Anyone can surf a quake. Just remember the (primary) p-waves of ground motion that hit first run out horizontally along the broken fault line with the ground waves of the greatest strength coming like jets of water out of a fire hose with openings at each end. Imagine a perfectly North-South fault line breaks. The most powerful ground waves will be moving due north and due south while slightly lower power waves will be moving west and east.
So, if you feel a quake's horizontal (compression) p-waves that feel like someone pushing repeatedly in pulses against your body just raise up your arms to horizontal and turn your body to point your fingers at the wavefront like pointing your fingers at a music loudspeaker. One hand will be pointing at where the compression p-waves are coming from and the other hand will be pointing at where they are going to. It is very hard at first to figure out which hand is pointing at the epicenter but you can feel in your feet the p-waves directional movement.
Then there will be a pause with no ground motion until the up & down (secondary) s-waves arrive. The shorter the interval between the p and s waves arriving, the closer you are to the epicenter. (Like counting the seconds between a lighting flash and the arrival of the sound waves you have to be mentally ready right away to start counting the seconds to be able to do the distance math.) It is tough but possible to body surf the s-waves to confirm where the fault break is with your body. S-waves often feel like they sort of shimmy around unlike the very focused p-waves.
A seismograph image recorded in Palmdale (70+ miles away from the the Hector Mine) showing the p-waves arriving, a pause, and then the s-waves arrive. https://blogs.agu.org/tremblingearth/2013/05/02/welcome-to-the-trembling-earth-2/
Virtually all quakes have aftershocks all along the broken fault's "zone" such as the biggest quake l've ever felt, Hector Mine marked in yellow here with its aftershocks. Current theory is a 1992 quake on the nearby Landers fault stressed the Hector Mine fault to break in 1999. https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/landers-and-hector-mine-aftershocksgif.
Found this interesting "debunking" report of a possible electromagnetic signal a week before the Hector Mine quake. https://www.usgs.gov/publications/reported-ionospheric-precursor-1999-hector-mine-california-earthquake
Re: Yes
So, if you feel a quake's horizontal (compression) p-waves that feel like someone pushing repeatedly in pulses against your body just raise up your arms to horizontal and turn your body to point your fingers at the wavefront like pointing your fingers at a music loudspeaker. One hand will be pointing at where the compression p-waves are coming from and the other hand will be pointing at where they are going to. It is very hard at first to figure out which hand is pointing at the epicenter but you can feel in your feet the p-waves directional movement.
Then there will be a pause with no ground motion until the up & down (secondary) s-waves arrive. The shorter the interval between the p and s waves arriving, the closer you are to the epicenter. (Like counting the seconds between a lighting flash and the arrival of the sound waves you have to be mentally ready right away to start counting the seconds to be able to do the distance math.) It is tough but possible to body surf the s-waves to confirm where the fault break is with your body. S-waves often feel like they sort of shimmy around unlike the very focused p-waves.
https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/p-waves
https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/s-wavesgif
A seismograph image recorded in Palmdale (70+ miles away from the the Hector Mine) showing the p-waves arriving, a pause, and then the s-waves arrive.
https://blogs.agu.org/tremblingearth/2013/05/02/welcome-to-the-trembling-earth-2/
Virtually all quakes have aftershocks all along the broken fault's "zone" such as the biggest quake l've ever felt, Hector Mine marked in yellow here with its aftershocks. Current theory is a 1992 quake on the nearby Landers fault stressed the Hector Mine fault to break in 1999.
https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/landers-and-hector-mine-aftershocksgif.
Found this interesting "debunking" report of a possible electromagnetic signal a week before the Hector Mine quake.
https://www.usgs.gov/publications/reported-ionospheric-precursor-1999-hector-mine-california-earthquake