In the first hour
- Stop where you are. Ask everyone nearby to stand still, then move slowly. Footsteps in soft sand can push a ring deeper.
- Don’t dig or sift with your hands. It feels like the right thing to do, but digging can bury a ring deeper and spread it around.
- Mark the spot. Drop a pin on your phone’s map and send it to someone. A phone’s location is only good to about five metres even under open sky, so also take photos that show landmarks: the jetty, a surf club, a beach access path, a bin.
- Note the time. The tide at that moment helps work out roughly where the water was, though strong winds and air pressure can push the real tide away from the prediction.
- Check your things. Towels, bags, shoes, the folds of a beach shade, the car. It’s worth five minutes.
- Think back. Were you putting on sunscreen? Coming out of cold water? Throwing a ball? Rings slip off more easily when fingers are cold or slippery, and the moment it happened tells us where to start.
- Call or text me. The sooner I know, the sooner we can plan the search.
Dry sand, wet sand or the shallows?
Where it happened changes the whole search. If you’re not sure, tell me what you were doing and we’ll work it out together.
Dry sand
The soft sand above the waterline, where people sit, play and sunbake. The water hasn’t reached it, so the search area is often smaller, but a ring can still sink as people walk over it.
Wet sand
The firm strip between the dry sand and the water. Waves and the tide wash over it, so timing matters. Low tide uncovers the most sand, which is why it’s usually the best time to search here.
Shallow water
If it came off while you were swimming or wading, tell me roughly how deep the water was. A search in the water depends on depth, waves and safe access, and I’ll tell you straight whether it’s one I can take on.
How Adelaide’s tides change a search
Adelaide’s beaches sit on the eastern shore of Gulf St Vincent. The tide here isn’t huge, but it matters: around spring tides, the water at Outer Harbor can rise and fall by more than two metres in a day.
Then there are dodge tides, a South Australian name for a neap tide with very little rise and fall over a day or two. During a dodge, the low tide you’d normally wait for may barely arrive.
That’s why the tide is part of agreeing a time for a beach search. The Bureau of Meteorology publishes tide predictions for Port Adelaide (Outer Harbor), along with charts showing when dodge tides are due.
Why sooner is better
Adelaide’s sand is always on the move. The state government describes the coast from Kingston Park to Outer Harbor as essentially one long beach, with wind and waves moving sand north. Sand builds up at places like Glenelg and Semaphore and washes away at others, like Seacliff, West Beach and Henley Beach South.
Busy beaches get walked over all day, and some are cleaned by the council. None of that means your ring is gone, but every tide, windy day and footstep can change what’s sitting on top of it. If you can, get in touch the same day.
What a beach search with me looks like
- We talk first. What you lost, where, when and what you were doing. Your map pin and photos help. If I don’t think a search is worthwhile, I’ll say so.
- We agree the cost. $150 covers the callout and the first hour, and a standard search is $250 at most (how pricing works).
- I search the agreed area properly. Overlapping sweeps, one signal at a time. A small gold ring can sound a lot like foil or a ring-pull (which ring metals a detector picks up), so I check every signal in the area, not just the ones that sound promising.
- Permission comes first. Beaches are usually council land, and some stretches are marine park sanctuary zones or conservation parks, so I check what’s allowed before we start.
- If I find it, it goes straight back to you. The fee is for my time, never for handing your ring over.
Beach by beach, Sellicks to North Haven
Based in Adelaide’s south, I search the metropolitan coast from Sellicks Beach to North Haven. Wherever you were, the nearest jetty, surf club, beach access path or car park helps me find the spot. Here’s what’s worth knowing about each stretch.
Southern beaches: O’Sullivan Beach to Sellicks Beach
City of Onkaparinga. Cars are allowed on parts of the beach at Moana, Aldinga, Silver Sands and Sellicks Beach (the stretch of Aldinga Beach south of its access ramp is closed to cars from 1 May to 30 September), so tell me if you’d parked on the sand. Port Noarlunga Reef (including the end of the jetty), Aldinga Reef and the old Port Stanvac jetty are marine park sanctuary zones, which reach up to the high-water mark, so I check what’s allowed before searching the reef, the wet sand or the water there. Moana Sands Conservation Park at Moana and Aldinga Scrub Conservation Park at Aldinga Beach are protected reserves, and metal detecting isn’t allowed inside them.
Hallett Cove and Marino
City of Marion. This is the rocky part of the metro coast: cliffs, small coves and a coastal walkway. Hallett Cove Conservation Park, and Marino Conservation Park on the hillside around the Marino Rocks lighthouse, are protected reserves where metal detecting isn’t allowed. Anywhere else on this stretch, tell me exactly where you were and I’ll check what’s allowed. Rocks make any search slower, so the more exactly you can show me the spot, the better.
Bayside: Kingston Park to Glenelg
City of Holdfast Bay. Glenelg’s wide, busy beach sits beside the jetty and Moseley Square, and Brighton’s jetty is an easy landmark too. Sand builds up at Glenelg and is pumped to beaches further south in the off-peak season, while Seacliff tends to lose sand. Holdfast Bay’s by-laws protect the dunes and control digging on council land, so I check the council’s rules before any search.
Western beaches: West Beach to Semaphore Park
Cities of West Torrens and Charles Sturt. Henley Square sits behind Henley Jetty, and Grange Jetty stands midway along Grange Beach. West Beach and Henley Beach South are among the places where sand washes away and the state government moves it back. With so many similar-looking stretches of sand, a photo of the view behind you helps a lot.
Northern beaches: Semaphore to North Haven
City of Port Adelaide Enfield. Semaphore’s beach is wide, and sandbars run a long way offshore with holes and channels between them, which matters for any search in the water. Sand drifting north along the coast builds up here. Further on are Largs Bay, with its own jetty, then Taperoo and North Haven.