Surfing Australia partnership to boost sport science in surfing

Surfing Australia has officially announced a ground breaking new partnership with Edith Cowan University (ECU) that will see leading and highly respected Sports Scientist Dr Jeremy Sheppard become a part of the team at Surfing Australia.
Dr Sheppard officially commences with Surfing Australia on as of today (4th April 2011) as the sports first ever full time Sport Scientist.
The three year partnership has come as a result of the new Australian Sports Commission funding initiative with Surfing Australia. With new funds being allocated towards research and improving surfingï¾s National High Performance Framework, the opportunity to engage Dr Jeremy Sheppardï¾s services has become a reality. The result is a partnership that will see Australia maintain its status as the world leader in surf education and high performance training. Dr Sheppard will be based at the Surfing Australia HPC full time with his workload spilt 50/50 between Surfing Australia and Edith Cowan University. The added bonus with this agreement is that Dr Sheppardï¾s 50% workload for ECU will involve overseeing PHD students on research that will be specifically related to surfing.
Surfing Australia Chief Executive Andrew Stark "Surfing Australia sees this as a genuinely exciting progression for our sport. We will now have an in-house Sport Scientist to complement our new High Performance program and new innovative High Performance Centre and we will be able to gain valuable research for our sports future success. This announcement represents one of the most significant steps for our High Performance Program to date."
Dr. Jeremy Sheppard has been a strength and conditioning coach for 18 years, having worked for national teams in Canada, the USA, Europe, and Australia. He has worked with athletes who have won national, Commonwealth, European, World, and Olympic medals and worked with sporting organisations like the Queensland Academy of Sport, Australian Institute of Sport, Canadian Sport Centre, and sporting teams in the Australian Football League, National Rugby League and National Football League (USA).
Jeremy is a graduate of a PhD, Masterï¾s of Sport Science, graduate diploma in Elite Coaching, and an undergraduate degree in Human Movement. His research projects have garnered awards from the Victorian State Government, the National Strength and Conditioning Association (USA), the Australian Institute of Sport, the National Sport Science Quality Assurance Program, the National Elite Sports Council as well as several industry partners. He has also published over 50 peer-reviewed papers and abstracts and nine text-book chapters.
Dr Sheppard explains "I am really excited to take up this outstanding position. I have been given the opportunity to apply my passion to training athletes, by serving as Sport Science Manager with Surfing Australia. Surfing is a sport which plays the dominant role in my life and I'll be working for a country that is dominant on the world stage. Surfing Australia is a body that has great governance and professionalism, world-class coaches to work with like Martin Dunn and an impressive vision for the future including the new High Performance Centre training facility.
"One of our early initiatives will be to create a Surfing Australia Scientific Committee to help drive our best practise in terms of athletic development, athlete management, and research. We are assembling people who are world leaders in their respective sport science fields, which will help drive how we train and prepare our surfers, in turn paying big dividends towards our ability to retain our place as the top surfing nation.
"Through the partnership with Edith Cowan University, I will get to combine this work with my passion for teaching and mentoring students in coaching and research as a Senior Lecturer in Strength and Conditioning/Sport Science. Edith Cowan University is possibly the best university in the world for stre

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