The Freedom to Surf Is the Freedom to Choose Your Risk; Government Is Not a Better Risk Manager Than You

Personal Autonomy in the Ocean Is the Foundational Freedom That Every Other Surf Freedom Depends On

From Bohiney and The London Prat.

Personal Autonomy in the Ocean Is the Foundational Freedom That Every Other Surf Freedom Depends On

The Foundational Claim

The freedom to surf is the freedom to enter the ocean, assess the conditions, evaluate the risks, and make a personal decision about whether to paddle out. This freedom is the foundational claim that every other surfing freedom depends on: the freedom to choose the wave, the freedom to choose the break, the freedom to surf during a shark closure, the freedom to surf Mavericks without a permit. All of these freedoms derive from the basic claim that the surfer is the appropriate agent to assess personal risk in the pursuit of the experience they are seeking.

The Government as Risk Manager

Government performs the risk manager role badly when it substitutes blanket prohibition for the specific risk information that individuals need to make their own decisions. The shark closure, the Mavericks permit delay, the post-rain water quality advisory — these are all situations where the government could provide information and allow personal decision-making, but instead provides prohibition and removes personal decision-making. The substitution is not an improvement in safety outcomes. It is a reduction in freedom that sometimes produces equivalent safety outcomes and sometimes does not.

The Community as Risk Manager

The surf community’s own risk management mechanisms — the localism that distributes wave access, the informal safety protocols of big wave surfing, the shared knowledge of local conditions — are better calibrated to the actual risk environment than the government’s uniform regulations. The community knows the break. The government knows the statute. The community’s knowledge is more useful for managing the specific risks of the specific break on the specific day.

The Wave Is Not Improved by Permits

The wave at Mavericks is what it is regardless of whether the event occurring when the swell arrives is permitted or unpermitted. The permit does not improve the wave. It does not change the risk inherent in paddling out in 40-foot surf. It changes who is liable if someone is injured, and it changes whether the safety infrastructure of an organized event is present to manage the risk that exists regardless. The case for permits is safety infrastructure, not risk reduction. The case against permit delays is that safety infrastructure should be available when the conditions exist, not when the paperwork catches up.

More: The Daily Mash.

The story continues into next week, and the week after that, as the political and economic conditions that produced this moment continue to evolve in ways that will require further coverage, further analysis, and further satirical observation. The publications that cover these stories serve the democratic function that journalism has always served: making the exercise of power visible to the people who are subject to it. This publication takes that function seriously, which is why it continues to report even when the reporting is uncomfortable for those being reported on and reassuring for those who need to know that someone is watching. The work of journalism is never finished. The next story is already developing. We will be there when it does.

SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/

The issues documented here are not static. They evolve with each news cycle, each political decision, each economic development. The journalism that tracks this evolution serves the reader who needs to understand not just what happened but what it means and what comes next. Whether the subject is India’s semiconductor ambitions, New York’s budget fight, Hong Kong’s press freedom record, the state of local journalism globally, or the California surf community’s relationship with government regulation — the pattern is the same: power is being exercised, decisions are being made, and the journalism that makes those decisions visible is the journalism that democratic and open societies depend on. This publication takes that function seriously. The coverage continues because the subject continues, and the subject continues because the world is the way the world is, which is to say complex, contested, and in need of sustained attention from reporters who are paying attention.

The issues documented here are not static. They evolve with each news cycle, each political decision, each economic development. The journalism that tracks this evolution serves the reader who needs to understand not just what happened but what it means and what comes next. Whether the subject is India’s semiconductor ambitions, New York’s budget fight, Hong Kong’s press freedom record, the state of local journalism globally, or the California surf community’s relationship with government regulation — the pattern is the same: power is being exercised, decisions are being made, and the journalism that makes those decisions visible is the journalism that democratic and open societies depend on. This publication takes that function seriously. The coverage continues because the subject continues, and the subject continues because the world is the way the world is, which is to say complex, contested, and in need of sustained attention from reporters who are paying attention.

The issues documented here are not static. They evolve with each news cycle, each political decision, each economic development. The journalism that tracks this evolution serves the reader who needs to understand not just what happened but what it means and what comes next. Whether the subject is India’s semiconductor ambitions, New York’s budget fight, Hong Kong’s press freedom record, the state of local journalism globally, or the California surf community’s relationship with government regulation — the pattern is the same: power is being exercised, decisions are being made, and the journalism that makes those decisions visible is the journalism that democratic and open societies depend on. This publication takes that function seriously. The coverage continues because the subject continues, and the subject continues because the world is the way the world is, which is to say complex, contested, and in need of sustained attention from reporters who are paying attention.