A chance sighting online has led to a surfer being reunited with a board that had been stolen from his mother's garage 40 years ago.

Peter Gilson was gifted the board by his mother, who had secretly scrimped and saved the equivalent of approximatley $1,800 in the late '70s from a store in Newcastle.

"I only had it for about a year and it got pinched from the garage with a bunch of other things," Mr Gilson said.

"To be honest, at the time, being a young kid, I didn't really give it too much thought but as the years went by it occurred to me how much of a sacrifice my mum had made to get me that board."

Distinctively illustrated board

Forty years on while recovering from the side-effects of treatment for cancer, Mr Gilson began repairing vintage surfboards, joining Victorian-based Facebook site, Vintage Surfboard Collectors, dedicated to such craft in the process.

One evening, while perusing a gallery of old boards on the Facebook site, Mr Gilson said he "nearly jumped right out of bed," when he spotted the distinctively illustrated board in the WA Surf Gallery, located near Margaret River, Western Australia.

"Some guy had been through the gallery and took a bunch of photos," Mr Gilson said.

"But by luck, of all the boards there, he'd singled mine out and taken a photo of it. I sat bolt upright in bed when I saw it and a whole range of emotions came flooding through."

Though the board had probably passed through many sets of hands over the years, its new owner, West Australian surfer Mick Ray had given the board to curator of the WA Surf Gallery, Bill Gibson to restore and display.

Peter's old photo of the board convinced its new owner he was the original owner ( Source: Peter Gilson )

Mr Gilson emailed the owners of the gallery and managed to convince them of his connection with a historic photo showing the board and a nephew.

"His story all added up but the emotional backstory pretty moved us all to tears," Mr Gibson said.

"Ultimately it was Mick's call, but he agreed to hand it back free of charge, which was a great gesture. It was just too much of a feel-good story not too."

Vintage Surfboard Collector site administrator Lee Murphy said the gesture was not uncommon, but always a bonus given vintage boards can fetch a premium price.

"There are a lot of collectors out there looking for their first surfboard as they hold a lot of sentimental attachment," Mr Murphy said.

"Generally a surfer's first board will have come from a family member or they've worked long and hard to save up for it. Every surfer remembers that first board and pretty much everyone would do anything to get it back again."

Board now a family keepsake

Mr Gilson was finally reunited with his beloved board courtesy of Mr Gibson, who had flown over to compete at a national longboard championship at Cabarita Beach, on the NSW north coast.

Bill Gibson flew to northern NSW to return the board to Peter Gilson ( ABC Local: Damien Larkins )

While admitting to being "a bit too big to ride it now," Mr Gilson said it would instead remain in his family's possession for eternity.

"It looks just like I remember," Mr Gilson said as he held the board for the first time in more than four decades.

"It'll go up on the wall, along with a picture of my mum."