Thanks all for the welcome, The Durban Beachfront is an interesting mix of detectorists with at least 3 full timers, so competition is fierce, most are friendly and willing to share info and help a newbie, one is downright rude and see's the rest of us as thieves encroaching on his livelihood. In silver coins the detector is paid 3 times over in these few short months and I only do it part time. In addition to that, one Gold ring with 6 sapphires and 6 diamond chips, 2 gold wedding bands the heaviest weighing in at 16 grams, a gold watch, Samsung cell phone, Gold bracelet, a few old coins, single earrings, probably a dozen copper rings, and 3 silver rings.
So as you can see the hobby has been very kind to me. However my greatest find has definitely been my health, I work on computer all day and did not get a huge amount of exercise. Detecting every morning from 5am to 8 am ,I have lost an amazing 12 or more kilo's tramping up and down beaches. I feel fit and healthy without dieting at all. So I must give Kudos to an amazing hobby. Last week though I did manage to fry my ace 250 in the surf whilst not paying attention and answering questions to a friendly tourist, the sale of a gold ring found on the beach paid for the repairs and I am back in business. Happy detecting all and thank you for an informative site.