I brought my Surf Pi Dual Field back to Bermuda from Canada last week and this weekend I got it out for some preliminary trials in Bermuda waters. The first thing I noticed about the DF was the big coil but the light weight compared to my Excal 1000, this new machine swings like a feather compared to the Excal. The light 12" coil was a real treat in the wet sand and ankle deep water but once I got out to knee deep and deeper the lightness was a negative feature because the 'neutral' bouyancy coil is actually a 'positive' bouyancy coil. The stock S shaft made it difficult to keep the floating coil firmly on the bottom, especially when there were irregularities in the bottom. A weighted sock full of sand would cure this but I'm thinking about other options that won't increase drag underwater as this coil likes to swing fast, I'll let everyone know when I brainstorm a better solution.
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On Saturday evening I took the DF to my beach to familiarize myself with it as I know this beach inside and out, plus I've pounded it into submission with the Excal 1000 for the last 2 years and it rarely produces anymore; if the DF could find targets here then it would be a significant improvement over the Excal. I only managed 3 targets in 1 hour in the water with the DF using standard settings. The targets were a fishing weight (12"), a heavily encrusted spark plug (8") and an old iron ship's spike (over 18" deep), not exceptional but the odds were stacked against the DF on my hunted out beach and it was only a 1 hour trial.
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This morning I caught a late Surf Church at Horseshoe Bay, this beach was heavily sanded in by Bertha a couple of months ago and has produce very little since then. I had a new plan for this morning's hunt and set the Gain at Max to the stop, the Delay I left at zero or off and the Threshold was barely audible. In the wet sand the DF gave a little chatter but had no problem sourcing bottle caps and pull tabs over 18" deep (this is the nut on the left of the picture, my beach nut is on the right). I'm going to have to get a better feel for ferrous vs. non-ferrous or I'm going to have much bigger biceps.
After almost an hour of heavy digging in the wet sand to knee deep water I decided to try going to the Mine and the DF started to squeal as the big swells would roll past. It was very tricky keeping the coil on the bottom without any extra weight on the coil, as the salt water pulled past the bottom of the coil it would let out a squeal with each wave. I found a little shelter from the 3' - 4' swell behind some rocks and the DF quieted right down. Almost immediately I got a solid tone without any of the scrathiness that seems to define ferrous targets, 3 x 12" scoopfuls later I had a 10k white gold band in my scoop which was also the only target I came across in the Mine. Having cooled off in the Mine and seeing that the lifeguards were starting to straggle in I bailed out of the surf and called the trial a success.
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I found a few more ferrous than normal but not an awful lot more, as I learn the ferous tone better this should decrease significantly, especially on deep targets. Running the DF flat out in the low mineralization of Bermuda wasn't a big problem so I think it's a winner and will only get better when I outfit it with a straight shaft and some weighting.
Cheers,
BDA
[attachment 102593 P8230009-1.JPG]
On Saturday evening I took the DF to my beach to familiarize myself with it as I know this beach inside and out, plus I've pounded it into submission with the Excal 1000 for the last 2 years and it rarely produces anymore; if the DF could find targets here then it would be a significant improvement over the Excal. I only managed 3 targets in 1 hour in the water with the DF using standard settings. The targets were a fishing weight (12"), a heavily encrusted spark plug (8") and an old iron ship's spike (over 18" deep), not exceptional but the odds were stacked against the DF on my hunted out beach and it was only a 1 hour trial.
[attachment 102595 P8230005-1.JPG]
This morning I caught a late Surf Church at Horseshoe Bay, this beach was heavily sanded in by Bertha a couple of months ago and has produce very little since then. I had a new plan for this morning's hunt and set the Gain at Max to the stop, the Delay I left at zero or off and the Threshold was barely audible. In the wet sand the DF gave a little chatter but had no problem sourcing bottle caps and pull tabs over 18" deep (this is the nut on the left of the picture, my beach nut is on the right). I'm going to have to get a better feel for ferrous vs. non-ferrous or I'm going to have much bigger biceps.
After almost an hour of heavy digging in the wet sand to knee deep water I decided to try going to the Mine and the DF started to squeal as the big swells would roll past. It was very tricky keeping the coil on the bottom without any extra weight on the coil, as the salt water pulled past the bottom of the coil it would let out a squeal with each wave. I found a little shelter from the 3' - 4' swell behind some rocks and the DF quieted right down. Almost immediately I got a solid tone without any of the scrathiness that seems to define ferrous targets, 3 x 12" scoopfuls later I had a 10k white gold band in my scoop which was also the only target I came across in the Mine. Having cooled off in the Mine and seeing that the lifeguards were starting to straggle in I bailed out of the surf and called the trial a success.[attachment 102597 P8230008-1.JPG]
I found a few more ferrous than normal but not an awful lot more, as I learn the ferous tone better this should decrease significantly, especially on deep targets. Running the DF flat out in the low mineralization of Bermuda wasn't a big problem so I think it's a winner and will only get better when I outfit it with a straight shaft and some weighting.
Cheers,
BDA