This story is totally tubular, bro.
Surfer Alvaro Bon tells The Guardian that he was catching waves in Ragland, New Zealand, earlier in October when he came across a board without a surfer.
“Then I flipped it around and it was covered in barnacles and mussels,” Bon says.
Bon took the board home and left it in his garden before eventually cleaning it up due to the smell from the aforementioned barnacles and mussels.
“I really started paying attention to it and realized there was going to be a story behind it and should look for the owner,” Bon says.
Indeed, there was. After posting a photo of the board online, Bon got a message from a person named Liam, who said he lost his board back in May 2024 off the coast of Australia’s Tasmania island, which is about 1,500 miles away from Raglan.
“Liam couldn’t believe it,” Bon says. “He told me that was one of his favorite boards … and he was really missing it.”