About me
Bondi Beach - where it all began
Bondi Beach is renowned for it’s aqua blue coloured water- Apple named their first MacBook “Bondi Blue”, Elton John filmed his song ‘Blue Eyes’ on the cliffs overlooking Bondi’s blue water and each day around 50,000 people pack into the 1km stretch of sand to dive into Bondi’s perfectly clear blue water. I’m one of those people, only I’m swimming with an underwater metal detector!
I’ve surfed since I was a kid and when there’s no surf I still like to get in the water. My interest in treasure hunting began one Bondi summer when the surf was small, with no waves I decided to jump in for a snorkel along the rocks at what is not one of my treasure hot spots!
In the water I noticed some coins on the rocks below and I was like ‘that’s pretty cool’ as I dived down to grab them. I didn’t know it at the time, but finding those coins would change my life- excuse the pun!
The next day the surf was flat again, so I got my snorkel & goggles and went out to look for some more coins. Sure enough I found more! I was thinking in my head “How long have these coin been down here?” “how many more coins could be in the water? this was Australia’s busiest beach after all.
I was excited thinking about the amount of things that get lost each year on Bondi- and soon enough I was diving down looking for lost coins and jewellery like a madman. I started working on new techniques to recover treasure and trying different tools.
I nearly drowned with excitement when my brother and I found an old penny, we were screaming underwater. I smile thinking about it now, we had no idea back then about old coins and thought we’d found something really special.
Turns out the penny was worthless but learning more about old coins is just a tiny part of the world that has opened up since I started this new hobby.
I soon bought my first Metal Detector; a Minelab Excalibur 2. Getting ready to use it in the water for first time, I had dollar signs in my eyes thinking about all the money and jewellery I was going to find.
After around 5 minutes in the water my excitement ran out, I had no clue how to use the a metal detector and had just realised just how much trash was in the water, lead sinkers, coke cans, bottle tops you…you get the picture.
I’ve since been treasure hunting for almost a decade and travelled the world in the search of treasure. I’m happy to say that I’ve found plenty of gold and old coins over the years and best of all some really good friends. I also still find plenty of junk that I’m happy to remove from wherever I go.
Although metal detecting doesn’t have the coolest reputation like surfing does – digging a gold ring out of sand underwater is one of the coolest things ever! They say ‘Only a surfer know’s the feeling’ well I can tell you the same goes for treasure hunting. So if you’ve ever wanted to get into the hobby you should!
My motto is- “Anything could be anywhere” but if it’s in the ocean that’s where I’m most likely to find it 😉
Good Luck and Happy Hunting!
Leigh Webber - The Bondi Treasure Hunter
"Anything Could Be Anywhere”