Academics around the world thrilled as southern California university discusses adding Surf Studies major: “If all of the studies on employment for recent graduates are right, majors are irrelevant!”

"It's like a quadruple win."

Of all the wonderful majors offered at colleges and universities around this wonderful globe, does it surprise you there is no “Surf Studies” offering?

We have Black, Hispanic, Gender, LGBTQ, Sexuality but no Surf and a shame.

No?

Well, one pioneering southern California university is aiming to possibly change that. Point Loma Nazarene hugging the mighty Pacific there in La Jolla.

This fall, and for the first time, Point Loma is offering The History and Culture of Surfing taught by professors Ben Carter and James Wicks. The course, which instantly filled, spurned rumors that the University was considering a surf studies program.

The thrill.

Carter, also the dean of foundational explorations, thinks it would be a very good idea, telling the school newspaper, “If all of the studies on employment for recent graduates are right, majors are irrelevant. 90% of recent graduates do not go into a field directly tied to their major. Disciplinary purity is not the future; it’s not even reality.”

Professor Wicks added, “Surf culture and history is an established academic discipline that is as rich as any tradition. It warrants our attention and analyses in terms of gender, ethnicity, class, transnational connections, art, kinesiology, theology, business and politics.”

The Dean of the Colleges, Jim Daichendt, is less enthusiastic, claiming, “You have to find a department or an area to tie it into. It’s usually helpful to have it owned by somebody, because then it ensures longevity. Who could teach it? Do we have the expertise on campus? Is there enough student interest? Pioneering is wonderful, but you certainly don’t want to pioneer something that is definitely a dud.”

Professor Carter thinks Old Man Daichendt is a total wet rag, though, and believes there would be many young men and women signing up for a Surf Studies major. “Think about this: you’re actually being paid [or] you’re actually being encouraged academically to go stroke out and have fun. It’s a total win-win, all the way around. It’s like a quadruple win.”

I, myself, have an Intercultural Studies major and an Applied Linguistics masters and did very poorly in the one math class I was forced to take but only count two wins in Professor Carter’s argument. 1) Being paid 2) or encouraged to go stroke out and have fun.

Where are the other two wins?

More as the story develops.