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Supertide 2015: Watch surfers ride the huge wave on Britain's longest river following solar eclipse

Surfers in Gloucestershire made the most of the unusually large wave, or tidal bore, caused by Friday's solar eclipse

Sunday 22 March 2015 18:09 GMT
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Surfers ride the tidal bore on the River Severn in Gloucestershire, one of the knock-on effects of the 'supertide' and the solar eclipse
Surfers ride the tidal bore on the River Severn in Gloucestershire, one of the knock-on effects of the 'supertide' and the solar eclipse

Surfers are making the most of the 'super tide' caused by last Friday's solar eclipse, by riding a 'tidal bore' down the River Severn in Gloucestershire.

Footage posted on YouTube shows the surfers riding the crest of the bore - a natural phenomenon where a surge wave is caused by the unusually high tide.

The Severn, Britain's longest river, is popular with surfers because of its large tidal range - the vertical difference between the high tide and the succeeding low tide - caused by the shape of the estuary.

As the estuary narrows, water is pushed upwards, causing huge waves. The particularly high bore was one of the knock-on effects of the solar eclipse and the unusually high tides that followed.

The supertide, hailed as the 'tide of the century', enveloped the island of Mont Saint-Michel in France, briefly cutting it off from the French mainland. Unusually high tides were also recorded on the south coast of England.

Images flooded onto social media after the high tide saw water break over the banks of the River Thames in London.

Forecasters in France predicted the tide could reach as high as 14 metres high, but waves fell a few inches short of what was expected, according to reports.

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