When big wave surfer Doug Falter lost his board in a wipeout in Hawaii, his best hope was for a local fisher to pick it up. He never imagined 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 had been found near the remote island of Sarangani.
The new owner — local 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 thought it was a joke almost,” Falter, 35, said via Zoom
“I was certain that the board would never be found again,” he added.
Branzuela, who bought the badly weathered surfboard from his neighbor a couple of months ago for 2,000 pesos (US$41), said that fishers had found it floating in the sea in August 2018 — six months after Falter lost sight of it.
They thought it might have fallen off a passing yacht and sold it to Branzuela’s neighbor for a few dollars.
Despite months drifting across the Pacific Ocean, the name of the board’s shaper, Hawaii-based Lyle Carlson, was still visible on the now-yellowish surface.
Curious, Branzuela looked him up on Facebook and sent him a photograph of the board.
Carlson shared the picture on Instagram, tagging Falter.
“It turned out it’s a surfboard from Hawaii. I couldn’t believe it myself,” Branzuela, 38, said via telephone.
“It’s been my dream to learn to surf and ride the big waves here,” he said.
“For now I can use his surfboard. I told him I will take good care of it,” he added.
The pair have been chatting on Facebook and Falter plans to visit the small island to retrieve his board after COVID-19 travel restrictions are lifted.
“That board meant so much to me because of my accomplishments on it,” said Falter, a commercial photographer who took up surfing about 15 years ago in Florida before moving to Hawaii.
“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 that he wanted to give Branzuela a beginner’s surfboard in exchange for his, and show him how to catch waves around Sarangani and neighboring Balut Island.
In the meantime, Falter shares short YouTube videos on surfing basics and is raising money to send supplies to Branzuela’s school.
“It’s an excuse for me to go to the Philippines, and visit and basically complete the story,” Falter said.
“I think it would be a great ending to... teach him how to surf,” he said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese