Barrie and Georgian Bay
Your glasses came off in the swimming area at Centennial Beach
Swim buoy lines and drop-off markers off Centennial Beach give anyone who lost glasses in the water a line to measure from.
Glasses that went under at Centennial Beach can be looked for, because the swimming area has a fixed outer edge in the buoy line. How far a search gets depends on how well you can place yourself between that line and the sand.
Ring Seekers is a lost ring and jewellery recovery service that connects people who lost a ring, wedding band, watch, keys or phone in Barrie, Wasaga Beach or Collingwood with a metal detectorist who can search there.
Tell us what happened and where. We find a detectorist who can reach the beach, the park or your backyard, brief them with your map and photos, and tell you honestly if the odds are poor.
If a ring went missing in your own backyard and you know the corner, metal detector hire and an hour on the lawn may settle it. Glasses somewhere off Centennial Beach, or a chain lost in the sand at Wasaga, is far more ground, and for that we find a detectorist.
Lining yourself up with the shore
At the water's edge, level with where you were swimming, note what stands on the beach in front of you: a lifeguard chair, a part of the boardwalk, a tree. Photograph that view, then turn and photograph the buoy line. If lifeguards are on duty at Centennial or Johnson's Beach, tell one of them what went missing.
Later, drop two pins on your map, one where you went into the water and one where you think the glasses came off. On Wasaga's beach, the nearest numbered street does that job. On the grass, a field, a court or the pavilion stands in for the buoys.
Places we cover in Barrie and Georgian Bay
- Barrie
- Centennial Beach and Centennial Park, Barrie
- Johnson's Beach, Barrie
- Minet's Point Park and Beach, Barrie
- Tyndale Park and Beach, Barrie
- Will Dwyer Park, Barrie
- Heritage Park, Barrie
- The Barrie Waterfront Trail
- Wasaga Beach
- Beach Area 1, the Main End, and Beach Area 2, Wasaga Beach
- New Wasaga and Allenwood beaches, Wasaga Beach
- Beach Areas 3, 4, 5 and 6 along Shore Lane, Wasaga Beach
- Wasaga Sports Park
- The Sports Park canoe launch on the Nottawasaga River
- The Recplex band shell at Oakview Woods, Wasaga Beach
- Collingwood
- Sunset Point Beach and Black Rock, Collingwood
- Sunset Point Park, Collingwood
- Cottage docks and home gardens nearby
Barrie's bay beaches, Wasaga's shore and Sunset Point
Barrie's City beaches and parks on Kempenfelt Bay, the beach and Town grounds in Wasaga Beach and the Sunset Point waterfront in Collingwood.
Centennial Beach and Centennial Park, Barrie
Centennial Park and Beach is on Lakeshore Drive, with a playground in the park, a boardwalk and swim buoy lines anchored out from the sand. In the lifeguard season an accessibility mat crosses the sand from the boardwalk towards the water's edge, laid between two of the numbered lifeguard chairs.
Johnson's Beach and Minet's Point, Barrie
Johnson's Beach, on Johnson Street, is a City beach with its own parking lot and lifeguard chairs. Minet's Point Park and Beach, on Lismer Boulevard, has a playground and a picnic shelter. Buoy lines with drop-off markers are anchored at both.
Tyndale Park and Will Dwyer Park, Barrie
Tyndale Park and Beach on Tyndale Road has a beach volleyball court, a gazebo, a playground and community barbecues. Will Dwyer Park on Lakeshore Drive has its own beach volleyball court, lounger pads along the walkway and a pedestrian bridge.
Heritage Park and the Waterfront Trail, Barrie
Heritage Park on Simcoe Street has a gazebo, a pond and stream crossed by bridges, and the Sea Serpent sculpture. The Waterfront Trail runs along the Barrie waterfront past these parks.
The beach areas at Wasaga
Wasaga Beach sits on Nottawasaga Bay, and its long sandy shore is split into numbered beach areas reached from Mosley Street. Beach Area 1, the Main End, runs from the mouth of the Nottawasaga River to 3rd Street, with a boat launch steps from the sand. Beach Area 2, from 3rd Street to 16th Street, has a boardwalk, a playground, beach volleyball and a picnic area. Across the river mouth, New Wasaga and Allenwood beaches are reached from River Road East. To the west, Beach Area 3 on 22nd Street North has a section where dogs may go on the sand, Beach Area 4 on 24th Street North has shallow water for bathing, and Beach Areas 5 and 6 follow Shore Lane.
Wasaga Sports Park, Wasaga Beach
The Sports Park on Klondike Park Road is a Town complex with ball diamonds, full-size and mini soccer fields, and a covered picnic pavilion. A canoe launch with a floating dock sits on the Nottawasaga River beside the Klondike Park Road bridge.
The Recplex band shell, Wasaga Beach
The Recplex band shell stands at the Oakview Woods Outdoor Complex on Mosley Street, which has entertainment in the summer.
Sunset Point, Collingwood
Sunset Point Beach, also known as Black Rock, is a Town of Collingwood waterfront park on Nottawasaga Bay along St Lawrence Street, with green space, volleyball courts and a pavilion. Close by, Sunset Point Park has playground structures.
What happens at our end
Told once
You describe the swim or the game once, on WhatsApp, to the person who arranges the search and reports back.
The shore shot goes with the brief
Your two pins, the shore photo and a picture of the glasses or ring reach the detectorist before the search.
Nothing to line up with
If you swam out past the buoys and cannot say where along the beach you went in, it is a long shot, and you would hear that from us first.
Costs, early on
We explain the costs before any search is booked, together with what we make of the chances at that beach or field.
Bay water, sand and grass
From the swimming area and the sand out to the playing fields.
Between the sand and the buoys
Swim buoy lines with drop-off markers are anchored at Centennial, Johnson's, Minet's Point and Tyndale beaches. Say whether you were close to the sand, near a drop-off marker or out by the line itself.
Groomed sand in Barrie
Grooming machines clean Centennial, Johnson's, Minet's Point and Tyndale beaches during the beach season, so note the date and time of the loss.
Diamonds, fields and courts
At the Wasaga Sports Park, the diamond or field and the spot on the sideline where the team kit sat give the detectorist a start. At Sunset Point it is the volleyball court or the pavilion. At a cottage, sketch the lawn and the steps down to the dock.
Questions about Barrie and Georgian Bay
My glasses were knocked off when I ducked under the water inside the buoy line at Centennial Beach.
Start from the shore. Say which lifeguard chair you were nearest, with its number if you noticed it, then how far out you had gone: close to the sand, halfway to the buoys, or beside a drop-off marker. Tell us the colour and shape of the frames and what they are made of. A friend's photo of you in the water, with the boardwalk behind you, helps most of all.
I took my wedding band off for a volleyball game at Tyndale Beach, and it is not in my bag.
Then it may never have been near the water at all. Tyndale Park has a beach volleyball court, a gazebo and a playground, so mark the court, the place your bag sat beside it and anywhere you went afterwards. Say where you put the band when you took it off.
We ate lunch in the picnic shelter at Minet's Point, and the car keys were gone by the time we reached the parking lot.
Start at the shelter and work outward: the table you used, the playground if the children went there, your patch of beach, then the path back to the car. Tell us what hangs on the key ring, a fob, a tag or a charm, and whether the keys stayed in a pocket or sat on the table while you ate.
I was helping the children in the Heritage Park water feature, and afterwards my Oura ring was missing.
Say whether you stood in the spray or sat at the edge, and whether you then walked the paths past the pond and the bridges, the gazebo or the gardens. A photo of the ring on your hand, or of the same model, shows the detectorist its size and finish.
I finished a soccer match at the Wasaga Sports Park with a bare wrist.
The Sports Park has full-size, three-quarter and mini soccer fields, so the size of the one you played on already narrows it. Then give your position in the game, the bench or sideline where your kit sat, and any stop afterwards at the picnic pavilion or the Fernbrook Centre. Describe the watch and say whether the clasp was open or broken when you noticed.
My bracelet caught on the canoe as we lifted it off the floating dock at the Sports Park launch.
The launch is on the north bank of the Nottawasaga River, on the west side of the Klondike Park Road bridge, so the bridge gives you a fixed marker. Say whether you heard a splash or only noticed later, and whether you were on the dock, on the bank or already sitting in the canoe.
My son's gold chain came off while he was digging in the sand at Beach Area 2 in Wasaga.
Beach Area 2 runs from 3rd Street to 16th Street, so the numbered street you parked on fixes your place along the shore. After that, say how far up from the water the hole was, near the boardwalk, the playground or the wet sand, and whether the sand was dug back in. Mention the clasp and roughly how long the chain is.
Somewhere between the parking lot and the stage at the Recplex band shell, one of my earrings dropped.
Place yourself against the stage: straight in front, off to one side, near the back. Say whether you sat on a blanket or a folding chair, and which way you walked in from the parking lot. Send a photo of the earring that is left, held between two fingers so its size is clear.
An engagement ring went missing on a picnic afternoon at Sunset Point in Collingwood.
Sunset Point has a pavilion, volleyball courts and a playground close by. List the afternoon stop by stop, from where the blanket went down to where you packed up, and pin each one. Say whether the ring stayed on the whole time or came off while you ate.
Barrie and Georgian Bay
Start with the photo from the water's edge
The buoy line, the numbered street, the field or the band shell tells us where to begin.
On WhatsApp, send the shore photo or one from the field, your pins, and a few words on the glasses, ring or watch. That is enough to start.