TRAILBLAZING
Whether it falls around sunrise or closer to the witching hour, low tide is when you’ll find Los Osos resident Matt Andrews out on a beach looking for treasure, armed with his metal detector.
While drawing lines in the sand, Andrews grids the ground he covers to avoid missing a spot or scanning the same one twice.
“Sometimes, if you meander, you’re leaving it up to the fate of the gods,” Andrews said around 9 a.m. on a Friday morning at Avila Beach.
Sands of time
To find out more about the Central Coast Treasure Hunters Association, visit cctha.org or send an email to cctreasurehunters@gmail.com. The club holds monthly get-togethers at Equippers Church, located at 1052 E. Grand Ave., Arroyo Grande.
He’s occasionally there as early as 3 a.m., ready to trek the shoreline with the round tip of his Manticore metal detector extended a few feet ahead of him.
That Friday in late May, he came across what appeared to be a broken door handle from a boat and a hairclip, after his metal detector alerted him to a couple of spots for him to dig up.
His philosophy is: No matter what he digs up and finds—whether it’s someone’s “trash or treasure”—he takes it with him to reduce litter on the beach. Andrews said it’s depressing to think about how many empty beer cans he’s found buried in the sand when trash cans aren’t far away.
Leaving the beach less cluttered with foreign objects also helps him achieve “beach karma,” Andrews said with a laugh. That could be responsible for some of the most valuable items his metal detector has led him to, he explained—including a diamond ring he gifted to his wife for Christmas one year.
Andrews first got into metal detecting about three years ago, after learning more about the hobby via YouTube videos. After getting a metal detector of his own, it wasn’t long before he joined the Central Coast Treasure Hunters Association.
Founded in 1984 by a group of metal detector enthusiasts, the collective offers hobbyists a way to meet kindred spirits and share stories about their respective finds. The group meets up at least once a month at Equippers Church in Arroyo Grande. One of its previous meeting spots was the Oceano Train Depot.
The club also hosts periodic group treasure hunt events for members at local parks and beaches. Its most recent hunt took place at Grover Beach in June.
For first-time metal detector users, longtime club member Chris Kennedy recommends starting at a park for the first few rounds, before venturing closer to the coastline.
“Beaches are a lot more difficult. Salt and iron content leads to a lot more false positives,” Kennedy said in an email interview. “Detect parks and soil first.”
Kennedy joined the club about 15 years ago, around two to three years after becoming a metal detector enthusiast.
He’s owned several types of metal detector models over the span of his treasure hunting days, including detectors manufactured in Poland, Bulgaria, and Russia. His current machine of choice is the Minelab Equinox 700.
Club members’ detectors range from traditional long models like the Equinox 700 to short, handheld, wand-shaped detectors nicknamed “pocket detectors” or “pinpointers.”
Some of Kennedy’s favorite experiences as part of his membership with the Central Coast Treasure Hunters Association include occasional collaborations with local nonprofits, such as the Dana Adobe and Cultural Center.
Organizers behind a geology project at the historic Nipomo site once enlisted club members to help survey the area for relics.
“They wanted us to put flags by any metal signatures,” Kennedy said.
The club also collaborates with local law enforcement agencies on occasion, he added.
“We have been called out to locate guns, shell casings, knives, and other items at crime scenes,” Kennedy said, “and to help educate law enforcement on how to use metal detectors properly to find items at crime scenes.”
This article appears in Get Outside – Summer/Fall 2026.