
2024Jay Bendixen
Mostly reviews and how-to-play. Surf's Up! is covered on BoardGameVideo.com by 2 reviews, 2 how-to-play guides, and 1 other video.
From BoardGameGeek
You and your rivals are surfers trying to gain the most points by catching the best collection of waves by the end of the game, dodging bluebottle stings, scoring bonus points from surfboards that match the waves you catch, and by satisfying each game's 3 unique goals. 3 incoming waves are always visible to all surfers, who select and simultaneously reveal an energy card they commit to catch the wave. The highest energy card revealed wins the wave. However tied energy cards will cause surfers to wipe out, giving the next highest energy card surfer the win. ‘Respect' is the tiebreaker here, and a resource players can gain OR use to buy extra energy and surfboard (bonus point) cards from the beach. When you win and take a wave, the energy card you used is removed from the gam), weakening your remaining energy, while the second place and other surfers discard their energy cards but may regain them later. So there is some advantage in coming second and strategically gaining more respect. Bluebottle stingers sometimes blow into the breakzone, and players must avoid playing the lowest energy cards to escape their hidden sting. Or bravely take a sting to save a playable card for the next wave! The game end is triggered when either: 1. All 5 bluebottles have been resolved, or 2. Any player only has their zero energy card left. The player with the most points between waves caught, matching surfboards, bluebottle stings and end game goals wins. -description from publisher
Surf's Up! has 5 videos from 4 creators: 2 reviews, 2 how-to-play guides and 1 other video. They date from 2024 to June 2025.
To learn the rules, start with "All the Games with Steph: Surf's Up" by Steph Hodge, which runs 29 min. For a quicker teach, "How to Play SURF'S UP | Board Game Tutorial" by Play The Game HQ runs 6 min.
For an opinion before you buy, start with "Surfs Up Review: Quick Take with Tom Vasel" by The Dice Tower.
If you like it, try Dragon Overload and Gretchen's Garden, also by Jay Bendixen, or Fractured Sky and Wonder Woods, which share several of its mechanics.
2026Jay Bendixen, Ryan Boucher
2 - 4 players45 minMedium weight
2024Max Anderson, Zac Dixon, Austin Harrison
1 - 5 players45 - 75 minMedium weight
From BoardGameGeek:
You and your rivals are surfers trying to gain the most points by catching the best collection of waves by the end of the game, dodging bluebottle stings, scoring bonus points from surfboards that match the waves you catch, and by satisfying each game's 3 unique goals. 3 incoming waves are always visible to all surfers, who select and simultaneously reveal an energy card they commit to catch the wave. The highest energy card revealed wins the wave. However tied energy cards will cause surfers to wipe out, giving the next highest energy card surfer the win. ‘Respect' is the tiebreaker here, and a resource players can gain OR use to buy extra energy and surfboard (bonus point) cards from the beach. When you win and take a wave, the energy card you used is removed from the gam), weakening your remaining energy, while the second place and other surfers discard their energy cards but may regain them later. So there is some advantage in coming second and strategically gaining more respect. Bluebottle stingers sometimes blow into the breakzone, and players must avoid playing the lowest energy cards to escape their hidden sting. Or bravely take a sting to save a playable card for the next wave! The game end is triggered when either: 1. All 5 bluebottles have been resolved, or 2. Any player only has their zero energy card left. The player with the most points between waves caught, matching surfboards, bluebottle stings and end game goals wins. -description from publisher
Designer
Jay Bendixen
Artist
Bernice Choong
Publisher
Good Games Publishing
Categories
Mechanics