Stand still. A ring that comes off on a beach does not travel — it is almost certainly in the sand directly under where you were.
Your problem is not the sea. It is that you fly home on Tuesday, and nobody on this island knows you.
Half of Tenerife's beaches are volcanic and dark. That sand is full of iron and it makes a detector chatter, so whoever searches has to balance the machine to the ground and work slowly. It is not hopeless, it is slower — and it is a reason to name the beach rather than say "the south".
Weight is on your side. Gold sinks straight down and stays put rather than drifting sideways. What a metal detector can and cannot find.
Las Teresitas — imported, very fine sand and a long strip between the palms and the water. Most losses here are towel losses: the ring comes off with the sun cream, or goes out of a pocket when the shorts get shaken.
Los Cristianos and Las Vistas — calm water, a lot of people standing in it. If it came off while you were swimming, the circle is small: rings do not come off out at sea, they come off where you can still stand.
Costa Adeje and Playa Jardín — sheltered south, swell in the north. Say which, because a searcher brings different equipment to flat water than to surf.
Windy almost every day, which is why the kitesurfers come. It is the one beach on the island where the spot genuinely changes overnight: dry sand drifts, and a ring that was near the surface is under more of it by morning. If it happened there, post the same day rather than at the end of your holiday.
Montaña Roja, the red hill at the end of the beach, is a nature reserve, and so is the sand around it. Nobody takes a detector in there. The town beach is a different matter; say which side of the hill you were on.
Most people notice at the airport or unpacking. That is not the end of it. You do not have to be on the island for somebody to search — you only have to say roughly where you were and which day. A stretch of beach and a date is enough to start.
Not on the plane yet? What to do before you fly home.
The water is between nineteen and twenty-three degrees most of the year. That sounds warm and it is still cold enough for fingers to shrink, which is why so many of these losses happen in the first swim of the day.
The dunes are closed. Maspalomas, Corralejo and any dune system are protected, and so is any site catalogued by the Cabildo. Searching those needs an authorisation a private person does not hold.
An ordinary beach, and your own property, is a different matter. Canary heritage law regulates archaeological prospecting, not getting your wedding ring back. Either way it is the searcher's responsibility to know which beach they are standing on, not yours.
We do not search ourselves. What we do is put you in touch with the people who like to.
We are new on these islands and we will say so plainly: there may be nobody signed up near your beach yet. If there is not, we go and look for someone. Post the request and we start asking in the island's groups and forums.
Searchers see a rough circle, never your exact point. Only the person you choose gets that, and only once you have chosen them.
No money goes through Retrievly. If you want to thank whoever goes out for you, you arrange that with them directly.
Two things decide most of it: how soon the request goes up, and how tightly you can draw the area. Same day with a spot somebody can stand on is a very different job from a whole beach a fortnight later. Retrievly does not vet or check anyone — meet in daylight, somewhere public.
Post a requestNo account needed, not even to post. We ask for your email at the very end, nothing else.
Kenny built Retrievly. He has snorkelled the Danube for years and keeps bringing up things that belong to other people: wallets with the ID still in them, phones, keys. That is where Retrievly came from.
More about Kenny