Ontario Ring Recovery Services

The Truth And A Behind The Scenes Look At How, It All Works.

​Over the past three or four weeks, things have been absolutely non-stop here at Ontario Ring Recovery Services. We’ve been running missions all across the province, but I want to take a step back and talk about how that actually happens.

​When the unthinkable happens and someone loses a sentimental ring, a family heirloom, or an irreplaceable piece of jewelry, people often think it’s just a lone detectorist stepping up. But behind the scenes, there is a tight-knit network of highly skilled recovery professionals working together. We share leads, bounce across regions, and step up for each other—all to make sure that no matter where you are in Ontario, when you lose something valuable, someone is there to help bring it home.

​THE WEBSITE DISASTER & REBUILD

Now, to give you a bit of context on why things have been so wild lately… I did something really silly last month. I accidentally deleted my entire Ontario Ring Recovery Services website. Yep, completely wiped it out! Definitely not intentional, I can assure you.

​But what happened next was pretty incredible. Within just a few hours of the mistake, I built a brand new site from scratch and launched it live. Ever since, I’ve been refining it daily to make sure that anyone across Ontario who needs help can find us instantly.

​The website rebuild was a big step and it will be in the process of being rebuilt for years to come, but it’s really just a small reason why our service is growing so fast.

What truly blew me away was what happened within our network right afterwards.

Over the last few short weeks, our team of recovery specialists hasn’t just grown—it has exploded, and gotten stronger by the day.

​REFERRALS, NETWORK LEGENDS, & FRIENDS

We couldn’t do what we do without the incredible detectorists across this province who step up, spread the word, and trust us with their clients.

​First up, Stephane Coutu.

Stephane is a well-known certified diver and a remarkably proficient detectorist—it’s actually almost annoying how good he actually is lol. While unfortunate circumstances have kept him from doing as much of the heavy lifting lately, what he’s done instead makes me truly proud.

Stephane takes this craft seriously; he won’t just hand off a lead to anyone unless he knows they deliver the absolute highest level of professionalism. When he started recommending Ryan Pugh and I to people several years ago, I didn’t fully realize it at the time, but that was a massive vote of trust. I view every referral from Stephane as a badge of honor.

​Then there’s Ryan and Steve, a dynamic duo out of Southern Ontario. Certified divers and great detectorists servicing everywhere from Niagara right into central Ontario. They are incredibly busy, but over the past month, they’ve sent a fair amount of referrals our way that have allowed us to help some amazing people with some unforgettable stories. They have a YouTube channel so check them out guys

https://youtube.com/@divedetecting?si=S_UZDUgpDStLRSbf

​And of course, Alison Walker—AKA Pink Power Ali.

Alison is an absolute force in the ring recovery service and personally she has had my back for years.

She has a legendary track record of pulling off recoveries where others have already tried and failed. Look her up people she is a wonderful human being.

​I also have to mention Laurie Gagne and Eric Danis.

These two are modern day legends in their own rights, they are hosts of the popular Television series, Red River Gold and running their YouTube channel Relic Dirty Hands,

https://youtube.com/@relicdirtyhands?si=p0rnqcxxGKZiZbXZ

Not only are they a part of the Ontario Ring Recovery Services but they also operate and own the Ottawa Ring Recovery Services.

https://ottawaringrecovery.ca/

​What’s so amazing to me is that all these folks belong or have belonged to another major network, The RingFinders, yet they trust our network enough to pass us referral after referral. Having the best of the best support us like that makes me genuinely proud.

​THE HEAVY LIFTERS: TEAM ONTARIO RING RECOVERY

That brings me to the team on the ground—the folks going above and beyond on the actual search missions.

• ​Paul Davies: Paul might be one of the finest divers in the province. His reputation as being one of the best is an understatement. He’s driven from London to Cornwall, taking on high-stake dive missions 24/7. Just recently, he handled two of the strangest requests I’ve ever seen. Assisting and being an integral part of the successful Recovery of a prosthetic leg from the depths of the St. Lawrence River, and rescuing a sunken racing kayak out of Collingwood. Paul, seriously, thank you brother. And I’ll try to stop messaging in the late night hours lol (but probably not)

• ​Julie Pyke: Julie is new to recoveries, but not detecting and she is armed with her Minelab Manticore, she is a complete force of nature. She’s canoed up a river recently just to find a lost cell phone, and just yesterday, she successfully traveled hours to Toronto Island and braved the Lake Ontario elements to recover a woman’s lost wedding ring against all odds, congratulations on the successful recoveries Julie.
• for more with Julie Pike, check out her YouTube channel here

https://youtube.com/@coffeetogojmj?si=BddCgTebSd2hOFmC

• ​Cody Greenwood: Cody is our specialist out on Wolfe Island near Kingston. He’s picked up detector tech faster than almost anyone I’ve ever seen. Fun fact about Cody—he was recently called out to a recovery and managed to find the exact same man’s ring for the second time! Keep it up, Cody. If youd like to see Cody’s YouTube channel you can take a look here.

https://youtube.com/@wolfeislanddeepdigs?si=sx4M3l4bwo6uukWf

• ​Laurie & Eric in Ottawa: Beyond sending referrals, these two are core team members who take on some of the toughest shallow-water recoveries in the Ottawa area and rarely come up empty-handed. I’m honored to call them colleagues and friends.

carlos Vas

Carlos gas been my go to guy in our region and beyond when it comes to water recoveries. He seems to always be ready for a new adventure and has had some incredible success stories as of late with the Ontario Ring Recovery Services. I have relied heavily on Carlos to take on recoveries and he is always up for the challenge. I’ve asked him to go on recoveries out of province and the only response I ever get from him is when and who’s doing the driving ha ha ha. Carlos is an experienced and certified diver of many many years and has become a good friend. I honestly can’t say enough good things about this guy.

• ​Ryan Pugh (“Hoard of the Rings”): My personal digging partner and a staple and backbone of this operation.
• Ryan brings non-stop energy and expertise. When a call comes into Kingston. He is always up for a challenge and takes every recovery personally. If a call comes in to the Ontario Ring Recovery Services, one or both of us are on it immediately. Lately, Ryan’s been on an unbelievable hot streak—he’s not afraid to wade into the crappiest conditions or flip heavy iron to pull out the target item.
• if you don’t already follow Ryan Pugh AKA “Hoard Of The Rings” then please subscribe to his channel at the following link. You’ll be happy to take that advice if you get nothing more out of this blog post.

https://youtube.com/@hoardoftherings?si=fbf2CAsC-2wPXb7_

• ​Rein Fehrling: Out in Thunder Bay, Rein is our sole northern detectorist. He’s out there alone & going through some serious medical challenges right now, “my heart, thoughts, and prayers are with him”. Rein is a fantastic detectorist and an even better human being who has been invaluable to our northern network.

I am so grateful for every single person in this network. And as for myself, I actually managed to break away and head out on a couple of my own recovery mission’s just yesterday! Here are the links to the videos so you can see how they went for yourself.