Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
Beach detecting conditions haven't been much good for a long time. I can't even remember the last itime I issued a beach detecting conditions rating of three of more. It has been a while. I'm pretty sure that it has been more than a year, and maybe two or more since I issued a "4" rating. This summer has been VERY slow if you are talking about fining old shipwreck items on the beach. We've had a very small surf for months now.
We all know about Nor'easters. I've talked about how they hit the beach and provide access to old items. Lately we've had mostly southeast winds that bring hot weather and a small beach-building surf. Things will change - sometime.
We are now well into hurricane season and everybody is waiting for a beach ripping storm. Some seem to think that the early formation of storms like Don might indicate an active hurricane season. I just read one such article.
"We’ve now had two tropical storms form in the tropical Atlantic before Aug. 1, Bret and Don," said meteorologist Bob Henson of Weather Underground. "This early season low-latitude activity is likely a harbinger of a more active than usual Atlantic hurricane season..."
Here is the link for more about that.
http://blog.spiritdaily.com/news-links/early-storms-a-harbinger
You might find this older article helpful. It gives some general basics you might want to review. Here are a couple paragraphs from that article.
Now, let your imagination return you to that same beach in winter. Your beloved berm is gone, pulled out to sea by regular storms. If it is a particularly vicious winter, the waves might have chipped the dune face into a scarp. This is seasonal erosion, and not usually a big deal, because summer comes along, the storms abate, and wind patterns restore the berm. And so it's not so much erosion as it is a seasonal fluctuation, in which hurricanes play their own role. "Hurricane passage with high waves and surges will cause dune erosion, but a lot is temporary," says Rogers.
Not always. Big storms like Matthew can pull sand into deep water. So deep, that the normal waves and tides that come after the hurricane won't be strong enough to drag the stuff back up onto the beach. But, because shore erosion is a long game, scientists won't know where (or whether) Matthew hastened long term erosion. More obvious are the effects on low shorelines, where Matthew could push sand inland, past the beach, into coastal shrubbery, marshlands, or communities...
Here is the link if you want to read more of that one.
https://www.wired.com/2016/10/hurricane-matthew-aint-helping-floridas-beach-erosion/
The best way to increase your number and quality of finds is to increase the amount of time you spend hunting. There are other ways. Skill is important factor, but you still have to be out. When you are out there a lot, you have a better chance of finding the better spots and running into one of those spots when it is producing, even when they are few and far between.
A lot of people blame their detector when they aren't finding much. That can be a problem, but it usually isn't the problem - assuming that it is working fairly well and you know how to use it to some extent.
There are times when some beaches simply aren't producing. When that happens you might be better off trying something else. Don't get stuck in habits that limit you. You might need to travel a little farther or try a new different type of hunting. It is too easy to get in the habit of hunting the same spots all the time. It is best to have a good variety of spots that you know very well. And continue to explore new spots.
Some spots will produce on and off over a number of years and then quit. I keep those cataloged in my mind and wait for them to start producing again. Some of those spots are seasonal, but some haven't produced for a few years.
Some detectorists switch from hunting old shipwreck items to hunting modern items when conditions are poor. Those two types of hunting can be very different. You can find a lot of modern items in the dry sand, but when you hunt the dry sand you are mostly looking for items that have been recently dropped, so you are looking for areas where a lot of people have recently congregated and been involved in the types of activities that result in losing items. When it comes to hunting in the water for new items, that is more similar to hunting old shipwreck items. It is more about how the sand is moving.
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I recently did a poll on intuition that showed that most treasure hunters rely on intuition to some extent. Intuition is viewed by some as the natural result of observation and experience culminating in good judgment, for others it is viewed as something coming from a more magical or mystical source - something more like ESP.
If you are one of the few that feels that intuition is not reasonable or incompatible with a scientific approach, here are a few quotes form Albert Einstein.
There is no logical way to the discovery of these elemental laws. There is only the way of intuition, which is helped by a feeling for the order lying behind the appearance.
https://www.wired.com/2016/10/hurricane-matthew-aint-helping-floridas-beach-erosion/
The best way to increase your number and quality of finds is to increase the amount of time you spend hunting. There are other ways. Skill is important factor, but you still have to be out. When you are out there a lot, you have a better chance of finding the better spots and running into one of those spots when it is producing, even when they are few and far between.
A lot of people blame their detector when they aren't finding much. That can be a problem, but it usually isn't the problem - assuming that it is working fairly well and you know how to use it to some extent.
There are times when some beaches simply aren't producing. When that happens you might be better off trying something else. Don't get stuck in habits that limit you. You might need to travel a little farther or try a new different type of hunting. It is too easy to get in the habit of hunting the same spots all the time. It is best to have a good variety of spots that you know very well. And continue to explore new spots.
Some spots will produce on and off over a number of years and then quit. I keep those cataloged in my mind and wait for them to start producing again. Some of those spots are seasonal, but some haven't produced for a few years.
Some detectorists switch from hunting old shipwreck items to hunting modern items when conditions are poor. Those two types of hunting can be very different. You can find a lot of modern items in the dry sand, but when you hunt the dry sand you are mostly looking for items that have been recently dropped, so you are looking for areas where a lot of people have recently congregated and been involved in the types of activities that result in losing items. When it comes to hunting in the water for new items, that is more similar to hunting old shipwreck items. It is more about how the sand is moving.
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I recently did a poll on intuition that showed that most treasure hunters rely on intuition to some extent. Intuition is viewed by some as the natural result of observation and experience culminating in good judgment, for others it is viewed as something coming from a more magical or mystical source - something more like ESP.
If you are one of the few that feels that intuition is not reasonable or incompatible with a scientific approach, here are a few quotes form Albert Einstein.
The only really valuable thing is intuition.
I believe in intuition and inspiration; at times I feel certain I am right while not knowing the reason.
The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.
The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery. There comes a leap in consciousness, call it intuition or what you will, and the solution comes to you and you don’t know how or why.
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There is no logical way to the discovery of these elemental laws. There is only the way of intuition, which is helped by a feeling for the order lying behind the appearance.
When you look out over a beach, there is order. The wind, waves and gravity all work in harmony, distributing things according to their ways. From experience you might grasp the prevailing order at first glance.
One more quote on intuition I want to add. This one from John Naisbitt, author of books on the future and megatrends.
Intuition becomes increasingly valuable in the new information society precisely because there is so much data.
Some might think that data replaces or pushes aside the need for intuition, but in this view, vast amounts of data makes intuition all the more valuable.
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There are no storms brewing in the Atlantic or Gulf right now.
The surf is still small but the tides are big. We are having some nice high and low tides.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
