November 2020

Sunday 22/11/20 - John rang to ask if I could find his sentimental wedding ring which he'd lost while surfing at Leighton Beach near Fremantle, WA.  

I replied with a drawn out 'yyeeeesss', thinking immediately of a recent night where I witnessed 3 lads wrestling a 2.5m tiger shark they'd caught in the surf at Port Beach, just 500m south of Leighton Beach.  However, I shook that off and met John about an hour later at the site trying to ignore any thoughts of sharky complications, as the ONLY weather window for a search was right away. It was then I learned he'd been surfing along a 300m stretch of coast.. ok then!  

I managed to search about 60m along the surf zone before mother nature tossed me out.  I had to tell John that the swell would be getting worse and was going to stay that way for the foreseeable future, preventing any further searching for now.

It was a full week later before a nice low tide and swell saw me meet John and his wife Elle to get her recollections of where John had been at the time he'd discovered his ring was missing. She identified the same area as John,  which I was already working my way through.. in and out in the surf zone. 

I got another 70m done before the increasing wind and tides sent me packing again.  At this point I think John had given up hope as I'd pretty well searched the maximum area they'd both indicated. As they'd left I'd said don't replace it just yet though.  

I went back and resumed the search on a few days later when again low swell meet low tide. 

Whilst searching, a couple of lifesavers ran along the beach and called me out of the water, waving a mock dorsal fin on their heads!  I hadn't heard the shark alarm due to my threshold being turned up high to hear it over the pounding surf.  They couldn't tell me where the shark was sighted so I took my chances and resumed my search of the surf  - though now with a very "heightened sense of my environment".  Bingo, moments later, perseverance and belief pays off once again.. shining in the bottom of my scoop was John's ring!  

When I rang with the news, he said "you're joking aren't you" several times.. of course I wasn't. 

I later met his wife Elle to deliver the ring so I can only imagine his reaction when he saw it again later but as you can see Elle was pretty happy about the outcome herself.  

My pleasure guys, merry Xmas.