a generous reward.

January 31st, 2010 by Brad Lovell

The last handful of jobs have proved to be very challenging. It is always sad for both me and my customer when I am unable to find their lost items.. below are some searches that we’re unsuccessful

• Sarah lost her engagement ring at Bondi Beach. She felt her ring come off in about chest deep water. I mentioned to Sarah my underwater detector is currently away for repairs, and perhaps asking one of the underwater metal detecting guys at Bondi Beach for help. (Bondi Beach is being detected almost 24 hours a day) Sarah contacted Tony from Jewllery Rescue who faced the same problem as me, no underwater detector. I ended up driving to Miners Den at Parramatta and hiring an Excalibur 800 water proof metal detector. We met at Bondi Beach that night in the low tide. There was a fierce electrical storm happening so the beach was almost empty. I spent about 1.5 hours searching the area Sarah had been swimming. After digging up the usual coins and pull tabs while getting smashed by the surf, Tony attempted to brave the night sea. After more searching and having the earphones removed from his head by waves time after time, Tony too gave up after giving it his best. Sarah’s ring is lost in a difficult position, too deep for up right detecting, and too rough for scuba diving. The ring is a mens gold signet with the letters “ACK” engraved.
• Paula lost her diamond engagement ring at a lagoon at Narrabeen. So far I have made two attempts searching for this ring. First time it didn’t take long at all to realise I needed to use scuba gear. Second time I came back with Scuba Gear and my hired detector. The hired detector stopped working so I scanned the bottom just using my pinpointer and eye sight. I plan on going back to search for Paula’s engagement ring once I get my metal detector back from repairs.
• Amanda lost a ring that was a gift from her boyfriend while fishing near Richmond. She felt that the ring may have fallen off as she cast her fishing rod. She did say she heard a strange splash and was not sure what it was. We could not decide if this could have been her ring as her hand would have been clenched around the rod when casting. I searched the water anyway, but unfortunately came up empty handed.
• Joey lost her engagement ring at a beach near the Bouddi Bouddi national park on Australia Day. She had spent the day playing cricket on the sand, and swimming in the water. At the end of the day she realised her ring was no longer on her finger. I searched the sand where they had been playing cricket, then hopped in the water at low tide trying to find her engagement. After many hours of trying, we gave up hope of finding Joey’s lost ring.
• After reading the story in media regarding me finding Layne Beachley’s lost engagement ring, Linda decided to give me a call to see if I could help her. Linda actually lost her gold ring over a year ago, possibly while gardening in her backyard. She and her husband hired a metal detector but did not manage to find anything. I drove up to Avalon to meet Linda, and basically searched her entire backyard for the ring. I did manage to find a lot of things, but her gold ring was not one of them