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."
