The Government has explicitly banned surfing under alert level 4 and police have been patrolling beaches.
Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said this was to avoid unnecessary strain on emergency services and speed up the move out of level 4.
Piha surfer Issac has been out despite this, to get a fix of what he says is his primary form of exercise.
"It's pretty important for maintaining my peace of mind and getting some good exercise," he said.
"As far as the high risk argument goes, I don't agree with that
"That hasn't been reflected over other sports such as cycling... surfing's fairly low risk in comparison to heaps of other activities that are still allowed over lockdown," Issac said.
He felt the risk of spreading COVID-19 while surfing was low, as it was hard to get closer than two metres to others while out in the water.
Issac went for a surf on the first day of lockdown, despite being warned by older locals that authorities were patrolling.
He said he was out with the surfer photographed making obscene gestures at a Stuff cameraman while being confronted by police.