No, you can't surf a tsunami

1 – Tsunami waves are thicker than normal waves. A tsunami wave is huge — 100s of miles long — and full of energy. They also move at 500 mph. As the wave approaches the shoreline, the water on the front edge slows down, while the back end continues to speed along. As a result, the wave becomes extremely thick on the front end. Rather than forming nicely into a breaking, ridable wave with a face, it turns into a wall of mushy whitewater that barrels toward shore.

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2- You can’t surf in tsunami whitewater. That messy wall of whitewater eventually runs up over the land and keeps going until the energy is eventually drained out of the wave. Because it’s all whitewater, there’s nothing for the bottom of the surfboard to hold on to, so you’d essentially get bounced around in the foamy mess on the leading edge of the wave. Throw in all the debris the wave picks up along the way — along with a lack of control — and it’s not a fun ride.

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