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Tenerife · Canary Islands

Lost a ring on a beach in Tenerife

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.

The first few minutes

  1. Do not walk. Every step is another metre somebody has to sweep later.
  2. Mark the spot. A towel, a shoe, a parasol pushed in. Something the wind will not take.
  3. Do not dig. Dry sand behaves like water. Whatever you stir up sinks.
  4. Photograph it— the spot, and the whole beach with something fixed in frame: a lifeguard tower number, a beach bar, a set of steps.
  5. Write down the time. The tide range here is modest but it still moves the waterline several metres, and the time tells a searcher where the water was.

Black sand changes the search

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.

Where it usually happens

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.

El Médano — windy almost every day. This is the one beach on this list where the spot genuinely changes overnight, so if it happened there, do not wait until the end of your holiday.

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.

If you are already on the plane home

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.

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.

What is not allowed here

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.

Where Retrievly comes in

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.

Your exact spot stays yours

Searchers see a rough circle, never your exact point. Only the person you choose gets that, and only once you have chosen them.

For now, it costs you nothing

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 request

Browsing needs no account. You only sign in to post.

Common questions
I lost my ring on a beach in Tenerife — what do I do first?
Stand still, mark the spot with something heavy, photograph the beach with a fixed landmark in frame, and note the time. Search after that, not before.
Can you use a metal detector on Tenerife beaches?
On an ordinary beach, to recover your own property, it is not prohibited as such. Dunes, protected spaces and catalogued archaeological sites need an authorisation from the Cabildo that a private person does not have. It is the searcher's responsibility, and Retrievly does not check.
I have already flown home. Is it too late?
No. You do not need to be there. Say which beach and which day.
What does it cost?
Nothing at the moment, and no money goes through Retrievly either. A thank-you is arranged directly with the searcher.
Is anybody actually searching on Tenerife?
There may not be, yet. We are new. When a request comes in we go and find someone near that beach and send them the link.
Who writes this

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.

Lost a ring on a beach in Tenerife? | Retrievly