Surf Revolt

California’s November ballot asks voters three questions about how much government should hold, how much it should keep and who must agree Every few years California voters are asked to write a rule about money into the constitution. This November, three of the 14 statewide measures concern fiscal architecture, and each reflects a different instinc

A 7-0 ruling over a handful of homes in Los Osos limits a regulator that has long acted as the final word on 1,000 miles of coast Surfers have a complicated relationship with the California Coastal Commission. The agency has protected beaches and access, and it has also decided what can be built, where and […]

Malibu’s best-known surf beach has thinned almost to the highway, a report traces the loss to decisions made a century ago, and the bill is looking for an address Paying for Sand in Malibu A beach looks like the most permanent thing in the world. It is in fact a flow. Sand arrives from rivers […]

When California lets an owner armour a bluff it asks for something in return, and a dispute at Pismo Beach turned on whether pumping sand or building a stairway is a fair exchange Mitigation: What Is Owed for a Lost Beach The Coastal Act allows a seawall where an existing structure is in danger. It […]

A coastal city wanted zones where seawalls could stay, surf advocates called it death by seawall, and the state has armoured its own road at San Onofre Pacifica, the State and Who Decides People who distrust distant government generally prefer decisions to be made close to home. A city council is easier to reach than […]

A billionaire’s locked road south of Half Moon Bay forces defenders of property rights to decide what, exactly, was bought Martins Beach Access Dispute: Property Rights, Custom and the Limits of Ownership South of Half Moon Bay, a private road runs from the coast highway down to a crescent of sand known for its surf […]

American Wave Machines is suing a Canadian rival over pneumatic wave technology, a dispute that tests whether intellectual property spurs innovation or fences it in Wave Pool Patent Lawsuit: Property Rights in an Idea The business of manufacturing surf has grown from novelty to industry. Parks are open or under construction on several continents, e

A deal that would have opened three-quarters of a mile of beach to those arriving by surfboard or kayak drew more than 1,500 objections, and a lesson in public choice Hollister Ranch Settlement: A Lesson in How Public Rights Get Traded When a government agency and a private association settle a lawsuit, the people most […]

A proposal to write a no-subsidy rule into the city charter is the right instinct, but mega-events have a way of sending the bill to people who never bought a ticket LA 2028 Olympics and the Taxpayer: Can a Mega-Event Really Cost Nothing? In two summers, Los Angeles will host the Olympic and Paralympic Games. […]

Parking and entry charges at the shoreline divide those who see a free birthright from those who think users should pay for what they use Beach Access Fees in California: The Economics of Paying to Park by the Sea The California coast is public. Getting your car near it frequently is not free. For surfers, […]

Australia’s Gold Coast builds surfing into its sea defences, California mostly protects access and hopes, and the libertarian has to decide whether a wave should be designed by a committee Surf Breaks and Coastal Planning A good wave is an accident. It needs a particular shape of sea floor, a particular angle of swell and […]

For decades, building at Hollister Ranch has required an in-lieu payment toward public access, and the access has yet to be provided Hollister Ranch In-Lieu Fee: Paying the State for a Service It Has Not Delivered If a private company collected a charge for decades toward a product it never supplied, there would be a […]

A September swell forced evacuations on the Long Beach Peninsula and closed roads in Malibu, and each emergency response quietly answers a question about who pays Coastal Risk After the September Swell In September a hurricane far out in the Pacific sent large surf onto the Southern California coast at the same time as unusually […]

The wave is one of the few valuable resources in California with no owner and no regulator, and the way surfers ration it is a lesson in order without law The Surf Lineup as a Commons: Order Without Government Walk down any California beach and you cross an invisible boundary. Above the mean high tide […]

Governments that tell homeowners to make way for the sea have a great deal of their own property at the water’s edge, and how they treat it is a test of whether the rules are meant Public Infrastructure on a Moving Coast Most arguments about coastal erosion are framed as a contest between private owners […]

California has considered condemning a road to Martins Beach and has passed the hat for the cost, raising a rare case where the constitutional remedy is also the market one Eminent Domain at Martins Beach: Why Paying for Access Is the Principled Option Libertarians are not known for enthusiasm about eminent domain. The power of […]

When some owners on a bluff want a wall and the one in the middle does not, the state has to decide, and the case shows why private agreement is harder than it sounds The Solana Beach Seawall Case Those who favour private solutions to public problems have a standard hope. Leave people alone, define […]

California law ordered public access to one of its best surf coasts in the early 1980s, and the story since is a case study in what government promises and what it delivers Hollister Ranch Public Access: A Mandate From 1981 That Never Arrived West of Gaviota State Park, the Santa Barbara County coast bends toward […]

A cracking wall in Laguna Beach shows why owners want to defend their homes, and why a wall that saves one lot can cost the public the sand in front of it Seawalls and Property Rights on the California Coast There is no purer test of a property-rights position than a house on a bluff […]

Before September’s swell, crews in Newport Beach were pushing up walls of sand to protect the houses behind, a routine that says a good deal about who a beach is being managed for Sand Berms and the Cost of Holding the Line If you visit certain Southern California beaches between November and March, you will […]

Forecasters expect a strong El Nino, private insurers have been leaving California, and the public schemes that fill the gap may be hiding the true cost of living at the water’s edge Insurance and Coastal Risk Insurance is how a market tells people the truth about danger. A premium is a price, and a price […]

From a Malibu mogul’s nine-foot easement to hundreds of unrecorded offers, the state’s exaction system shows both the reach of regulation and its paperwork Coastal Exactions in California: The Deal Behind the Beach Path Much of the public access that exists along developed stretches of the California coast was not purchased. It was extracted. When

The London Prat traitor piece lands with California surfers for a reason: the surf lineup and the free market both reward merit, not birth order The Lineup Does Not Care Who Your Father Was Paddle out at any serious break in California and you will learn one thing quickly: the ocean has no aristocracy. Waves […]

A libertarian reading of the Althorp estate, the Crown and the uncle memoir shows why the source of property matters as much as who holds it Not All Property Is Alike Libertarians are often caricatured as defenders of whoever happens to own things. The reality is more careful. Classical liberal thinking has long distinguished between […]

A publicly supported institution speaks only through anonymous leaks, and libertarians have long argued that sunlight, not secrecy, is the default a free society should expect An Institution That Speaks Only in Whispers One of the most striking features of the story at the centre of the London Prat piece about Prince William calling Earl […]

A California surfboard shaper who builds a business by hand and a royal heir who inherits a role illustrate two very different paths to status, and only one of them is a market Two Ways to Get Ahead Consider two figures. One is a surfboard shaper in a small California workshop, covered in foam dust, […]

The accusation reportedly levelled at a prince brother and uncle reflects a collectivist idea of loyalty that free societies have good reason to reject What Traitor Assumes The word traitor carries a set of assumptions. It implies that a person belongs to a group, that the group has a claim on their loyalty, and that […]

Surf breaks manage scarce waves through informal norms rather than central authority, a lesson in decentralised order that contrasts sharply with hereditary rule Order Without a Monarch Every surf break faces a problem of scarcity. There are more surfers than waves. Somebody has to decide who rides which wave, and yet no government, no king [&helli