One possibility would be that you do not have the correct version of surfer
(you need a C based one, not a java based one,
for example
https://imaginary.org/de/node/65because the java based surfer ignores all command line arguments)
Another possibility would be that the cygwin shell does not recognize
surfer as a command (can you start surfer from a cygwin terminal
by typing
Code:
surfer
?)