Surfer's lost GoPro washes up months later, still works

June 12 (UPI) -- A GoPro camera that fell from a young surfer's mount off the coast of an Australian island was recovered months later when it washed up on a beach -- and it still works.

Pete Cole, 12, said he was surfing in February off King Island, Tasmania, when a wave tore the camera from his new mouthguard mount.

"I thought, 'Oh no, I've lost my GoPro!' And it was the newest GoPro at the time," Cole told The Advocate newspaper. "It was very murky that day, it was quite deep and rocky and I probably wouldn't of had much chance of finding it because the swell was moving around a lot."

Cole said he had given up hope of recovering the camera, until earlier this month when a couple walking the Naracoopa beach on the island found a camera with a cracked screen washed up in the sand.

Jenny Masters said she and her husband connected the GoPro to their computer and found it was still loaded with photos and videos of surfing.

"It was beaten up quite a bit. The rocks at Naracoopa are really quite rugged," Masters said. "But it's amazing how it survived. It just shows how tough those little things are."

Masters posted a photo from the camera on Facebook in the hopes of finding its owner, and within 10 minutes someone had identified the GoPro as Cole's lost camera.

"It was like a message in a bottle but with a modern day twist," Masters said.

Cole was reunited with the camera, and he said he plans to take it back out on the waves once the screen is replaced.