[monday]

"These people don't have a chance, outside the grace of God."

Of course they had a chance. The trick to surviving waves of any size is either getting over them or under them. The killing zone is the impact zone between water and land.

Surfers regularly surf waves 15 to 20 ft. or higher. They are able to do this by avoiding the impact zone by diving under it. People on land can avoid the impact zone by running to higher ground, going over the impact zone.

Bad luck determined the fate of many of those who died, but many more could have saved themselves with a little knowledge and quick thinking.

[RobRoy]

It's not the waves, it is the currents. You could try to "punch" these waves and find yourself in swirling currents ten or more feet underwater for ten or more minutes. Not survivable by most people.

Remember, this was not waves, it was walls of water - a very different phenomenon. If you can stay on the surface, great.

[NittanyLion]

Surfers regularly surf waves 15 to 20 ft. or higher. They are able to do this by avoiding the impact zone by diving under it. People on land can avoid the impact zone by running to higher ground, going over the impact zone.

Yes, but in those cases the idea is that you dive through the wave and come out the back side. These waves have no back side to speak of; they're literally a wall of water.

[pyx]

The trick to surviving waves of any size is either getting over them or under them.

Uh ... How do you out "trick" a crest to crest (period) of several -=]MILES[=- ? Your suggesting of diving under and hold your breath for 10 or 15 minutes is as ludicrous diving over the 15 or 20 feet of a wall of water. There was not just ONE "wave" in this tsunami. There were several. The first was real bad. The second and third ones killed and destroyed more after the first had done its work. These are not "waves" and "troughs" with a few feet between them as we are used to thinking about waves.

[Shortstop7]

Of course they had a chance. The trick to surviving waves of any size is either getting over them or under them. The killing zone is the impact zone between water and land.

From my understanding after reading a lot of these posts, I don't think they did have a chance. The water levels accompanying the waves, the force of the currents, etc.....don't sound to me like something you can just dive below and wait it out. These weren't normal waves like you see people surfing..... at least from what I've read anyway.