The reason you haven't met many people who "knew" that the electrons "ride on the surface" is because that's not really true.

Electrons travel on the surface of a metal in a static field, however with a constant current, the moving electrons are spread throughout the cross section. With an oscillating current, at a high frequency, the conducting electrons are located on the outer edge of the wire. So often, the electrons do travel on the surface, but not always.

That's why you haven't run into too many people who know that bit of trivia as you describe it.