Surfing is an extreme watersport that is played around the world with fervor and zest. In this watersport, a surfer rides a board on the waves. The concept might sound straightforward but it is complex and demands expertise through vigorous practice. 

Surfing is thought to have been introduced by Polynesians. In Hawaii, surfing has been an important part of their religion.

The unavailability of state-of-the-art surfing games and the bias of the game developers towards the niche of surfing have been common complaints around the world by surfers or gamers who love surfing. The game developers find themselves in a tight spot while creating a game that could provide the players with the finest surfing experience.

Fluid dynamics are hard to tackle and the learning curve is much more capacious. According to developers even if a realistic game is developed, non-surfing players would not be able to live through the original thrill of surfing.  

Given below are the best surf games developed to date. 

1. Kelly Slater Pro Surfer

Activision, on September 16, 2002, released the Kelly Slater Pro Surfer for various gaming platforms. The game instantly became a hit and is considered to be the greatest surfing game of all time. What makes this game special?

The game featured the King of surfers himself, Kelly Slater along with other surfers. Kelly Slater is a professional American surfer and holds the highest record of winning the World Surf League Championship 11 times. 

The game allows the players to live through an entertaining and exhilarating surfing experience. The players taste the thrill of fighting monstrous waves, steering through barreling tubes, and pulling off signature pro moves.

The game design is split into various modes with “career mode” being the core of the game. The rest are “free surf”, “challenge mode”, and “multiplayer mode”. The graphics are versatile, but the soundtrack is not very captivating. The camera can be set at any angle, and the controls are easy to learn after a necessary tutorial. KSPS is considered by many gamers as a very basic surf version of Tony Hawk Pro Skater. 

2. California Games

The first video game to introduce surfing in the gaming world was California Games. It served as the OG of surfing games and was designed for Apple II and Commodore 64. Later it was made available on home computers and video game consoles.

It maintained the status of the only surfing game available for a very long time. In 1996, Next Generation, an exclusive magazine for video games, ranked California Games in 89th spot in its “Top 100 games of all times”. 

California Games was celebrated by old-school gamers for its first-ever introduction of surfing in video games. Apart from surfing, it had other outdoor sports that could be played. Even though the graphics were pixelated, the game was made a fun experience through the thrilling yet simple control order.

The game allowed the player to learn the easy mechanics after a little practice. The players were thrown in a loop of achieving the highest score while navigating through arbitrary enormous waves, making the experience challenging, competitive, and replayable.

Players could operate through the waves and escape the wipeout through various surfing tricks such as the bottom turn, carving, air, and tube riding.

3. Sunny Garcia Surfing

Sunny Garcia Surfing was released in 2001 for PS2. It was endorsed by Sunny Garcia, a professional surfer. His excellence and extensive knowledge of surfing was put to use. The game was developed by Krome Studios and released by Ubi Soft. 

It holds a lot of mixed reviews by the players. Overall, the game has great playability value, and the graphics are good but the backdrop of a made-up island near Fiji is rather dark and grim. Many surfers and non-surfers loved the game for its quick up-to-par realistic moves. The gameplay is plain-looking which is the telltale of Sunny Garcia being an old times game.

It could not attain the desired frenzy and popularity probably due to its exclusive distribution for PS2 and the release of KPS the next year. 

4. Transworld Surf 

Transworld Surf was introduced in November 2001 by Infogrames and developed by Angel Studios. The game got positive reviews for its PS and Xbox versions but the Gamecube version was considered mediocre. The game was said to be hardcore and was loved by diehards of the stunt genre. The graphics are commendable, the controls are hard to learn and the game does not just revolve around surfing. 

It features extreme stunts of surfers like Taj Burrow and Shane Dorian. The player can conquer and chase after waves with other players and it includes a special “karma mode”, where stealing or catching waves of other players earns you punishments like shark attacks.

The game has catchy rock music and the freestyle gives the game a replayability value. You can create your very own personalized soundtrack with many amazing music tracks. The water dynamic is expertly dealt and the surfboard's interaction with the waves is deft, which gives a realistic surfing simulation. 

5. Surf’s Up

Surf’s Up is a video game adaptation of the animated film of the same name “Surf Up” which tells the story of Cody Maverick, an aspiring penguin surfer, who is keen to participate in the Penguin World Surfing Championship. It was developed by Ubisoft Quebec and was released for various platforms.

The videogame features the protagonist Cody Maverick along with some other characters from the movie, with immense simulation of surfing physics. The game has two modes: single-player and multiplayer. The soundtrack is impressive, stirring up the right vibe and thrill.

Different coastlines are available for the players to navigate, which breaks the tedium of the water sports games. The game design is excellent and the races are filled with obstacles and rewards along the surfing waves giving a berserk and satiating experience to the players.

The controls are automatic and can be mastered by any age with no hassle. The graphics are vibrant and tempting which gives the players a summery surfing vibes. The voice performers of the film reprise their roles in the video game. 

It was met with criticism and scored average to low scores for all its versions by Metacritic. and GameRankings.