"Record Collector"s Jamie Atkins said it was "so far ahead of the work of their contemporaries that it is not entirely surprising Wilson found himself recoiling from its sophistication and majesty; the songwriting equivalent of scaling Everest, only to find yourself thinking, 'Well, what now?'" Critic Dave Marsh was less favorable towards the song. Writing in "The Rolling Stone Record Guide" (1983), he bemoaned the hype that continued to surround Wilson and the "Smile" project throughout the 1970s and opined that "Surf's Up" "was far less forceful and arguably less innovative than Wilson's surf-era hits."