Surfing games have been on the market since the 1980s. The first video game in the history of surfing was California Games which was made available for the Commodore 64 computer.
Launched in 1987, California Games was a huge commercial success. Despite the low-fi graphics, the surfing game was enjoyable to play.
Players were invited to perform simple maneuvers such as the bottom turn, cutbacks, aerials, and tube rides.
Soon after, California Games was ported to Amiga, Apple IIGS, Atari 2600, Atari ST, Atari Lynx, DOS, Sega Mega Drive, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, Nintendo Entertainment System, MSX, and Sega Master System.
T&C Surf Designs: Wood & Water Rage saw the light of day in 1988 but was not a commercial success.
California Games 2 arrived in 1993 with the famous message: "Get a virtual life, dude." But this time, surfing had been replaced by bodyboarding.
The first console surfing video game ever released was Surf Riders. The overall look and graphics were dramatically improved, and you could feel the flow of riding a wave.
Meanwhile, the PC platform answered with Championship Surfer, a surfing game with a long list of pro surfers as the main characters.
PlayStation 2 entered the world of wave riding with Surfing H3O, a game in which the analog stick responded well to the type of game.
The water physics was getting better, but perfection was still a distant dream.
Ultimate Surfing is Gameboy's first adventure in the world of surfing. Released in 2001, it was an easy and simple game, but it failed to convince the surfing community and was not a hit.
Sunny Garcia Surfing got a release for PlayStation 2 and featured the Hawaiian icon as the main attraction.
Transworld Surf was a success in both the Xbox and PlayStation 2 versions in 2001. Everything was dramatically improved, and the game was cool to play. Surfers could select ten dream surf spots.
Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer is one of the last console surfing games released and remains one of the best of its kind. The title had great controls, great graphics, interactive waves, and many real tricks and moves. The game was released in 2001.
Surf World Series arrived in 2017 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Despite its cool graphics, it didn't reflect the feel of riding a wave and was considered too arcade for a surfing game.
While the surfing community waits for the next release, we can all play online surfing games.