Although this may seem confusing, the charts basically show us the position of low and high pressure areas, and the wind flow, about 5000m above sea level. Because the air at these altitudes is not influenced by the land, it changes more slowly and is more easily predictable than the air at sea level.
The air flow at high altitudes influences the behaviour of the surface features, in other words the development and trajectory of surface depressions. For example, if the high-altitude air flow over the Atlantic Ocean (sometimes called the jet-stream) looks like an omega (W) shape, then all the surface lows will not only skirt around the north, but also hardly develop enough to give us any surf. On the other hand if the jet-stream flows in more of a straight line from west to east, then the surface lows will travel across the ocean much more quickly, gathering energy, deepening much more and, therefore, generating more surf.