Tel Aviv and the central coast
When a wedding band slips off during a game of matkot on Gordon beach, two people saw the game, and your partner's memory of where you stood can count for as much as yours. A band that left the hand mid-swing may have landed behind you or in front of you, so both ends of the rally matter.
Ring Seekers is a lost ring and jewellery recovery service that connects people who lost a ring, wedding band, watch, keys or phone in Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Bat Yam, Netanya, Ashdod or Ashkelon with a metal detectorist who can search there.
Tell us what happened and where. We find a detectorist who can reach the beach, brief them with your map and photos, and tell you honestly if the odds are poor.
Before the paddles go back in the bag, each of you walks to your own end of the rally and saves a location there. Agree on which way each of you was facing, and whether the ball, or anyone chasing it, ended up in the water. Add the time of day to your notes.
Every lifeguarded beach on this coast has its own station and its own name, from Metzitzim in Tel Aviv to Oranim in Ashdod. Tell us the station you were closest to. In Ashkelon, give the part of the promenade or the marina instead.
The beaches named here are the ones with lifeguards. In Ashkelon, the page covers the promenade and the marina.
Tel Aviv's promenade runs right behind these beaches, with people walking, jogging and cycling along it and cafés busy all day. Gordon and Geula are both known for beach volleyball, and on Saturday mornings Israeli folk dancing starts up at Gordon. Gordon, Frishman and Bograshov each have a way down to the water for people who find the sand hard going.
Hilton is a surfing and windsurfing beach, and a lighting system lets surfers stay out after dark, so say if it happened late. Metzitzim and Nordau are the next beaches along, beside the old port.
Jerusalem beach, also called Allenby, lies where Allenby Street reaches the sea and has a step-free way to the water. On Friday afternoons a drum circle gathers by the old Dolphinarium, between Jerusalem beach and Aviv, and dancers join the drummers. Aviv draws kite surfers and windsurfers, with volleyball on its southern part.
At Acadia North a deck runs almost to the waterline, the central part of Acadia draws teenagers, and Acadia South sits right beside the marina, where you can join the promenade from the south. Zvulun lies between Acadia and HaSharon, and its building houses a sea scouts group. At HaSharon you walk in through a row of arches and along a paved path next to a lawn, and families with children come at weekends.
Bat Yam's lifeguarded beaches include Jerusalem beach, HaSela and Riviera, with a promenade running behind the sand and a pier on the seafront. Because Tel Aviv also has a Jerusalem beach, put the town's name in your message. If you walked out on the pier, give it a pin of its own.
Sironit lies below the Rishonim Promenade, and a see-through lift carries people from the promenade down to the water's edge. Its bays are calm enough for swimming almost all year, which brings families with small children. Herzl beach, below Atzmaut Square in the city centre, has a spot set aside for sailing catamarans and is where surfing lessons are held. Onot is the lively one, with music from its beachfront restaurant. Poleg, at the southern end of the city's beaches, has shaded pavilions, a beach soccer pitch and volleyball nets, and its northern side is kept for jet skis and other motor sports.
Ashdod's beaches begin at Mei Ami, where the Lachish stream reaches the sea and the new promenade starts. HaKshatot, also called Gandy, is the beach people in Ashdod know best. Yud Alef is meant mainly for families, and Oranim, where the promenade ends, is quieter than the rest. Further south, Nitzanim is the only lifeguarded beach between Ashdod and Ashkelon, with parking, showers and shade, and the Nitzanim dunes rolling away behind the sand. In Ashkelon, a promenade with trees and lawns follows the cliff edge above Bar Kochba beach, and the marina, with restaurants and cafés inside its gates, lies just south of it.
Whoever held the other paddle was looking your way the whole game. The detectorist gets both accounts, side by side, together with each of your pins.
Nobody new joins halfway. The story of the matkot game reaches the detectorist from the person you first told it to, and the outcome reaches you from them too.
If all you know is that it went somewhere along the Tel Aviv seafront, with no beach or lifeguard station to go on, that is a long shot, and you would hear that from us first.
We explain the costs before any search is booked, and only then do we look at dates with a detectorist.
A few of our questions depend on which kind of beach it was.
The bays at Sironit in Netanya are calm enough for swimming almost all year. For a swim that ended without it, name the bay and say whether you kept close to the shore.
Hilton in Tel Aviv is a surfing beach, and surfing lessons run at Herzl beach in Netanya. If you were on a board when it went, tell us which lifeguard station you paddled out in front of.
Every lifeguard station on the Tel Aviv beaches flies a coloured flag for the state of the sea. If you noticed the colour that day, it tells the detectorist what the water was like.
With the two ends of the rally. Matkot is played along the shoreline, and Gordon is one of Tel Aviv's volleyball beaches too, so name the lifeguard station you were nearest. Each of you pins your own end, and one of you takes a picture of the court from the promenade side with both towels in it. And if the ball rolled into the sea and someone waded after it, mention that too.
Bat Yam has a Jerusalem beach, and so does Tel Aviv, so a message that only says Jerusalem beach could mean either city. HaSela and Riviera are two more of its lifeguarded beaches, with the promenade running behind them. Think back to the last time the phone came out, perhaps for a picture of the children, and pin that spot as well as the one where your blanket lay.
Start with the lift. It runs from the Rishonim Promenade down to the water's edge, so tell us whether you remember the watch at the top, in the lift or only on the sand. If you swam, mention which bay. A picture of you wearing it earlier that day helps.
It does, because Acadia comes in three parts: the northern end, with two lifts and a deck almost to the waterline, the middle section, and the southern end beside the marina. Volleyball, footvolley and beach soccer are played there in season, so tell us if you joined a game.
The drum circle meets by the old Dolphinarium, between Jerusalem beach and Aviv beach, and dancers crowd in close to the drummers. Pin where you were dancing and where your bag was left. If friends filmed the drumming, their videos may show where you stood. A photo of it on your wrist helps too.
Yes. HaKshatot, which people in Ashdod also call Gandy, is in the middle of the town's line of beaches, with cafés and restaurants on its eastern side and football and volleyball pitches on the sand. The beach is lit at night, which helps if the keys went after dark. Let us know if you were by the pitches or up near the cafés, and whether you swam before you noticed.
The promenade follows the edge of the cliff above the beach, lined with trees and lawns, and the marina lies just south of it. If the children ran about on the grass, pin the patch of lawn they played on. If the family walked on to the marina for a meal, pin that route as well.
Tel Aviv and the central coast
One of you starts the WhatsApp chat. When we ask, the other sends their own pin and their own memory of the rally, kept separate from yours, so the detectorist gets two views of the same stretch of sand.
Real searches from this area, each told in full on its own page.
A white gold wedding ring was lost in the dry sand at Jerusalem Beach in Tel Aviv. The owner messaged us at lunchtime, and the ring was found less than two hours later.
