Surf on land (Generation III)

Miscellaneous glitches of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen and Pokémon Emerald

Exclusive to Ruby and Sapphire:
256x item selling price glitch | Amazing Trainers | Berry glitch | Draining hitpoints animation glitch | Evolution animation glitch | Sticky Hold glitch | Mossdeep City Skitty glitch | Truck glitch | Nightmare glitch | Mossdeep City Skitty glitch
Acro Bike instability glitches (Japanese only) | Dark red selector glitch (International only) | Excessive doll arrangement glitch (Japanese only) | Mail and Trick glitches (Japanese only) | Surf on land (Japanese only)

Exclusive to FireRed and LeafGreen:
Celadon City origin glitch | Pokédex species glitch | Roaming Pokémon Roar glitch

Exclusive to Emerald:
Battle Pike poison knockout glitch | Black curtains glitch | Mart worker glitch | Mover Vigoroth cry glitch (Japanese only)

In various or all entries:
Azurill gender glitch | Boss HP recruit glitch (Mystery Dungeon) | Decamark-specific glitches | Dewford Gym footprint glitch | Evolution move-learning glitch | Focus Punch glitch | Roaming Pokémon IV glitch | Sky Pillar glitch | Thunderbolt glitch | VBlank RNG interrupt glitch

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Please note that this glitch only exists in the Japanese versions of the game, or is otherwise a glitch from a Pokémon game which was only released in Japan.

A player receiving the 'Would you like to SURF?' message after performing the Japan exclusive Surf on land glitch.

This glitch is not to be confused with other surfing glitches such as the Surf through Elite Four door glitch.

The term Surf on land refers to a miscellaneous glitch only existing in the Japanese versions of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire.

When used correctly, the game will perform the move Surf when the player is not facing a surface of water. As a result, the player may surf on land until he or she uses the move Fly or Teleport, uses the move surf again on an actual surface of water, or enters a building.

Explanation

This glitch exploits the "bunny-hop" feature of the Acro Bike. When the player is facing a certain direction and jumps upwards or downwards the game will temporarily (for a fractional amount of time) take the player's direction as facing upwards or downwards, rather than left or right. Although this may be considered as a relatively minor exploit of the game's processing speed, if the player performs a "bunny-hop" towards a surface of water in the original direction he or she may quickly press the A button to receive the 'Would you like to SURF?' message and select the 'YES' option to surf on land.

Method

This glitch (as of now) is known to work anywhere where water is present, but the most popular method involves Route 118.

1. The player should travel eastwards to the beach.
2. He or she should ride the Acro Bike and travel one step west of the eastmost rock.
3. The player should use the right button on the directional pad to face eastwards.
4. If the player performs a bunny-hop downwards and immediately presses the A-button, he or she may receive the 'Would you like to SURF?' message.

Video Demonstrations

YouTube video by ChickasaurusGL

YouTube video by 東方、モンハン、その他もろもろ・・・