Hey dude (and that includes you dudettes as well), here’s some news that may make you think you’ve died and gone to heaven. If you like to take your boogie board and duck dive under the foam, now you can earn a college degree while doing it. No, you don’t have salt water in your eyes, you’ve read it right, there is a college offering a surfing degree.
A Serious Degree for a Serious Purpose
Of course, the administrators of the Swansea Institute of Higher Education in Swansea, Wales, have already received a barrage of criticism and ridicule, from the press and from fellow academes, both within the United Kingdom and around the world. However, their degree course in Surf and Beach Management is not a joke and it is not at all a four year time waster.
The program is quite serious and it has a substantial business purpose behind it. According to the school’s figures, surfing is worth more than five billion U.S. Dollars around the world. They see an important future in surfing involving the British business and domestic markets.
Responding to a Demand for Surfing Degrees
Ken Reid, the vice principal of the Swansea Institute pointed out the large number of people employed in various aspects of surfing and says it is “difficult to estimate” how many will be working in the sport in the next 15 years. He said, in his interview with the Canadian newspaper, The Globe and Mail: “What we are doing is recognizing this growth and responding to a demand.”
Interesting Contents
The Surf and Beach Management degree program will include such interesting modules as: Environmental Issues, Business Skills, Events and Festival Management, Marketing, Media and Culture, Risk and Safety Management, Surf Coaching and Lifeguarding, and Surf Expertise. Yes, participants in the program will even have an opportunity to improve their own surfing skills.
