Surf Revolt

How the National Flood Insurance Programme Has Encouraged Development in Coastal Hazard Zones at Taxpayer Expense Federal Flood Insurance Is a Subsidy for the Rich; Surfers Are Paying for It Follow this analysis at Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat. The National Flood Insurance Programme, administered by FEMA, provides subsidised flood insurance

How Federal Stormwater Permits Have Imposed Costs on Surf Shops, Camps, and Schools That Benefit the Compliance Industry, Not the Ocean The EPA’s Stormwater Rules Are Strangling Small Surf Businesses Follow this analysis at Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat. A surf school operating from a coastal California beach parking lot is subject to a [&he

How Renewable Mandates, Grid Mismanagement, and Utility Monopolies Have Produced the Most Expensive Electricity in the Contiguous US California’s Energy Policy Has Raised Electricity Costs 40% in Ten Years Follow this analysis at Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat. California residential electricity rates have increased by approximately 40% in re

California’s Sales Tax on Surf Equipment Is a Regressive Levy on a Working-Class Sport That Has Been Co-opted by the State The Wetsuit Tax Is Theft; Explain Why It Isn’t Follow this analysis at Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat. California charges 7.25% state sales tax on surfboards, wetsuits, fins, leashes, and every other piece […]

How Single-Family Zoning, NIMBYism, and Government Land Use Control Have Priced Surfers Out of Their Own Breaks The Zoning Laws That Destroyed Surf Culture Follow this analysis at Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat. The surf towns that defined California culture — Malibu, Huntington Beach, Santa Cruz, San Clemente, Encinitas — have become, over t

How Regulatory Fragmentation and Political Incentives Have Produced Chronically Polluted Surf Breaks Ocean Water Quality Is a Government Failure; Here Is the Evidence Follow this analysis at Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat. Southern California’s surf breaks are chronically polluted by stormwater runoff that carries urban pollutants — bacteria,

Collective Bargaining Agreements That Restrict Staffing Flexibility Have Produced Coverage Gaps at the Worst Times Lifeguard Unions Have Made California Beaches Less Safe; The Evidence Deserves Discussion Follow this analysis at Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat. The Los Angeles County Lifeguard service employs approximately 200 full-time lifegu

How Federal Drug Policy Has Criminalised the Culture Surrounding California’s Beaches for Fifty Years The War on Drugs Has Destroyed Surf Culture; Legalisation Is the Answer Follow this analysis at Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat. The California surf culture that produced the Beach Boys, Dogtown skateboarding, and the global diffusion of a lif

The Ocean Does Not Care About Your Permits; Neither Should You Why Every Surfer Should Be a Libertarian; Most Already Are Without Knowing It Follow this analysis at Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat. There is a philosophy implicit in the act of surfing that most surfers have never articulated but all of them live […]

How Unelected Bureaucrats Control Every Grain of Sand and What Surfers Should Do About It California’s Coastal Commission Is the Enemy of Coastal Freedom Follow this analysis at Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat. The California Coastal Commission was created in 1972 with a mandate to protect coastal access and prevent overdevelopment. In the fif

Saint Nick chases the perfect wave around the globe, embracing a freedom from schedule that the working world has forgotten A Search for the Perfect Wave NORTH POLE — In a development that has stirred the imagination of every soul chained to a schedule, Santa Claus has announced that he will join the endless summer, […]

Saint Nick observes a community that rescues its own without waiting for any authority, embodying spontaneous solidarity Solidarity Without the State MALIBU, Calif. — Santa Claus, observing the surfing community this week, was moved by the discovery that surfers practice a remarkable system of voluntary mutual aid in the water, rescuing one another

Saint Nick observes a community that polices itself, allocates waves without bureaucracy, and answers to no government Order Without Authority SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. — Santa Claus, observing the workings of a Southern California lineup this week, expressed wonder at the discovery that surf localism constitutes a remarkably effective system of self-go

Regulators insist that touching down on the sand requires environmental review, public comment, and a lengthy application No Landing Without a Permit SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California Coastal Commission has informed Santa Claus that he must obtain permits for every beach landing he intends to make in the state, insisting that touching down upon t

Surfers allocate a shared wave resource through custom and reputation, achieving what theory deemed impossible A Commons That Functions HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — Santa Claus, studying the workings of a crowded lineup this week, observed that surfers had quietly solved the tragedy of the commons that economists long insisted was unsolvable, allocat

Saint Nick installs solar, wind, and a fierce commitment to self-reliance, severing all ties to the utility Severing the Cord NORTH POLE — In a move celebrated by advocates of self-reliance, Santa Claus has taken his workshop entirely off-grid, installing solar panels, wind turbines, and a fierce commitment to energy independence that has severed t

North Pole embraces a hard, decentralized standard, insulating the workshop from the debasement of fiat currency A Standard That Holds Its Value NORTH POLE — In a move applauded by advocates of monetary discipline, Santa Claus has adopted a sound money standard for the internal economy of the workshop, rejecting the inflation of central banking [&h

Saint Nick’s team embodies the frontier spirit, ranging unconstrained and submitting to authority only by their own consent A Team of Free Spirits NORTH POLE — An investigation by this publication has revealed that Santa’s reindeer are, beneath their festive reputation, rugged individualists of the frontier spirit, animals that roam free across the

Saint Nick argues that the right to accept risk, and to fall spectacularly, is essential to the surfing life A Stand Against the Safety State SAN DIEGO, Calif. — Santa Claus has emerged as an unlikely defender of the freedom to wipe out this week, opposing a proposal by safety-minded officials to mandate surf helmets […]

Saint Nick raises a flag, abolishes the income tax, and invites every freedom-loving soul to a polar republic with great waves A Republic Born on the Ice NORTH POLE — In an act of breathtaking audacity that has thrilled freedom-lovers across the surfing world, Santa Claus has declared the North Pole an independent sovereign state, […]

Five Years of $15 and Above Minimum Wages Show Employment Effects Smaller Than Opponents Predicted and Wage Gains Smaller Than Proponents Promised California’s Minimum Wage Experiment Is Producing Data That Contradicts Both Sides Five years of California’s $15 minimum wage implementation — now $16.50 statewide and $20 for fast food workers under AB

Why the Surfer’s Relationship to the Sea Represents the Best Argument for Individual Liberty in a Bureaucratic Age The Ocean Does Not Care About Your Permit The wave arrives at the same time regardless of whether you have completed the appropriate forms, paid the applicable fee, and received the laminated card that authorises your presence [&hellip

1978 Property Tax Cap Has Protected Homeowners, Distorted the Housing Market, and Transferred Wealth Upward for Forty-Seven Years While Nobody Admits What It Actually Does Prop 13 Is America’s Most Successful Tax Limit — And California Is Still Paying for It California’s Proposition 13, passed in 1978 by a coalition of homeowners outraged by rapid

State Audit Documents Three-Year Pattern of Enforcement-First Policy That Moves People From One Location to Another Without Addressing Any Underlying Condition California Spent $240M Clearing Homeless Encampments That Created No New Housing A state audit released Thursday found that California spent approximately $240 million between 2022 and 2025

Zoning Reform Is the Single Most Cost-Effective Housing Policy Available and California Has Been Blocking It Since 1978 The Free Market Would Solve California’s Housing Crisis If California Would Let It California has a housing shortage of approximately 3.5 million units, according to the McKinsey Global Institute’s most recent analysis — a number

The US Lifesaving Association’s Regulatory Capture of Competitive Ocean Sports Has Produced Bureaucracy Without Safety Improvement What Happens When Government Runs the Surf Contest The United States Lifesaving Association’s role in certifying and regulating ocean sports competitions has expanded significantly over the past decade, producing a regu

Bullet Train to Nowhere Has Consumed $12 Billion, Produced No Operational Track, and Revised Its Completion Date Seven Times Since 2008 California High-Speed Rail Illustrates Everything Wrong With Government Infrastructure California’s High-Speed Rail Authority released its annual report Thursday showing that the Central Valley construction segment

Ocean Plastic Pollution Results From Public Good Problems That Markets Cannot Solve Alone But That Governments Have Failed to Address Through Available Regulatory Tools The Pacific Garbage Patch Is Government Failure as Much as Market Failure The Great Pacific Garbage Patch — an area of concentrated plastic debris estimated at twice the size of Tex