Metal detecting in a foreign country?

[Shooter]

We will be thinking of you when we fire up the chainsaw for our dive......... ;D

Have a great trip. Loot & pillage. Remember the #1 rule......  FINDERS KEEPERS You can count on me to keep a secret and help recover the loot 8)

[Jolly_mon]

Good luck let us know what you find!  (and what you sneak through customs  > )

Shooter do you have room on your ice dives for another diver?  I got my ice certification last year and haven't had the chance yet this year to get out and ice dive, my schedule has been real tight up until (this Saturday) then opens up a little more  ;D and I'd like to get out.

[Shooter]

Sure, we always have room for another diver. This weekend, I have psd training, next weekend I will be diving in the Florida Keys. The weekend of the 23rd will probably be looking good as my gear will be needing a good fresh water rinse 8)

[Jolly_mon]

have fun diving in the Keys!  Last (Only) time I was there got chased out by a hurricane    Got out twice on a charter boat ride, first time they turned around when everyone turned green.  Second time we got in the water in a real heavy surge.  Then they kicked us out of the keys... 

Dang, foiled again, 23rd I'll be at the DIP show..

[arcFlash]

The show is only Saturday, I would expect Sunday.

I have plans to dive Sat and Sunday with some WI friends. That means I miss the show. I'll probably just drop in to buy books and some gear and then go dive.

[DetectorGuy]

Well, We made it back... and short of a $200 bribe to the policia for driving without a seat-belt, we stayed out of the clink. It was a wild week with alot of incredible memories. We dove 4 times and even did my first 90' wreck dive. The wreck was the120' long C-56 Mexican Navy ship that was purposely sunk as an artificial reef. I found out what fire coral feels like on that dive. We helped the Mexican AIF agents get their suburban unstuck. We pushed and my wife drove it while sitting  next to their sub machineguns. No they did not let me shoot them for repayment. We saw a couple scorpion fish. We saw a huge Green Moray (about 14" from top of his head to the bottom and later on the diveboat the divemaster said it was over 3 meters long.) We saw several stingrays but no eagle-rays. We saw a Frigate bird flying over the very crowded beach with an eel in its mouth. (there was alot of screaming and running sunbathers underneath it). I took 8 rolls of film underwater and Mexican security made me run them through the X-ray at the airport and they were kinda screwed up. I did bring both metal detectors down there but I only used them on the beach. On the photos below: the first one is me, the second one is the divemaster holding a scorpion fish, the third one is Jeff and me (I'm the one posing with no regulator at 90') ;D, and the last one is swimming through the wreck. The one memory that I cant currently forget is the rash and blisters on the side of my knee from that damned fire coral.

[Jolly_mon]

Sounds like a great trip!  To bad you couldn't get in the water with the detectors and find some of the buried treasure around there 

[SCUBA Dog]

Detector Guy,

Just back from a recent trip to Cozumel. On arrival, going through Mexican Customs, they had an X-ray machine set up. Some people were told to put all of their luggage through the machine. When told to put mine through, I asked in my best Spanish if she wanted all of them put through the machine. She pointed to one of my four bags and said only that one. Just wondering if you had the same experience on your trip and if your luggage with the detectors was x-rayed?

"99"

[DetectorGuy]

The Mexican customs have a weird lottery system for who they check. They only check every tenth person. I never heard of them just checking one bag of the tenth persons luggage. I had the detectors in my checked luggage and did not have any problem with them until the return trip. We had a 1.5 hour lay over in Houston. When we left Cancun they couldn't get the door shut for 1/2 hour and made the lay over only 1 hour. when we got to Houston we needed to claim our checked bags, go through customs,and then get them back on a different plane in 1 hour... during this the tram broke down with us on it between one end of the airport and the other. (keep in mind we had 4 kids with us) We got to the gate at 5 minutes to the scheduled departure and then they told us that Houston airport will shut down for 2 hours because of bad storms overhead. When we got to MPLS at 2:00 AM all of the checked luggage was there except for one of mine with the two detectors in it. I filled out the "missing bag" forms and expected the worst. They sent my bag to my house via a courrier two days later. everything in the bag was there and intact with no "inspection tag" inside. I dont know if it was just a fluke or if security didn't like the detectors ) I did take the batteries out of the detectors and I had them all dissassembled to prevent breakage. The "Security" in Mexico (if thats what you want to call it) WOULD NOT hand inspect the underwater 35 mm film and after arguing with this "Pancho Villa wannabe" for 5 minutes I backed down and just ran it through the X-ray. The learning lesson for me was that Im not going to screw around with 35 mm film anymore and I just talked my wife into letting me purchase the SeaLife Reefmaster Mini digital camera (SL325) with the external flash and the seperate wide angle lense. I know there are better cameras but this will fit my needs well I think. I havent pulled the trigger on this purchase yet so if anyone could help steer me in the right direction, I would appreciate that.

[SCUBA Dog]

In Cozumel, they did the red light / green light for everyone. A red light meant further inspection, but everyone had to put their luggage through the X-ray machine. Some, as in my case only had to put one or two bags through, while others had to put all of their luggage through. We flew into Cacun last year and I don't remember them using X-ray, unless it was done behind the scenes.