Two men strike up an unlikely friendship after a surfboard drifts over 8,000km from Hawaii to the Philippines.
WHEN big wave surfer Doug Falter lost his board in a wipeout in Hawaii, his best hope was for a local fisherman to pick it up.
He never imagined that it would be found more than 8,000km away in the southern Philippines.
More than two years after watching his pale blue custom-shaped board disappear in the huge swell of Waimea Bay, Falter was alerted via social media that it was found near the remote island of Sarangani.
And the new owner – primary school teacher and aspiring surfer Giovanne Branzuela – was happy to give it back to him.
“When I saw the picture of it, I couldn’t believe it. I almost thought it was a joke,” Falter, 35, said.
Branzuela, who bought the surfboard from his neighbour a couple of months ago for 2,000 pesos (RM170), said fishermen found it floating in the sea six months after Falter lost sight of it.
The pair have been chatting on Facebook and Falter plans to visit the island to retrieve his board after travel restrictions are lifted.
“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,” he said, including the 2016 Eddie Aikau big wave surf contest in Waimea Bay when the swell was 20m high.
Falter said he wants to give Branzuela a beginners surfboard in exchange for his and show him how to catch waves around Sarangani and neighbouring Balut island.
In the meantime, Falter shares short YouTube videos on surfing basics and is raising money to send supplies to Branzuela’s school.