New course launched in Marine Sports Sciences

The BSc (Hons) Marine Sports Sciences course will welcome its first intake in September 2012.

The programme is the combined product of the industry-acclaimed Surf Science & Technology and Applied Marine Sports Science degrees, which have resulted in an array of graduate success stories. Former students of the two courses have gone on to create their own marine leisure businesses and hold senior positions in globally leading companies, while others have enjoyed academic careers as lecturers and instructors.

Jon Miles, Programme Manager for the course, said: “This exciting new course combines the teaching and learning excellence of the two existing programmes and their impressive graduate success rates. We are proud to be one of the world’s leading universities for marine and maritime research and are confident that with this new collaborative approach, prospective students should look forward to an enriched learning experience and promising career prospects in the dynamic, global marine sports industry.”

The new course includes a detailed academic programme of ocean and environmental science, and research within marine sports. Undergraduates will also get the chance to study modules in employability and enterprise, and equipment design and production. There will also be elements of sports science, including physiology, biomechanics and psychology, to give an in-depth understanding of human interaction with the environment.

As well as the academic side, there are practical elements focused on surfing, scuba diving, windsurfing, wakeboarding, dinghy sailing, keelboat sailing, sea kayaking and lifeguarding. Students are also encouraged to gain National Governing Body qualifications, and these are run alongside the traditional academic components.




Ernie Capbert graduated in 2004 from the marine sports programmes at Plymouth University. The 33-year-old went on to set up an ethical clothing company with two friends, and said he would recommend the course to anyone considering a career in the action sports industry.

“I hoped to get a bit more knowledge in the sciences and open my eyes up to the action sports industry and the course definitely did that,” he said. “I always knew I was going to work in business, but could I get a job doing something I loved within the action sports industry? That was the real question.

“The course gave me an overall understanding of the action sports and the areas within it, the culture. It pointed me a bit more in the right direction. It's a lot of hard work and you’ve got to be serious that you want to do this – if you go into any degree with a ‘let’s see how I get on’ attitude, you'll probably end up fumbling around once you’re out. You’ve got to be pretty ruthless.”

Finisterre is based in a workshop near St Agnes in Cornwall. The company won the Observer Ethical Award and the Surfer’s Path Surf Apparel Manufacturers Green Wave Award in 2008, and the RSPCA Good Business Award in 2010.