British surfer Martin Markwell was paddling on his surfboard on Sunday off the popular Hikkaduwa beach resort on Sri Lanka's palm-fringed southern coast when he was swept up by a tsunami wave and sent crashing over a beach and into a hotel restaurant. "It was really terrible because I was really surfing on a wave I wasn't supposed to be on."—Search for the perfect wave ended in disaster
Nigel Irvine, 36, of The Dingle in Haslington, was completely unscathed in the disaster that was sparked by a violent earthquake under the Indian Ocean, by riding out the tsunami hell wave on his surfboard.—The Tsunami surfer
ACADEMIC Simon Dowell miraculously escaped the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami by 'surfing' a wave which killed 600 islanders in Thailand.—I surfed killer wave to safety
Gary Wells, 21, from Paignton, was surfing a reef near Midigama when the tsunami came in. “The swell was only about two feet that morning so me, my brother Danny and my mate Joe Pritchard went out for a surf at this little left, a few hundred yards down the road from our guest house. We surfed together for about 45 minutes, then the other two went in. I fancied a few more waves, and I was heading back out to the takeoff spot when I noticed I was paddling against a current, which quickly got really strong. It was like the tide was coming in super quick or something. The takeoff spot there is next to this big pile of rocks, about six feet high. I was paddling as fast as I could but I realised I wasn’t getting anywhere ‘cos the current was like a river. So I sat up on my board and tried to figure out what was happening. Within a few seconds the rocks in front of me disappeared. I thought ‘What the hell’s going on?’ I knew something was badly wrong so I turned around and paddled in with the surge.—Dozens of British surfers were caught up in the chaos on Sri Lanka.
| "The island of Tumbaradoo, which is just out the front of the surf break where we were surfing, that went underwater. The first thing we saw was just all the bats and birds just rise up into the sky. And the surge lasted for no longer than 10 minutes, and then as quickly as it came in, it sucked back out. So it went from the highest tide that I've ever seen, to the lowest tide that I've ever seen."—Lucky escape for Australians working in the Maldives |  |
Legendary Peruvian surfer Felipe Pomar is the only surfer ever known to have surfed a "tsunami" or tidal wave following a massive earthquake off the Peruvian coast in 1970.—Surf Peru
Is it possible to surf a tsunami? Not really, here's the why
Images from Surfing and National Geographic