(CNN) — A man who lost his surfboard in huge swells off Hawaii was amazed to discover it had been found in the Philippines — 5,200 miles away.
Doug Falter, a photographer and surfer who lives in Hawaii, lost his board in Waimea Bay, Oahu, in February 2018, according to an account posted on his Facebook page.
” I was really upset as I managed to catch the biggest waves of my life on this board,” he wrote on August 17. “Thats why it meant so much to me.”
This combination image shows (left) surfer Doug Falter posing with his surfboard in Hawaii on October 18, 2015, and (right) Giovanne Branzuela posing with the same board on Sarangani Island in the Philippines in 2020.
Brent Bielman/Giovanne Branzuela/Handout/AFP/Getty Images
Falter had hoped a local fisherman might find the board, or that it might wash up in Kauai, which he’d heard was a possible landing spot for lost boards, but he never thought it would turn up in the Philippines.
“This is 5,200 miles away!” wrote Falter, explaining that the new owner had bought it from a local fisherman to learn how to surf, then contacted Hawaii-based board-shaper Lyle Carson on Facebook.
“As bummed as I was when I lost it, now I am happy to know my board fell into the hands of someone wanting to learn the sport,” said Falter.
CNN has reached out to Falter for comment.
The board’s new guardian is Giovanne Branzuela, a primary school teacher in the southern Philippines, the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency reports.
Branzuela bought the board for $40 from a local fisherman, who had found it in August 2018, six months after it had escaped from Falter.
The board had turned from pale blue to a yellowish color during its voyage across the Pacific, but the name of Lyle Carson was still visible.
Branzuela contacted Carson, who alerted Falter to the miraculous find.
“It turned out it’s a surfboard from Hawaii. I couldn’t believe it myself,” Branzuela, 38, told AFP. “It’s been my dream to learn to surf and ride the big waves here.”
“For now I can use his surfboard. I told him I will take good care of it,” he added.
Falter wrote on Facebook that he would have gone to visit Branzuela if it weren’t for coronavirus travel restrictions, but he is now raising money to send the aspiring surfer some gear and some reading material to help his students learn English.
The pair are in contact online and Falter told AFP he plans to visit when he can to retrieve his board and give Branzuela a beginner’s one to learn on.
“It was my first big wave surfboard custom shaped for myself. I surfed it on the biggest days I’ve ever surfed in my life,” AFP reported Falter as saying.
“It’s an excuse for me to go to the Philippines and visit and basically complete the story,” he said. “I think it would be a great ending to … teach him how to surf.”
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