Why Do We Say That We "Surf" The Web?

Solution 1:

The use of surfing appears to refers to previous usages related to radio or TV:

The use of a remote control to switch channels on a TV set is quite different from the versions above as it it doesn't physically mimic surfboarding. It is surfing only in a figurative sense in that it alludes to the moving easily and smoothly from one place to another.

This has led the way to the various forms of surfing that are applied to the Internet. Like any phrase or saying that has been coined since the World Wide Web was invented (around November 1990) and the Internet became widely used, these can be dated almost to the second. The first of these surfing terms was simply 'surfing the internet'. This is recorded in the archives of the Usenet newsgroup alt.gopher in a posting headed 'Re: Size Limits for Text Files?', 25th February 1992:

"There is a lot to be said for surfing the internet with gopher from anywhere that you can find a phone jack."

The Phrase Finder