Slender locomotors, such as certain snakes, experience wave drag when swimming at the water’s surface due to capillary-gravity wave radiation. This drag arises when a uniform swimmer’s speed $U$ exceeds the minimum wave speed $c_{min}$ , forming a V-shaped wake. We extend this framework to non-uniform motion, showing that diverse wave patterns observed in snakes can be reproduced by modeling the swimmer as a slaloming pressure disturbance. Remarkably, unsteady V-shaped wakes can emerge even for $U < c_{min}$ due to Doppler effects causing secondary wave drag peaks. These results advance surface swimming models and improve our understanding of shock wave formation in unsteady motion.