It's five years since Dunedin last hosted the National Surf Champs, and experienced surfer Daniel Kereopa has noticed the changes at St Clair Beach.
"The landscape's changed around the beachfront. You know, it's a little bit harder to get into the surf, but we're here to surf and the competition's really good," Kereopa said.
He recently got into coaching the next generation of young surfers, but admits getting back in the water this morning was a shock.
"It was really, really cold. Living up in Orewa we're surfing in board shorts, and now we're in Dunedin and we've got full 32 steamers on," he said.
It's the first event of the year for the country's surfers, with competition across 21 divisions this week, but even the experienced ones are trying to get back into the rhythm.
Gisborne's Maz Quinn is one of those veteran surfers still getting to grips with conditions.
"It was pretty hard out there, pretty easy to get lost, but I managed to scrape through," he said.
The favourite to take out the event is Raglan's Billy Stairmand, who's aiming for his third title in a row.
"I'm gunning for that national title again, as always," he explained.
Stairmand finished 2015 as the second highest-placed Kiwi on the World Surf League Qualifying Series, and while he's down south, he's found time for some recreational surfing down in the Catlins.
"You can just go out there and free surf, do kind of what you want and catch what you want. But when you're competing you've got to get the right waves and do the right things for the judges," he said.
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