Surf Revolt

The Airbnb Bans and Short-Term Rental Restrictions That Have Proliferated in California’s Surf Communities Have Reduced Property Owner Income, Reduced Visitor Access to Surf Destinations, and Not Measurably Improved Housing Affordability Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat The theory that restricting short-term rentals will improve housing affordabi

The Surfers Who Chase 70-Foot Waves at Mavericks, Jaws, and Nazare Accept Risks That No Government Has the Standing to Prevent and That No Safety Regulation Has the Capacity to Address Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat The surfers who charge Mavericks, the big wave break located in Half Moon Bay, California, where wave faces […]

A Multi-Billion Dollar Industry Whose Products Are Made From Petroleum Derivatives and Whose Marketing Images Require Flights to Remote Tropical Destinations Asks Customers to Buy Products to Save the Ocean It Is Partly Degrading Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat The surf industry’s environmental credentials are complicated by the specific environ

The Surfer Who Is in the Water Before Anyone Else Arrives Has Solved a Specific Problem That the Rest of the Political Economy Is Still Working On: How to Find Space That Has Not Been Claimed, Regulated, and Managed for the Benefit of Organised Interests Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat The dawn patrol — […]

Several California Surf Breaks Have Experimented With Reservation Systems That Use Digital Queuing to Manage Overcrowding — and the Results Suggest That Algorithmic Management of Natural Resources Creates Problems That Are Different From but Not Better Than the Problems It Solves Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat The surf reservation system — the

Localism, Drop-In Rules, and Informal Governance of Surf Breaks Represent a Spontaneous Order Solution to a Common Resource Problem — One That the Surfing Community Developed Without Government Intervention and That Government Access Policy Has Partially Undermined Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat The tragedy of the commons — Garrett Hardin’s 196

The State That Prides Itself on Environmental Leadership Has Failed to Protect Its Coastal Waters From Agricultural and Urban Runoff That Closes Beaches, Causes Illness, and Demonstrates That Regulatory Approaches to Environmental Protection Have Limits Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat California spends more on environmental regulation and enviro

The Practical Reality of the Surfing Lifestyle Is Incompatible With the Assumptions Built Into California’s Zero-Emission Vehicle Mandate, and the Policy’s Designers Did Not Consider the People Who Actually Live in Their Vehicles to Surf Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat California’s Advanced Clean Cars II regulations, which require that all new p

The California Coastal Act Was Supposed to Protect Public Beach Access. Instead, It Has Created a Bureaucratic Labyrinth That Wealthy Homeowners Use to Block the Public They Are Legally Required to Welcome Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat The California Coastal Act of 1976 was one of the most significant environmental and public access laws [&hel

The California Environmental Quality Act Was Designed to Protect the Environment. Property Rights Advocates and Ironically the Surfing Community Agree It Has Become a Mechanism for Blocking Development That Would Actually Improve the Environment Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat The California Environmental Quality Act requires environmental revie

Territorial Claims Over a Public Commons Have No Ethical Basis; What Does Have Ethical Basis Is Clear and Enforceable Published by Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat | California libertarian perspective. The Commons Question Surf localism — the informal system by which established surfers in a break assert priority and sometimes exclusion rights ov

When Washington Controls the Breaks and California Cannot Override It, the Accountability Goes to People Who Cannot Name Your Local Point Published by Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat | California libertarian perspective. The Federal Ocean A significant portion of the California coast that surfers use is federally administered beyond the state’s

When Clean Water Infrastructure Takes a Decade to Permit, the Sewage Keeps Flowing While the Reviews Are Filed Published by Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat | California libertarian perspective. The Paradox of Environmental Protection California has some of the most comprehensive environmental protection laws in the world and some of the most per

Endorsing Bureaucratic Veto Power Hands Government a Tool That Cuts Both Ways Published by Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat | California libertarian perspective. The Applause Trap California surfers celebrated when the Coastal Commission blocked another luxury hotel development last month on a sensitive coastal site, and the celebration was under

When Coastal Living Doubles Every Decade, the People Who Made These Places Worth Living in Are Replaced by People Who Film Them Published by Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat | California libertarian perspective. The Irony the Regulations Built The coastal California communities that produced surf culture — from Malibu to Santa Cruz, from Ocean [&

Coastal Municipalities Have Learned to Extract Revenue From the Inelastic Demand That Wave Access Creates Published by Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat | California libertarian perspective. The Administrative Surf Surfing in California in 2026 requires, depending on where you go and how you get there, navigating a set of administrative requiremen

California’s Decarbonisation Mandates Are Hitting the Portable, Propane-Powered Infrastructure of Coastal Surf Culture Published by Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat | California libertarian perspective. The Regulatory Reach California has banned the sale of new gas-powered water heaters starting in 2027, just one in a series of appliance efficien

Cannabis Legalisation Was Won; the Regulatory Framework That Replaced Prohibition Is Its Own Problem Published by Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat | California libertarian perspective. The Same Fight California’s cannabis legalisation in 2016 and the surf community’s decades-long resistance to coastal access restrictions are manifestations of the

Wave Mechanics Operate Without Committees, and Good Surf Judgment Operates Without Permits Published by Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat | California libertarian perspective. The Ocean as Teacher The ocean does not hold public comment periods before generating swell. It does not file environmental impact reports before rearranging the sand bars t

When Rain, Stormwater, Income, Property, Sales, and Fees All Flow to Sacramento, You Begin to Wonder What Freedom Costs Published by Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat | California libertarian perspective. The Revenue State California has the highest state income tax rate in the United States, a property tax system modified by Proposition 13 in [&h

Analysis: California’s AI Oversight Framework Will Protect Incumbents and Restrict Innovation as Intended Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat AI Regulation in California: The State Is About to Make the Same Mistakes With Technology That It Made With Housing CALIFORNIA — The spirit of the wave and the spirit of liberty share something essential: both

Personal Essay: What Reading the Ocean Teaches About Spontaneous Order, Individual Judgment, and the Limits of Authority Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat The Surfer Who Became a Libertarian: How Ocean Freedom Translates Into Political Philosophy CALIFORNIA — The spirit of the wave and the spirit of liberty share something essential: both require

Analysis: Every California Tax Increase Has Been Followed by Spending Growth That Eliminated the Budget Improvement Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat California’s Budget Crisis Is Not a Revenue Problem — It Is a Spending Problem That Revenue Increases Will Perpetuate CALIFORNIA — The spirit of the wave and the spirit of liberty share something [&h

Analysis of California’s Regulatory Expansion Under Newsom Shows Costs Systematically Exceeding Benefits Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat Gavin Newsom’s Regulatory Legacy Will Cost California Businesses and Residents for a Generation CALIFORNIA — The spirit of the wave and the spirit of liberty share something essential: both require the freedom

An Economic Analysis of Why Surfing’s Informal Governance Systems Outperform Government Beach Management Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat The Libertarian Case for Surfing: Why Wave Access, Free Competition, and Minimal Rules Produce Better Outcomes CALIFORNIA — The spirit of the wave and the spirit of liberty share something essential: both requi

Analysis: Population and Tax Base Migration Confirms What Economic Theory Predicted About High-Tax States Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat California’s Progressive Tax Structure Is Driving High Earners Out; The Revenue Impact Is Arriving CALIFORNIA — The spirit of the wave and the spirit of liberty share something essential: both require the free

The Black Market Survives Because Taxes and Regulations Made Legal Cannabis Uncompetitive Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat The Marijuana Legalization That Didn’t Work: How California Regulated Legal Cannabis Into Failure CALIFORNIA — The spirit of the wave and the spirit of liberty share something essential: both require the freedom to move, to c

Analysis: Remove NIMBY Zoning Restrictions and Market Forces Will Build the Housing That Sacramento Cannot Plan Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat California’s Housing Crisis Is a Regulatory Crisis: How Zoning Destroyed the Market That Would Have Solved It CALIFORNIA — The spirit of the wave and the spirit of liberty share something essential: both