Why do we surf the net?

Why do we 'surf' the net? Can anybody give a really good answer? Maybe because the net is said to be from California? But it is also from Boston, Massachusetts. And anyway, not everybody in California is surfing, more are serfing, like in Microserfs. Please, tell us, how comes we do have this expression? Anyway, those guys in the picture don't care.

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Surf net

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It seems to these terms are nicely contradictory; a net being an object of capture, and to surf being an action that suggests some kind of freedom, an action that enables travel from one point to another on the motion of something else. I suppose what the net catches here is information and the user not needing to be caught, surfs over or between (inter) the nets picking out what they need. Perhaps the TNL users more up on internet history could expand on my guess. Lindsay