I do the same thing at Ocean Beach in SF, but I count straws and those little lighter tops. Last month I got 43 straws in one morning walk, and that was just the ones I could see before the tide came back in. Here's the thing nobody tells you: don't bother trying to pick up the tiny stuff by hand, you'll go crazy. Get a kitchen sieve from a thrift store and sift the top inch of dry sand where the wrack line sits. Took me two trips to figure that out, the wet sand holds everything and you just push it around. Also snap a pic of your pile before you toss it, because once you start counting this stuff you'll want proof for the people who say it's not that bad.

The whole "cut my setup in half" thing sounds like a fix that could bite you later, honestly. If some random flea market guy is chopping up your rig to make puns work, what else did he change that you don't know about yet? Maybe it runs fine now, but I'd double check everything before you trust it at the next gig.