How a Manatee tour guide recovered $1,000 glasses lost underwater on Bradenton Beach
Troy Brown is a modern-day underwater treasure hunter.
As the owner of Nature Boy Troy’s Coastal Adventures, he often dives in search of submerged items.
“I’ve been in Florida since 1970 and scuba certified since I was 12 years old. I probably do about 150 tanks a year diving,” said Brown, who often is tasked with finding underwater lost items for people. “Troy Sorenson is my friend and he runs Dive Florida on Cortez Road. He has a service where he searches with an underwater metal detector for precious jewelry and wedding rings, things people lose when they come down. He sends me his overflow of people looking for other objects besides jewelry. I’ve found GoPro cameras, cell phones, glasses amongst other items.”
As a glasses wearer with a strong prescription, I often fear my glasses sinking into the water while I’m fishing. I wear Croakies or tie fishing line to keep them tight to my head.
One of the best purchases I’ve ever made was a pair of prescription polarized sunglasses to avoid the issues I ran into with contacts. Losing them would emotionally stress me. Not only is there a large monetary expense, but the time and inconvenience of potentially losing my eyesight for an extended time would be draining.
In the middle of last week, Brown received a call from a man named Adam from Rochester, New York. Like me, Adam’s worst fear came true. While on vacation on Anna Maria Island, his fishing cart blew into the water and with it his $1,000 prescription glasses.
“He said it was off the pier on Bradenton Beach in about 15 feet of water,” Brown explained. “Numerous people told him they were probably impossible to find. I always interview someone (to ask) where exactly they dropped it and what way the waves and current were going because that can move the object underwater 10 to 20 feet away from where it fell in.”
When Brown suited up for the mid-60-degree December dive, there was another issue. Visibility was next to nothing, meaning Brown would have a hard time looking around in the silted-up waters.
“When the visibility is that bad, you have to feel around on the bottom for the object before you actually see it,” said Brown. “The visibility was terrible that day and I call it ‘diving by braille.’ Just feeling around underwater for the objects. I think I have done so many dives in poor visibility and difficult strong currents at the Skyway and that’s taught me how to find things and not to panic when you can’t see anything when you’re just feeling around.”
As the anxious spectator watched Brown’s bubbles, it wasn’t long before he returned to the surface.
“It took me about 10 minutes to find them. I felt them before I saw them because of the bad visibility.”
He returned the valuable goods to Adam, not expecting anything in return.
“As far as compensation goes, it’s whatever someone wants to give me. I don’t have a set amount. I just really enjoy being underwater and helping people find stuff they thought was permanently lost.”
