A surfboard lost off Australia’s coast nearly 18 months ago has washed up on one of New Zealand’s most famed surf beaches, thousands of kilometres from where it was last seen.
New Zealand-based French surfer Alvaro Bon was kite surfing in Raglan on the North Island’s west coast on 15 October, when his kite caught in the water and he began drifting out to sea.
As he was being pulled out in the currents, he noticed something shining in the dunes at the northern end of the beach.
“I let go of my kite and started paddling towards the [beach] … and that’s where I found the board.”
The board was a bit yellow, but had a new-looking wax job and was in relatively good condition, Bon told the Guardian. Bon could tell the board was handmade and shaped for larger waves, but he did not recognise its make.
“Then I flipped it around and it was covered in barnacles and mussels.”
It was then he realised it may have come from the South Island or Australia.
“I knew the currents and it was definitely possible. When I brought it back, all my surf mates were so stoked, everybody was so excited.”
The board sat in his garden for another few days until the smell of the rotting barnacles and mussels compelled him to clean it up.
“I really started paying attention to it and realised there was going to be a story behind it and should look for the owner.”
Bon posted pictures of the board and a message seeking help to identify the owner in Australian and South African surfing groups on Facebook, and went off for a surf. By the time he checked his phone two hours later, the posts had blown up, with surfers across the globe speculating over its origin and ownership.Among the thousands of messages was one identifying the board’s owner as a man called Liam, who had lost it during a boat trip off the coast of Tasmania – around 2,400km from Raglan – on 10 May 2024.
Bon and Liam were soon put in touch.
“Liam couldn’t believe it,” Bon says. “He told me that was one of his favourite boards … and he was really missing it.”
The surfboard had gone overboard with its bag and rope still attached, Bon said.
“I think that’s why the surfboard is so intact, because the board bag must have only come off a few months ago.”
The surfboard may have drifted across the Tasman on either the East Australian Current, or the Antarctic Circumpolar current, which circles the globe, a physical oceanographer at the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, told 1News.
“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,” Edward Doddridge said.
“It would be quite the adventure, and we can’t know for sure.”
The board is now making the voyage home – this time by air – after Bon returned it to Liam’s family in Auckland, on Tuesday morning.
“The day I lost my kite, I found Liam’s board,” Bon said. “Maybe there was a reason.”
