How to Surf in CS:GO

There are many movement mechanics in Valve's insanely popular FPS game, CS:GO. However, not all of them are utilized by professional players, as only some of them actually give a tactical advantage in an actual match. However, one mechanic that players use mostly for fun is called surfing.

To surf in CS:GO, you first need to find a suitable ramp that's roughly 45 degrees or more. When you do, simply get on the ramp, and hold the strafe key that would usually bring you toward the top end of the ramp to stay on the ramp while moving forward with increased movement speed.

Below you'll find an in depth tutorial on everything you need to know about surfing in CS:GO, including what it is, what its uses might be, how to do it, and how to best learn it.

What is Surfing in CS:GO

To put it simply, surfing in CS:GO is pretty much surfing in real life. You ride an elongated ramp (instead of a wave) all the while gaining increased momentum on the way. The one thing that differentiates surfing in CS:GO from surfing in real life, however, is the fact that instead of going downwards, in CS:GO you surf forward.

By hugging the steep angles of ramps, players are able to utilize what started out as a glitch in order to move forward surf, an act that today has an entire minigame dedicated to it that players all around the world partake in.

Why Should You Surf

Although most competitive players don't really use this mechanic in actual CS:GO competitive games, they do tend to use it to better their aim. 

When surfing, you have a prime opportunity to better your movement management, aim placement, and mouse movement, as if you can increase your aim while surfing (which gives you a major movement boost, making even the act of aiming difficult) then aiming while in a match where the movement speed is normal should be a piece of cake.

The reason most players surf, however, is to play the surfing minigame in CS:GO where the main objective is to surf from one ramp to another all the while making it to the objective to clear the map. Pretty much all the surfing maps are community made, so it's a very good way for the CS:GO community to come together and make the game more fun.

How to Surf

Now that you know everything else about surfing in CS:GO, let us get into the meat and potatoes of the topic. How to surf. Of course, the first thing you'll need to do is join a surfing server, as not only will it have the necessary ramps with the proper angle alignments for you to surf, but all the required settings will already have been applied for you.

Of course, you can play offline on your own as well, granted you have the required surf maps, but then you'll need to enter certain commands to enable surfing which you can find on the internet pretty easily.

After loading into a surf map, follow the below steps

Step 1: Get on the Ramp

Of course, the first thing you need to do is to actually get on the ramp. Although most surf maps have it so that simply falling off a specific platform drops you directly on a ramp, others require you to jump on them.

The recommended thing is to ensure you land near the top of the ramp so you could gain an initial increase in speed by moving downwards and then upwards, similar to a plane.

Step 2: Stay on the Ramp

Now that you're on the ramp, although you'll notice yourself moving forward, you'll almost instantly drop down if you don't press or hold any movement key. Because of this, you have to hold the movement key that you would usually use if you were climbing the ramp.

You could hold the forward key, but that would be rather impractical, as you wouldn't be able to see ahead of you. Because of this, the best thing to do is to look toward the way your character is moving while holding either the left or right strafe keys depending on which way the inclined side of the ramp is.

Step 3: Launch Yourself

When surfing on a ramp, eventually the ramp will end and you'll have to jump to the next one. Before this happens, you have to make sure you have enough speed to launch yourself high enough to not only identify where the next ramp is but to also reach it.

The best way of gaining speed is by, as mentioned above, making it so you get an initial slide when landing on the ramp.

When you're in the air, you have to act quickly, as even if the gravity in the game is set in a way it takes a while before you fall on the ground, you still won't have an unlimited amount of time. To identify the next ramp, hold either A or S to move your character, all the while moving the mouse in the same direction to move your screen. 

How to Improve Your Surfing

Although those were the basics of how to surf in CS:GO, naturally there's a difference between knowing how something works and knowing how to apply it in an actual game. There are various factors that players can only fully understand by actually practicing surfing.

For example, if the ramp is turned inwards, then strafing toward the inclined position of the ramp will simply make it so you slide off from the top. In this case, you would have to strafe towards the declined position of the ramp so you could continue surfing without falling off.

Some ways to improve your surfing so you're able to understand these types of factors more are

Practice, Practice, Practice

Let's be real, the best way to understand anything is by practicing in it. Fortunately, most, if not all of the surf maps in this game allow you to retry as many times as you need every time you fall off a ramp.

Because of this, you can continue to experiment with the movements until you're able to get it down completely

Get Some Professional Help

As they say, the best way to understand something is by having someone who's already mastered it teach it to you. The same thing also applies to pretty much every mechanic in CS:GO, including surfing.

If you don't have someone skilled enough to teach you the ropes, then worry not, as it's possible to hire a professional booster from Eloking. Not only will the booster assigned to you help you climb the ranks in CS:GO ranked play, but it's also possible to ask them for a couple of pointers regarding your surfing, or any issues you might have related to it.