Underwater Treasure hunts

[Dzscubie]

I don’t know if anyone has ever put down on paper the way they run a underwater treasure hunt but I’ve attended a few and the best and most fair I have ever encountered was from back in the late 70’s. Here is how it worked:

1. They took golf balls and marked them with a big B or I or N or G or O

2. The balls were then seeded in the treasure hunt area, enough balls were seeded to allow for the number of divers who signed up for the hunt.

3. Divers were only allowed one golf ball each as they exited the water.

4. Divers registered their ball at a registration desk and were allowed to pick a number from a list under each BINGO heading.

5. If a diver did not find a number they could purchase a unfound number after all divers had checked in.

5. All prizes were divided up on five tables labeled with a Letter from BINGO and with an equal amount of high dollar prizes on it.

6. A bingo machine was used to pick the numbers and as each diver’s number was called they could pick from their Letter table.

This worked great and everyone had a shot at getting a great prize.

So, how was your last treasure hunt run?

 

[Guba]

In our area lakes (Texas), golf balls would simply sink into the soft layer of silt (or perhaps vegetation) on the bottom. It's also very likely that those looking for the golf balls would would stir up the bottom. For that reson, we usually use sinkers with about three feet of line and a float. This helps us to put some distance between the target and the bottom.
Of course, one could always use the BINGO method along with our targets.

 

[DOkie]

In our area, it's called a poker dive. We use colored golf balls in hidden baskets. The first one is bouyed, but from there on out, you have to navigate. You have a buddy and you try to collect all five colored balls. You then get to pick cards based on the number of balls you found. (Five balls equals each diver getting to pick five cards). Then you put together your best poker hand out of the ten cards. The best hand gets the pot (it's $5 entry fee for each diver). You also get the chance to win an air card if you sign up early for the event. We usually have a cook out afterwards where everyone chips in and it's just a lot of fun for everyone. One time the waves were so bad that I lost a fin on the walk back in. The surge was so bad it tipped over all of the baskets. Someone put my fin on a piece of driftwood when it washed up the next day. I never go the chance to say "thank you".