First Off, What Is Surf?
Counter-Strike surfing is a community created game mode where players glide across inclined surfaces (ramps) to navigate obstacle courses at extreme speeds. It relies on a physics engine quirk in the Source and Source 2 engines that allows players to "stick" to steep slopes rather than sliding off.
surf_utopia_njv on CS:GO
The main objective of surfing is to reach the end of the map as quickly as possible by maintaining speed with smooth mouse movements and high sync of your mouse movements with your key presses. Not all surf maps require smooth mouse movements though, some require technical precision.
CS:GO and CS2 are not the only games with surf, past Counter Strike games such as Counter Strike Source and Counter Strike 1.6, still have large communities that share love for the game. Source in particular is the most popular game to surf on since Kamikaze Strike Force, more commonly known as KSF, is the most competitive surfing experience you can find anywhere and they have been hosting their surf servers on source for many years now.
My Surfing Experience
Over the past 6 years, I have poured many hours into Counter Strike Global Offensive (CS:GO) and Counter Strike 2 (CS2) to the point where I have accumulated over 4600 hours in the surfing sub-gamemode alone.
My total time logged into CS:GO & CS2
If I had to give an answer as to why I spent so much time on this niche game mode of a much larger game, I would have to say that it's because there really is nothing like it anywhere else. The way it feels to grind a map for so long and then getting that one run you have been chasing is just so satisfying to me, and nothing else comes close to comparing to that feeling when it comes to video games. I have even uploaded some of my surf runs on my youtube channel.