I appreciate your confidence Earl, but I've never considered hunting with others to be a competition, but more of a team/group effort, unless I was entered in a specific organized treasure hunt competition. I know you always want to turn every hunt into a competition, but nowadays, I just enjoy hunting at my pace, I find what I find, congratulate the other guys for their finds, then clean up, go to dinner with the guys, and laugh & spin yarns about the rings that "got away", lol.
I go for the camaraderie, enjoyment, thrill of the hunt, exercise, being out on a beach and in water, and also the possibility of making some really nice old finds. Although I love finding cheddar as much as the next guy, I always get a special thrill when I find IHP's. I got my start detecting as a kid, coinshooting for old coins, so finding old coins, especially IHP's, would make my day. Finds or not, every hunt gains me more experience and teaches me something along with the good times I have. As I always say; "A bad day detecting on the beach beats a good day at the office", lol.
BTW, KOB is a much more accomplished beach hunter than I, and he's actually hunted rock covered beaches, where the beaches I've hunted may have held smaller rocks, pebbles, crushed seashells, but nowhere near as large as the rocks in KOB's pic or on Craig's beach, so that type of hunting would be totally new to me, so put me down as a "Hunting the beach between large rocks & boulders rookie". KOB would definitely have the advantage over yours truly. But then again, who friggin' cares, lol. A blind squirrel finds an acorn every now and then, so maybe I just might stumble upon a nice chunk o'cheddar, lol.