I remember that part well also. He was a boy-toy of some rich woman. And as he surfed the wave he saw the preacher on The Strand go under. He thought he just might make it too, until that apartment building....
I also liked the part where the two guys had hiked up the mountain... was it Vesuvius? I forget the name, but one of them had lost his sight in the blinding flash, and the other described the scene to him.
That was on Thera, possibly the island that lead to the Alantis legend. Good scene.