A Surfboard’s Strange Trip

A man watched Gail Simons of Montauk take her husband’s custom-made surfboard off the roof of her car on Dec. 28 and lay it on a grassy area on the grounds of St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church, near the cottage where the couple live. He waited awhile, a half-hour, according to Ms. Simons, and decided he would take it before someone else did.

Little did he know the power of the Montauk surfing community, Facebook, and the East Hampton Town Police Department. Ms. Simons and her husband, Mike Martinsen, called the police and posted a note on Facebook. Friends of the couple reposted the Facebook message, and the police put out a notice about the distinctive board.

By Jan. 5 the couple had received a call from a man in Wilmington, N.C., who said he had the board. He assured them he wasn’t some thieving idiot from the city, but said he thought Ms. Simons and her boyfriend or husband had had a fight and that she had dumped the board in revenge.

It is a single-fin, 8-foot-3-inch surfboard with a wood finish. On its bottom is a large design of a dragon in a lighter wood finish. Designed and shaped by Markus Gneist, the founder of Journey Surf of Bali, it is more of a piece of art than a functioning surfboard.

Mr. Martinsen, a friendly guy who started the Montauk Shellfish Company and farms oysters in Lake Montauk, declined to give the man’s name. He has a friend who is a mate on a tugboat in Wilmington, and he has agreed to pick up the board from the fellow who took it and bring it back to the South Fork by tugboat, which could take a few months.

“I don’t care how long it takes. I’m just super happy that it was found,” Mr. Martinsen said last week.