Recently watching a video comparing two Silvia's, one with a mecoffee mod and one without but both displaying their temperature on the graph. Being a temp surfer myself, makes me want to pull my shots while the temp is on the rise, rather than after the temp peaks and cools. Anybody follow this?

I've temp surfed both of the rise and fall and settled in on pulling a shot roughly 1 minute after the light goes out when it peaks.
I will be adding a PID to my machine at some point in the near future but haven't decided on which route to go.
The comparison graph in this video does show that surfing is a pretty inexact method of temp management.

I have found that even 1 minute after the boiler light goes out, I still get steam out the group head. I have settled on, once the light goes out, running the water (steam) through the group head for 2-3 seconds twice before I throw in the portafilter and pull a shot.

I do this as well. I find that starting at the top of the range, though less consistent during the shot, is more consistent at the beginning of the shot.