Beachcomber's Fun Fair ~ Ocean Shores, WA ~ March 1st & 2nd

Many glass fishing float collectors congregate each March to Ocean Shores, Washington for the annual Beachcomber's Fun Fair.  This event was created over 25 years ago for those of us who love the beach & all things associated with the beach.  Clearly, my favorite thing found on the beach are glass fishing floats!  Below are a few photographs from the weekend, which include several examples of floats.

Author & long-time glass fishing float collector/researcher,
Walt Pich.

Alan Rammer, author & long-time collector discussing
floats, I'm sure!

Alan Rammer's booth.

Items found on the beach are exhibited & judged
each year.  These were all found on the Olympic Peninsula.

Items found on the beach believed to be from the 2011
Japanese tsunami are placed on exhibit.

These items were just a portion of those found on the
Olympic Peninsula beaches by John Anderson.

Shannon is giving a little Float 101 to some folks.

Floats from John Anderson are entered into the glass fishing
float category.  Pardon the reflection of the overhead lights
on the glass!

Various floats entered into the glass fishing float category.

A Kanji roller from John Anderson's collection & display.

A spectacular cobalt blue swirled float from Mike Taylor's collection.

Another float from John Anderson's display.

That jumbo roller had many folks drooling!

"Colonel" Rich Richardson & Walt Pich.
Both of these collectors have been to Japan many times &
have done a great deal of research for our hobby.

Several of the collectors managed to be sitting at the same time,
so I snapped this shot.

Lucky Ducks....

As some of you may know, finding a glass fishing float on the beach is typically a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I have many people write me & tell me about their experiences & how they have scoured the beaches for years in search of the elusive glass fishing float. For many on the West coast, this spring, the ocean has washed many floats onto shore compliments of the strong west winds & stormy weather. Several people have said they braved the wind & weather just to be the first on the beach at high tide to see what might have washed ashore. Here is a photo from a fellow beachcomber. He found this float along the Washington coast in his "top secret" location! They found 3 that day.


Here is another photo of a float as they found it on the beach on a different day. This float was at the high tide line, along with lots of driftwood, garbage & even a shoe! These 2 photos were taken by R. Hannigen.


Another lucky beachcomber sent me the following photo. She & her daughter found these between March 27th & April 1st of this year. The large green float, known as a "garbage ball", was found out to sea just off the coast near Newport, OR. The 2 on the bottom left were found on the beach near the Peter Iredale shipwreck near Warrenton, OR. Photo by E. McMaster.


Well, I feel very fortunate that out of all the times I have gone in search of glass floats, I have always found many. The most I have ever brought home at once was just over 1,000 & we picked those up in 2 days! The sea still has millions of glass floats riding the ocean currents. And, there are still millions in Japan that sit abandoned in old gear sheds & piled up in garbage dumps.

Here are a couple of photos from a beachcombing trip near Cold Bay in May 2008. It was quite successful & most fabulous!! The photo below was actually taken in a dune behind the beach. Often the surf tosses the floats many yards off the beach. Near Cold Bay, we found a lot of floats off of the beach in various locations. I know there were many more buried in the sand, but it would take far too long to search for them all!


Mr. Brown Bear nearly stepped on this beauty! If you go beachcombing in the spring, you have to take a big gun! There are all kinds of critters running around!


I will post information soon about how to determine an authentic float from a "fake" or reproduction float. Feel free to contact me with any questions! I am always happy to share my knowledge whenever I can.