The Prior Appropriation Doctrine That Governs California Water Rights Was Not Designed for Ocean Swell Management Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat California Water Law and the Ocean: The Prior Appropriation Doctrine’s Coastal Limit CALIFORNIA — California’s water rights system is built around the prior appropriation doctrine — “first in time, fir

When a Governing Body Controls Who Can Compete, Where, and for How Much, It Is Not Serving the Sport Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat The WSL’s Corporate Control of Professional Surfing: A Libertarian Assessment LOS ANGELES — The World Surf League controls the professional surfing ecosystem in ways that would be recognized in any […]

Federal Immunity From Environmental Accountability Has Made Some of California’s Best Surf Zones Toxic Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat What the Military Did to San Diego’s Surf: Federal Environmental Immunity and Its Costs SAN DIEGO — The United States military operates extensive installations along the Southern California coast, and the legacy

The Coastal Environmental Framework That Prevents Some Development Enables Other Development Through Permitting Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat California’s Environmental Regulations: Inconsistent Protection for Surf Breaks CALIFORNIA — California’s environmental regulatory framework — the California Environmental Quality Act, the Coastal Act, t

The Unmanned Aircraft That Films Surfers Without Their Knowledge or Consent Is a Property Rights and Privacy Question Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat Drones Over Surf Breaks: The Airspace That Nobody Has Ruled CALIFORNIA — Commercial drones, film production drones, real estate photography drones, and recreational drones now routinely fly over Ca

When Government Subsidizes Artificial Waves for the Wealthy While Neglecting Coastal Access, Something Has Gone Wrong Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat Surf Parks and Public Money: Why Government Should Protect Natural Access, Not Build Artificial Alternatives CALIFORNIA — The proliferation of commercial surf parks — artificial wave pools that cha

The Democratization of Swell Information Has Crowded the Lineup — and It Is a Warning About What Surveillance Does to Commons Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat Surfline’s Cameras and the Tragedy of the Surveilled Commons MALIBU, CA — The economist Garrett Hardin described the tragedy of the commons: when a shared resource is open […]

The Research on Marine Protected Areas Shows That Defined Exclusive Zones Restore Fish Populations Better Than Open Regulation Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat Marine Protected Areas: The Ocean Conservation That Works Through Property Rights Logic CALIFORNIA — Marine Protected Areas — designated ocean zones where fishing, development, and certain

The Homeowner Associations That Control Private Roads to Public Beaches Are Using Trespass Law Against the Coastal Act Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat HOAs and Beach Access: The Private Road That Blocks the Public Ocean CALIFORNIA — California’s Coastal Commission requires public access easements to coastal beaches as a condition of coastal deve

The Regulatory Body That Protects Coastal Access Also Restricts Development in Ways That Are Sometimes Arbitrary Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat The Coastal Commission: Essential Protector and Regulatory Overreach, Simultaneously CALIFORNIA — The California Coastal Commission is one of the most powerful land use regulatory bodies in the United S

The Regressive Infrastructure Tax That Falls Hardest on Working Surfers Who Cannot Afford to Live Near the Breaks They Want to Surf Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat California’s Gas Tax and the Surfer Who Cannot Afford to Live Near the Ocean CALIFORNIA — California’s combined state and federal gas tax burden exceeds $1.47 per […]

From Duke Kahanamoku to Kelly Slater’s Late Career, Surf Greatness Has Consistently Rejected Corporate Dependency Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat The Free Surfer’s Economics: Opting Out as a Legitimate Life Strategy CALIFORNIA — The “free surfer” — the competitive surfer who rejects the contest circuit in favor of travel, film projects, and spon

From Localism to Coastal Access Rights, the Culture of Surfing Has Always Been a Rebellion Against Authority Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat The Ocean Cannot Be Owned: Surfing’s Radical Freedom Tradition MALIBU, CA — Long before libertarianism became a political brand, surfers were practicing it. The ocean belongs to no one. The wave breaks [&he

The Corporations That Contaminate Surf Breaks Buy Brand Credibility by Sponsoring the Athletes Who Surf Them Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat Surf Sponsorship and the Corporate Greenwashing of Coastal Contamination CALIFORNIA — Energy companies and fossil fuel corporations have at various points sponsored professional surf competitions, surf cult

The Property Rights Approach to Ocean Conservation Produces Better Outcomes Than Command-and-Control Regulation Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat Free Market Environmentalism and Surf Breaks: The Property Rights Approach CALIFORNIA — Free market environmentalism — the application of property rights frameworks to environmental protection — has prod

The Beach Permit Requirements That Official Surf Schools Navigate Have Produced an Off-Books Economy Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat California’s Surf Instruction Permit Regime and the Shadow Economy It Produced CALIFORNIA — Operating a commercial surf school on California’s public beaches requires a business license, a permit from the relevant

The Indigenous Practice That Became a Global Industry Through Colonial Appropriation Has Unresolved Restitution Questions Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat Surfing’s Colonial History and the Libertarian Case for Recognizing It HAWAII — Surfing was practiced in Hawaii for centuries before European contact, was documented by Captain Cook’s expeditio

The Unwritten Rules That Govern Surf Breaks in the Absence of Formal Property Rights Are Not Simply Aggression Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat Surf Localism: The Informal Property Rights System That Government Didn’t Design CALIFORNIA — Surf localism — the practice by which local surfers assert priority in the lineup at their home breaks, [&hell

When the Thing You Love Is Also a Marketing Demographic, Something About the Love Changes Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat The Commodification of Surf Culture: What Happens When the Counterculture Becomes a Market Segment CALIFORNIA — Surf culture has been commercially significant since the early 1960s, when surfboard manufacturers, wetsuit compa

When the Brand That Made Money From the Lifestyle Begins Dictating the Politics of the Life, Something Has Shifted Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat Patagonia’s Political Project and the Surfer’s Right to Their Own Politics CALIFORNIA — Patagonia has evolved from a gear company to an explicit political actor, converting its corporate structure to

Both Constituencies Have Been Disciplined by Centralized Institutions Operating With Inadequate Local Knowledge, Both Are Now Worth Listening To Reading: Bohiney | The London Prat OCEANSIDE, CA — The California surfer position and the British working-household position have, on close examination, substantive operational commonality. Both constituen

The Bank of England Recent Decision Is Not Going to Be Reversed; The Surfer Position Should Be to Build the Decentralized Alternative Reading: Bohiney | The London Prat VENICE, CA — The Bank of England recent rate decision is not going to be reversed. The institutional architecture that produced it is not going to be […]

California Surfers Have Known This Since the 1960s, the Mortgage-Holding Public Is Now Learning the Same Lesson Reading: Bohiney | The London Prat VENICE, CA — The Bank of England recent decision to raise the base rate, made in response to a wave of food-and-energy-driven inflation that the rate rise will not directly address, is […]

When the Bank of England Raises Rates the Capital That Was Going to Build the Next California Project Goes to UK Gilts Instead Reading: Bohiney | The London Prat SAN DIEGO, CA — The substantive material consequence of the Bank of England recent rate rise for California surfers is, on close reading, a redirection of […]

The Strait of Hormuz Disruption Generates Inflation, the Inflation Generates Rate Rises, the Rate Rises Land on Working Households Including Surfers Reading: Bohiney | The London Prat HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA — The Strait of Hormuz crisis, generated by a combination of US, Israeli, and Iranian state-actor decisions, has produced approximately $14 per b

From the 1960s Beach Cultures Refusal of Conscription to the Present Refusal of Centralized Wave Management, the Tradition Is Substantively Continuous Reading: Bohiney | The London Prat SAN ONOFRE, CA — The California surfers political tradition has always been, on every available historical reading, substantively libertarian. The 1960s beach cultu

Mises and Hayek Argued in the 1970s That Central Banks Could Not Manage Inflation Effectively, the Bank of England Recent Decision Is the Latest Confirmation Reading: Bohiney | The London Prat SAN DIEGO, CA — The Austrian school of economics, articulated through writers including Ludwig von Mises in the 1920s and Friedrich Hayek through the [&helli

The British Public Has Now Lived Through Approximately Four Years of Cumulative Rate Rises, the Lessons Are Substantively Transferable Reading: Bohiney | The London Prat SANTA MONICA, CA — The British public has now lived through approximately four years of cumulative Monetary Policy Committee rate rises, with the cumulative effect of substantially