Surf's Up.A documentary crew follows the misadventures of Cody Maverick, a 17-year-old northern rockhopper penguin who lives in Shiverpool, Antarctica with his mother Edna and his older brother Glen. Cody has wanted to be a professional surfer ever since a visit from legendary surfer Ezekiel "Big Z" Topanga several years ago. When a talent scout shorebird named Mikey arrives to find entrants for the "Big Z Memorial" surfing contest, Cody jumps at the chance despite the lack of support from his family. En route to the contest, Cody befriends another entrant, Chicken Joe. The entrants arrive at Pen Gu Island, the site of the contest, where Cody meets and immediately falls in love with Lani, a female gentoo penguin who is a lifeguard. He also meets Tank "The Shredder" Evans, an arrogant penguin who has won the Big Z Memorial nine times since it was first held after Z's alleged death during a previous match ten years ago. Cody sees him vandalizing Big Z's memorial and immediately challenges Tank to a surfing duel. Tank easily wins the duel while Cody nearly drowns. Lani rescues him and takes him to her uncle, the "Geek", to help Cody recover from his injuries. Cody wakes up and panics when he can't find the souvenir necklace he got as a kid from Big Z. Geek criticizes the necklace, but decides to return it when he later finds it in his hut. While returning the necklace, Geek finds Cody sitting on a koa log and offers to help him make a perfect surfboard. They attempt to take the log back to Geek's house, only to lose control of it and end up on a beach far away from the contest. When Cody gets to the beach, he discovers a shack full of old trophies and surfboards, which are actually Z's belongings. After observing Geek sadly looking in the shack, he realizes that Geek is actually Z and asks him to teach him how to surf. Reluctantly, Z agrees, but says that Cody has to make his own board first. The attempt doesn't go well, however, as an impatient Cody doesn't listen to Z's advice and makes a unstable board that shatters as soon as he tries to enter the water. Angry, he storms off, running into Lani, who eventually persuades him to return. That night, a happier, more patient Cody works on a new board, finishing it by morning, and falls asleep...