As Ryan Budney points out, the only way to not use the ideas behind the Van Kampen theorem is to covering space theory. In the case of surfaces, almost all of them have rather famous contractible universal covers: $\mathbb R^2$ in the case of a torus and Klein bottle, and the hyperbolic plane for surfaces of higher genus. Ironically, dealing with our remaining surface -- showing that the 2-sphere is simply connected -- seems to need a Van Kampen style argument.

As Ryan Budney points out, the only way to not use the ideas behind the Van Kampen theorem is to covering space theory. In the case of surfaces, almost all of them have rather famous contractible universal covers: $\mathbb R^2$ in the case of a torus and Klein bottle, and the hyperbolic plane for surfaces of higher genus. Ironically, dealing with our remaining surface -- showing that the 2-sphere is simply connected -- seems to need a Van Kampen style argument (or, as has been rightly pointed out in the comments, some approximation theorem): not hard, but curiously different.