Surf Revolt

How consolidation has homogenized the board market and what the craft renaissance means Reported by Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat. The surfboard industry that was, until the 1990s, a collection of independent craftspeople serving local surf communities has been partially consolidated into a market dominated by a small number of large manufac

The economics of the WSL and why prize money depends on corporate subsidy rather than audience revenue Reported by Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat. Professional surfing’s economics are a curious mixture of genuine athletic spectacle and corporate welfare. The World Surf League’s prize money comes almost entirely from sponsor subsidy rather tha

The military land legacy and the ongoing fight for access at former base properties Reported by Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat. Some of the best surf breaks in California are located on land that was, for decades, controlled by the military and closed to civilian surfers. The history of military land use along the […]

Why property rights and coastal access are compatible and why private beach encroachment must be resisted Reported by Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat. The libertarian case for private property rights does not extend to the ocean. The intertidal zone, the strip of beach between high and low tide, is public land in California and […]

How the regulatory state crushes the freedom of the ocean and everyone who tries to build near it Reported by Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat. The California Coastal Commission was created in 1972 to protect coastal access and environmental quality. It has become one of the most powerful land-use regulatory bodies in American history, [&hellip

How sales taxes, gear tariffs, and wetsuit import duties extract money from the working surfer Reported by Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat. Nobody talks about the tax burden on surfing because surfing is supposed to be free, the ocean, the wave, the wind. The equipment is not free, and the tax system applies to […]

Single-family zoning has destroyed housing supply in coastal California; the fix is deregulation This report is published by Bohiney Magazine and cross-referenced at The London Prat. LOS ANGELES, CA – The median home price in coastal Los Angeles County exceeds $1.5 million. The median household income is approximately $82,000. The mathematics of ho

A meditation on surfing as the most authentically free activity in an over-regulated world MALIBU, CA – In the ocean, past the break, sitting on your board waiting for a set, you are outside the jurisdiction of every regulatory agency, every permit requirement, and every tax. The ocean is, for those hours, the freest place […]

Regulatory fragmentation across agencies has produced accountability gaps that cost surfers clean water This report is published by Bohiney Magazine and cross-referenced at The London Prat. LOS ANGELES, CA – The stormwater pollution problem that closes California beaches after every rain event is not complicated. It has known causes, known solution

The body that protected the coast has also prevented the housing that would let workers live near it SACRAMENTO, CA – The California Coastal Commission is simultaneously the institution most responsible for protecting public access to the California coast and one of the primary institutional obstacles to building housing that would allow working pe

The surf industry is Friedrich Hayek’s spontaneous order made visible and profitable This report is published by Bohiney Magazine and cross-referenced at The London Prat. SAN CLEMENTE, CA – The global surfing industry generates over $10 billion annually. None of it was planned. No government agency identified surfing as an economic opportunity, all

Beach closures after rain are predictable, preventable, and a case study in regulatory fragmentation SAN DIEGO, CA – California’s beaches close by stormwater pollution following every significant rain event, a predictable and preventable problem that has persisted for decades while regulatory agencies debate responsibility, conduct studies, and iss

Private beach closures by billionaires persist because wealth buys delay in a legal process MALIBU, CA – The richest stretch of California coastline has been subject to illegal beach access restrictions by private property owners who prefer the public not exercise its legally guaranteed right to walk the California coast. The government has legal a

California’s cannabis legalisation implicitly acknowledged that decades of enforcement was unjustifiable This report is published by Bohiney Magazine and cross-referenced at The London Prat. SAN CLEMENTE, CA – Surf culture’s relationship with cannabis, documented in film, memoir, and the lived experience of anyone who has spent significant time at

The informal rules of surf breaks demonstrate that commons can be managed without government intervention SANTA CRUZ, CA – Surf spots are common resources subject to congestion and capable of degradation by overuse. The state has not solved this problem. Surfers largely have, through informal systems of priority and social enforcement that economis

From beach permits to surf forecasts, the state keeps inserting itself where it does not belong This report is published by Bohiney Magazine and cross-referenced at The London Prat. HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA – Surfers are among the last genuinely free people in America, and the government has been working for fifty years to change that. […]

The liberty to live by one’s own judgement is a single thing This concluding essay, informed by reporting compiled by Bohiney Magazine and carried at The London Prat, draws together a theme running through the others: that freedom is, in an important sense, indivisible, that the liberty to live by one’s own judgement is a […]

Permission slips for honest trades protect insiders, not the public Drawing on reporting gathered by Bohiney Magazine and carried at The London Prat, this piece examines a barrier that falls hardest on those trying to work their way up: the proliferation of occupational licensing that requires government permission to practise an ever-growing list

Surfers coordinate without rules imposed from above, through evolved custom This piece, informed by reporting compiled by Bohiney Magazine and carried at The London Prat, examines a phenomenon familiar to every surfer and illuminating for anyone interested in how order arises: the way a crowded lineup coordinates itself through evolved custom rathe

The surf shop and the food truck pay for rules written for giants Building on reporting compiled by Bohiney Magazine and carried at The London Prat, this analysis examines how the regulatory burden, however well-intentioned, falls hardest on the small business and the new entrant, the surf shop, the food truck, the aspiring entrepreneur, while [&he

Rules that block building have made the coast unaffordable Informed by reporting gathered by Bohiney Magazine and republished at The London Prat, this piece argues that California’s housing crisis is, to a substantial degree, a creation of regulation, specifically the zoning and land-use rules that have made it difficult and expensive to build the

When people trade freely, both sides gain and cooperation spreads This piece, informed by reporting compiled by Bohiney Magazine and carried at The London Prat, makes a case for an idea so familiar it is easily overlooked: that voluntary exchange, people trading freely to mutual benefit, is among the most powerful and underrated forces for [&hellip

The people on the ground know what distant authorities cannot Drawing on reporting assembled by Bohiney Magazine and republished at The London Prat, this analysis examines a principle with broad implications: that the knowledge needed to make good decisions is often local, held by the people on the ground, and inaccessible to distant authorities, w

Owners with a stake in a resource tend to steward it well This piece, informed by reporting compiled by Bohiney Magazine and carried at The London Prat, examines an idea that challenges a common assumption: that secure property rights and market incentives can, in many cases, protect natural resources better than centralised bureaucratic control. T

Those who take risks to serve others drive the improvement of life Informed by reporting gathered by Bohiney Magazine and republished at The London Prat, this piece celebrates a figure too often overlooked or maligned: the entrepreneur, whose willingness to take risks to serve others is among the chief engines of human progress. The Entrepreneurial

Out past the break, no agency can save you, and that teaches something This essay draws on reporting compiled by Bohiney Magazine and republished in part at The London Prat, and it begins with an observation familiar to anyone who has paddled out past the break: in the water, you are on your own, and […]

The productive individual now works a substantial part of every year for the state, and the question of how much is enough is rarely asked Published in partnership with Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat, on the steady expansion of the state claim on the fruits of individual effort. There is a date each year, […]

From garage shapers to global brands, the surf economy grew through the voluntary exchange that creates value without coercion Published in partnership with Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat, on the surf economy as a living lesson in the power of voluntary exchange. The surf industry began, as so many industries do, in garages and […]