For those among us who stalk the saltwater beaches and wade the waters looking for its treasures I write this story to relate to you one more item of information that you will not hear anywhere else. For the last several nights I have worked the low tides on the saltwater beaches near here and found them remarkably barren. Last night for instance I worked a half mile stretch of beach from the fairly deep water with large waves back to the beach. Of course I had to walk a half mile in one direction at one depth and then turn and take a path a few feet shallower so that my coil would overlap and return to the far side. This process had to be repeated many times and I walked miles working this beach last night with crashing breakers, tons of seaweed in the water and on the beach, and I noticed to my horror later on that the Portuguese Man-O-War stinging jellyfish were showing up too. Suffice it to say that if you have ever been hit by one of these you really know you have trouble. This was not to mention the other sea pests like sting rays and sharks(I remembered last night how that the large fish come in to feed when it gets dark!).

All of the hindrances aside I wanted to find something good last night but as I walked miles I realized that I was missing any signals for long periods except as I neared the rock groins I did get to break the silence with some tin tear off lids that the fishermen threw into the water(Oh joy).

Then I remembered that about a hundred yards from the far rock groin there was a very strong rip tide. You will never spot a rip tide unless you are an old salt because it takes keen observation unless you get caught in one. This tide was clearly obvious because the large beds of seaweed were moving out to sea in a small ribbon of water about 40 to 50 feet across and they were coming into shore everywhere else. When I walked through this rip it pulled my heavy scoop straight out seaward and made walking, not to mention swinging an 8 foot arc almost impossible with wads of seaweed hanging on the loop.

In order to spot a rip without the seaweed and without just blundering into one you need to study the sea foam and ripples. You may look at one and never see it because it really takes a trained eye. Look for the movements of sea foam where everywhere else the foam is moving into shore but in a small strip of water it is flowing back to sea. Another less easy thing to spot is the tiny ripples and this depends on the strength of the rip but there are tiny ripples in the rip that you don't see anywhere else.

That is when I decided to get smart and use my experience. Many people would be smart to avoid the rip tides because they can be very dangerous at times pulling your feet right out from under you and dragging you out to sea. If this happens do NOT swim back to the shore! Swim along the beach until you get out of the rip because they are narrow and the current is going the other way just on the other side of it.

A little concept of mine says something like this "Nothing bad happens unless good follows behind it" and ordinarily the rip is to be avoided as one big bad risk. However I once had a curious observation that along the side of the rip as it nears the shore were deposits of goodies. I never was able to confirm this and did not know if it was true and since I had found nothing but one lens of a pair of sunglasses I decided to work the rip eddy. I notice at my location that the rips may be caused by deformations in the shoreline and sometimes wind and the deep washes that form a steady return path for the sea currents. My observation seemed to indicate that the largest deposit of goodies was on the north/west side of the rip tide and I can not figure out why that may be except the undercurrent feed seems to be coming more from the south/east side and I suppose that this is cause by the prevalent winds and waves in the area.

Sure enough, after hours in silence I started hitting targets and almost right on top of one another. I picked up 5 quarters and some other coins there but alas! no gold! The gold and silver are normally found in these deposits but our efficient water hunters (including me) have cleaned out last years loot from the surf while we wait with baited breath for the thundering hoards which will shortly show up on the summer holidays.

You might say that this was a long story to make a point, but this may be the only information you need to put you onto the nice gold rings and I wanted to relate absolutely everything that I knew about the phenomenon.

Good luck and be careful!