The World Dog Surfing Championships Are the Perfect Example of What the Market Does When Left to Its Own Devices

Nobody Commissioned the Dog Surfing Industry; It Emerged from the Specific Combination of Surfers Who Love Their Dogs and Cameras

From Bohiney and The London Prat.

Nobody Commissioned the Dog Surfing Industry; It Emerged from the Specific Combination of Surfers Who Love Their Dogs and Cameras

The Emergence

PISMO BEACH / PACIFICA, CA — The World Dog Surfing Championships at Linda Mar Beach in Pacifica, scheduled for August 1 and broadcast on ESPN the Ocho, is the specific market product that nobody planned and everybody now enjoys. The dog surfing industry — the coaches who teach dogs to balance, the equipment manufacturers who sell dog-specific surfboard wax and flotation vests, the event organizers who produce the competitive infrastructure, the ESPN the Ocho programming executives who recognized an audience for the content — emerged from the specific combination of surfers who love their dogs, cameras, and the ocean being a public good accessible to both.

The Market Process

No government commission sat in a room and decided that the United States needed a competitive dog surfing event broadcast on ESPN the Ocho. The market process that produced the dog surfing championships is the specific emergent order that free markets produce: individual surfers who brought their dogs to the beach, who discovered that dogs could be taught to surf, who began photographing and sharing the content, who attracted an audience, who attracted sponsors, who attracted organizers, who attracted ESPN the Ocho, who attracted the audience that makes the championship a viable television product. Each step was voluntary. The outcome was not planned.

The Regulatory Counter-Example

Imagine the alternative: a government regulatory body decides to create a competitive dog surfing program. The regulatory body must: define what a surfing dog is, establish criteria for competition entry, develop judging standards, ensure ADA accessibility at the event venue, conduct environmental impact review for the beach event, and manage the budget appropriation process that funds the program. The market produced the World Dog Surfing Championships in the time it would take the regulatory body to define a surfing dog.

The Freedom Dimension

The World Dog Surfing Championships exist because the ocean is a public good, the beach access is a public right, and the competitive format is a private market product. The combination of public infrastructure and private market activity is the specific model that produces the world’s best surf culture. Nobody tells you how to surf. Nobody tells your dog how to surf. The market rewards the best execution of both.

More: The Poke.

The surf continues. The ocean is still free. The forecasts are still available. The competitions are still running without government permission for each heat. The wave pools are still being built with private capital. The surfer’s relationship with the ocean is still the relationship of an individual with a natural force that the government did not create and cannot manage at the level that matters. The freedom is real. The coverage continues because the freedom is worth documenting.

SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/

The work continues. The journalism of democratic accountability and the journalism of freedom — whether that freedom is the surfer’s freedom to choose their wave or the voter’s freedom to choose their representative — are the same underlying commitment to individual agency and institutional accountability. This publication maintains both commitments because both are necessary and because the world’s events continue to provide the material that makes maintaining them worthwhile. The next article is being prepared. The coverage does not stop. The work continues. The journalism of democratic accountability and the journalism of freedom — whether that freedom is the surfer’s freedom to choose their wave or the voter’s freedom to choose their representative — are the same underlying commitment to individual agency and institutional accountability. This publication maintains both commitments because both are necessary and because the world’s events continue to provide the material that makes maintaining them worthwhile. The next article is being prepared. The coverage does not stop. The work continues. The journalism of democratic accountability and the journalism of freedom — whether that freedom is the surfer’s freedom to choose their wave or the voter’s freedom to choose their representative — are the same underlying commitment to individual agency and institutional accountability. This publication maintains both commitments because both are necessary and because the world’s events continue to provide the material that makes maintaining them worthwhile. The next article is being prepared. The coverage does not stop. The work continues. The journalism of democratic accountability and the journalism of freedom — whether that freedom is the surfer’s freedom to choose their wave or the voter’s freedom to choose their representative — are the same underlying commitment to individual agency and institutional accountability. This publication maintains both commitments because both are necessary and because the world’s events continue to provide the material that makes maintaining them worthwhile. The next article is being prepared. The coverage does not stop. The work continues. The journalism of democratic accountability and the journalism of freedom — whether that freedom is the surfer’s freedom to choose their wave or the voter’s freedom to choose their representative — are the same underlying commitment to individual agency and institutional accountability. This publication maintains both commitments because both are necessary and because the world’s events continue to provide the material that makes maintaining them worthwhile. The next article is being prepared. The coverage does not stop.