Saturday - April 16, 2011 - Sun Splash Park, Daytona Beach, FL.
Metal detecting at Daytona Beach during Spring Break. Could it get any Better? A outstanding spring day in Florida. 85 Degree air temp, 75 degree water temp, and crowds of people enjoying the outdoors.
For a day at the beach, it couldn't of been better. For a day Metal Detecting, possibly the timing could of been better.
Bob, Doug, Jeff, James, Mickey, and Mike & Connie, made it to Sun Splash Park. As it turned out, worries over parking during spring break at 9:00am were a non issue, as the parking lot wasn't even 20% full at that hour. By 11am though, one would be lucky to find a spot in the lot or on the beach.
After a brief chat, and introductions with Jeff, a new GPAA member, we headed on to the beach. It didn't take long before the group scattered, and members were digging up targets. Earlier on, without the crowds, the detecting went easy, but as the tide lowered, and the crowds came, the group pretty much was limited to newly exposed wet sand, and shallow water. The experience of the day proved that most items found were up where the crowds were relaxing and sunbathing, not where they were swimming.
A packed Daytona beach.
Doug heading in after detecting all morning.
Marty, James and Mickey enjoying lunch.
A typical mornings worth of coins.
After about 2.5 hours of solid detecting, with the crowds at hand, most of the members found themselves up at one of the pavilions.
We compared our finds of the morning, as we enjoyed lunch. Pretty much everyone had a handful of coins, but no one found any gold, (Jewelry that is). Marty did find a bracelet which looks to be silver coated copper, or an alloy of some type, and Mickey found a Faux pearl stud. Other items included 2 matchbox cars, a metal spring, a battery tie down plate for some type of car, along with all the typical junk like bottle caps and aluminum flip tops.
Doug it seems pulled out the best find of the day, an 8gb IPod. Most likely it never will work, as it was under 5-6 inches of wet sand, but it still is a great find.
Doug had the best find with an IPod.
