--- title: Brits Go Surfing After Supertide Cause Waves on River Severn description: It happens once every 18 years canonical: https://time.com/3754087/solar-eclipse-supertide-river-surfing/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-23T14:58:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:47:51.253Z og:title: Watch People Surf on a River Thanks to Europe's 'Supertide' og:description: It happens once every 18 years og:url: https://time.com/3754087/solar-eclipse-supertide-river-surfing/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch People Surf on a River Thanks to Europe's 'Supertide' twitter:description: It happens once every 18 years twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch People Surf on a River Thanks to Europe's 'Supertide' > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Mar 23, 2015 2:58 PM UTC by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Mar 23, 2015 2:58 PM UTC A rare “supertide” in Europe this weekend led to surges of water so high a French town briefly [turned into an island](http://time.com/3753517/mont-saint-michel-supertide/). It also caused a “tidal bore” on Britain’s River Severn which created six-foot waves ripe for surfing. Many Brits took advantage of this unique opportunity to surf down the River Severn, which is the longest in the United Kingdom. Those not equipped to go surfing simply gathered on the banks to observe the rare occurrence. ### See the Best Solar Eclipse Pictures  The total solar eclipse seen from Svalbard, Norway on March 20, 2015. Olav Jon Nesvold—EPA  The sun through clouds during the maximun solar eclipse seen from the Jolimont observatory in Toulouse, France on March 20, 2015. Alain Pitton—Demotix/Corbis  A partial solar eclipse of the sun is visible in Rabat, Morocco on March 20, 2015. Abdelhak Senna—EPA  A total solar eclipse occurs over Svalbard, Norway on March 20, 2015. Haakon Mosvold Larsen—NTB Scanpix/Reuters  A dove is pictured in front of the sun during a partial solar eclipse in Munich on March 20, 2015. Alexander Hassenstein—Getty Images  A partial solar eclipse is seen through clouds in Sofia, Bugaria on March 20, 2015. Stoyan Nenov—Reuters  Partial Solar eclipse seen from Yorkshire, United Kingdom on March 20, 2015. Nigel Roddis—Rex USA  The moon passes between the sun and the earth after the totality phase of a total solar eclipse as from Torshavn, the capital of the Faeroe Islands on March 20, 2015. 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