But it was not the case yesterday. It was a ''pea-souper'' rather than super day for surfing.
Despite blue skies and warm weather across the city, surfers arrived at the beach yesterday to find a thick blanket of fog covering the shoreline, which dropped visibility to near zero for several hours.
MetService meteorologist John Law said the peculiar and picturesque light and grey phenomenon was not uncommon.
It was caused by contrasting sea and land temperatures.
''The sea surface temperature off the south coast of the Otago Peninsula was about 15degC yesterday, while the land temperature was about 20degC.
''The air over the sea is cooled by the sea surface temperatures to around 15degC - cool enough that the air becomes saturated and the low cloud forms.
''The slight southerly winds that we have at the moment are just enough to push the cloud inland, but not strong enough to mix the air with the drier air aloft.''
Mr Law said the fog affected only a small patch of the Dunedin coastline, and had cleared by early afternoon.
