Watch: Lost surfboard washes up nearly 1,500 miles away in New Zealand

Oct. 28 (UPI) — A kite surfer in New Zealand ended up losing his kite during a recent outing — and consequently found a surfboard that had drifted nearly 1,500 miles from Australia.

French surfer Alvaro Bon said he was kite surfing Oct. 15 in Raglan, on the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island, when his kite got caught in the water and started pulling him out to sea.

Bon had to let go of his kite and headed back toward shore, where he spotted a surfboard at the northern end of the beach.

He said the board appeared to be in good shape, but was not a style frequently used by the local surfers. He flipped it over and found it was covered in barnacles and mussels.

“The shape of the board is made for very big waves — it’s not the kind we use in Raglan every day,” Bon told 1News. “I removed a few mussels to check the size, and that’s when I saw it had been shaped for someone named Liam.”

Bon took the surfboard home and posted photos of his discovery on various surfing groups on Facebook in the hopes of finding the owner.

One of the posts resulted in Bon receiving a message from the board’s owner, Liam, who said he lost it during a boat trip off the coast of Tasmania — nearly 1,500 miles from where it was found — on May 10, 2024.

“Liam couldn’t believe it,” Bon said. “He told me that was one of his favorite boards.

Edward Doddridge, a physical oceanographer at the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, said the board may have been carried by the East Australian Current, which runs down Australia’s east coast toward New Zealand, or taken a more scenic route along the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.

“There’s this tiny, infinitesimal possibility that the surfboard went south, hitched a ride on a really fast part of that current, and went all the way round the world before washing up in New Zealand,” Doddridge said. “It would be quite the adventure, and we can’t know for sure.”

Bon said Liam’s board will soon be headed home to Australia thanks to members of his family visiting New Zealand for a wedding.