3rd Gen Choosing a water-type Pokemon

I choose Torchic then... my water type pokemon was Ludicolo or Sharpedo.
Finally, I used Kyogre xD

When I was traveling the region, I counted on my switch in/switch out Pelipper to Surf me across. Otherwise, I had my Swampert or my Kingdra ferry me across the waves.

Azumarill and Lanturn were my choices. i love those Pokemon <3

I still found it strange how Zigzagoon could learn surf O_O

Well most of the time I used Wailmer or my starter Swampert.

But this time in my latest playthrough I chose Starmie it has great movesets really high Speciall Attack and Speed. :3

I almost always picked Treecko as my starter. My Water type would either be Whiscash or, later on when I could catch it, Walrein.

I tend to go with water starters (especially in Hoenn), so I stuck Surf on my Swampert. If a starter isn't available, I generally find some other water-type that can take several water HMs at once (so that I don't have to carry around too many Pokémon).

When I don't pick Mudkip (but Torchic instead because I don't like Treecko that much) I always use Walrein as my Water-type Pokemon :) I think Walrein is a great addition sonce it's part Ice-type too. Eventhough you can catch Spheal quite late in the game, you get a great Pokemon in return. Ofcourse I would teach Surf to my Walrein or Swampert :3

I would love to have Milotic as my all-time water Pokemon, but since Feebas are extremely hard to find, I go with the Walrein solution ;)

My latest playthrough was a water monotype adventure and 3 of the 5 Pokémon on my team knew the move Surf. Surf was a convenient move that you could give out as many times as you wanted so I utilized it. Furthermore in Generation 3, STAB Surf is not a weak attack. I ended up teaching the move to Wingull, Ludicolo and Lantern.

Choosing a water Pokemon is always one of the hardest decisions to make for me, because it's one of my favorite types. There are so many beautiful concepts, especially in RSE. After playing through multiple times with Swampert was my sole water-type, I chose Torchic as my starter and tried out Crawdaunt and then in another run of Emerald, Ludicolo. I've used others, but those are the main two that I remember using besides the Mudkip line.

I always make sure I have Surf (and other needed HMs/moves) for exploring on my team. I do love the exploring aspect of the games. Especially Hoenn, I could spend plenty of time just looking around the map but try to resist xD
I once had to switch a team Pokemon out for a HM carrier, resulting in said team member with no HMs becoming under leveled. Shame more Pokemon can't learn surf, I try to put my personal favorite Pokes in my Teams. Sometimes this works nicely though, as this problem resulted in me having a soft spot for Wailmer, who I named Sailmer <3

If I started with Mudkip, then it'd get Surf. Otherwise my only option until I was actually out in the water was to use an HM Slave (namely Zigzagoon/Linoone) because none of the Water types I wanted were available pre-Surf. Even though I generally don't like having five team members + one HM Slave for long periods of time in unexplored areas, I think I've actually used an HM Slave--Wailmer/Wailord in particular--to traverse Hoenn's watery areas.

If I'm playing Sapphire, there's three good Surfers available pretty much immediately in Mudkip, Wingull and Lotad. Sometimes I use all three at the same time, because none of them share any common weaknesses.

I mostly choosed Mudkip as starter. Cause it was very strong. And i knew that when it will evolve to swampert it will be soo strong. Also cause Mudkip looks cute.

Mudkip can definitely work. Its nice and powerful once it evolves and is only weak to grass as a swampert.

I think in Hoenn I would put surf on Pelipper, Swampert, or Milotic. In fire red it would be Blastoise or Lapras (Maybe Nidoking)

for a "utility" point of view, i always ended up designating an HM Slave. with RSE, i keep making Linoone my B***h with HMs. cut, rock smash, strength, surf. no matter how hard i try, i cant find a desirable water type that i actually like. it is a very difficult area for me to pick a water type. they are either too ugly, suck too much, too slow, or generally unappealing. so i go with a runner up, a normal type that can handle nearly anything.

I almost exclusively chose the fire starter for pretty much every pokemon game on the first run through, so I generally had to find a water pokemon for surf. I usually tried to find a Gyarados, until I'd got far enough in the game (in Emerald) to get Kyogre and then taught that surf. I can't remember who I taught dive and waterfall to, but whoever it was they just stayed in the PC until I had need of them.

Surf's a pretty good move. I definitely know it's got more accuracy then Muddy Water, so there's a positive thing about it. There were times where I didn't have a water type and I would end up using a Zigzagoon as a slave but still its such an amazing move <3

My team has a lotad and lapras(traded from a firered) who both have surf

My Whishcash knows Surf and uses it to take me all over Hoenn and destroy sandcastles on Slateports beach.