Surf vs Hydro Pump?

Surf for me. They have similar DPS, but a two bar move is preferable.

Surf - basically the same move but with more flexibility.

65 x 2 versus 130 base damage, basically the same. Minor point is that hitting a damage breakpoint adds +2 damage to Surf compared to Hydro Pump's +1 since you use it twice but that's meaningless in most situations.

1.7s x2 vs 3.3s. 0.1s more duration is not significant and if anything, you lose more time / damage when the game lags and removes your energy.

Often times you have to continue to use quick moves when you're already at 100 energy, especially annoying with fast moves that have long duration, an issue you don't get with multi-bar moves because you can wait to make sure you have enough energy in case of lag without wasting energy gain.

Isn't Surf just a worse Water pulse? Both are 2 bar charge moves except Water pulse is 70 while Surf is only 65.