Meaning

noun waves breaking on the shore

verb ride the waves of the sea with a surfboard

verb look around casually and randomly, without seeking anything in particular

originProbably from earlier suff, suffe (“the inrush of the sea towards the shore”), possibly from Middle English suffe. Compare sough, surf (“a gutter, drain, sewer, trench”) and sough (“a soothing, gentle, murmuring sound of wind or water”). Alternatively, possibly of Indo-Aryan origin, as the word was formerly a reference to the coast of India, though this is doubtful as no positive etymon can be…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0