what's going wrong?

like you don't encounter any unusual pokémon, or you can't surf?

keep in mind that the glitch only applies to one column of tiles on the east coast of cinnabar, and you have to fly before doing anything that updates random encounters (e.g. entering a route).

also it only works on the original red & blue. not yellow (where you have to use the trainer escape glitch instead), or any of the remakes (for obvious reasons).