This Christmas, I did something I’ve never done before, at least as long as I can remember. My wife always tells me around Christmas time that I’m the hardest person to shop for, because I never ask for anything. I’m sure many of you know how that goes. Yeah, I have things that I want, but I have everything I truly need, so if someone wants to get me something for Christmas, I prefer to leave it up to them to decide. But since I retired back in March, we need to keep a closer eye on finances, so we decided we should get each other things that we really want, instead of wasting money by buying things that just don’t hit the want/desired list.

So, this year, I worked up a list of things I’d like to have, and 5 of the things on my list were detecting related. I wound up getting 3 out of the 5, but the 3 things I received were things I REALLY wanted, the other 2 were things I can pick up myself. Here’s the 3 things I was extremely happy to receive today:

• Garrett Finds Pouch. I’ve been needing a new finds pouch for beach & water hunting as I’ve been using my current pouch for well over the last 10 years, and although I flush my pouch with fresh water after every hunt, the zippers are at the point of not wanting to close due to being exposed to copious amounts of sand & salt water. It also smells like the ocean, lol. The Garrett is a nice pouch, there’s a large pocket, a medium size pocket, both pockets have mesh at the bottom to allow water & sand to flow through. Then there’s a smaller pouch that I’ll use to hold rings, bling, small items of higher value. There’s also a stiff holster for my pinpointer and a ring to attach a bungee to the pinpointer. Looks very well made, can’t wait to try it.

• Inside The Metal Detector Third Edition by Carl Moreland. I’ve wanted Carl’s book for some time. I’ve seen Carl around on a few forums, as well as his own forum Geotech. He’s jumped in to contribute to some of my threads and has answered some questions I had about PI’s. This book is HUGE, MASSIVE, and at 612 pages, I don’t think I should even call it a book; it’s more like an encyclopedia. I thumbed through and my head exploded from what seems to be an unlimited amount of detailed information about anything you ever wanted to know about metal detectors. Carl discusses electronics, different detector technologies, provides schematics along with circuit drawings, and I’m just scratching the surface. I’m glad I’m now retired because it’s going to take me a good amount of time to get through this one. But if anyone has any questions about metal detectors, I bet this book will have the answers they seek.

• The Beach Book, Science of the Shore by Carl H. Hobbs. I saw a reference to this book on another forum so I checked into it and liked what I saw. Although there are books available from beach detectorists that cover site reading a beach, best times to hunt, etc., I want to learn the science of beaches, what causes sand to be deposited or stripped off a beach, how do tides, currents, wind and moon cycles really affect the beach. I’d like to learn more about how beaches work from a scientist, someone who could explain things from a deep professional perspective. I don’t think Carl Hobbs is a detectorist, but he is a Professor of Marine Science at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at the College of William & Mary. His research interest includes coastal geology and processes, the geologic history of the Chesapeake Bay (my territory) and the surrounding region, marine archaeology, and the environmental consequences of marine sand mining and beach nourishment.

So “Santa” was very good to me this year with some nice detecting goodies that I’ve been wanting. Anybody else get detecting related goodies today? If so, reply and post what Santa brought ya!