Campus Recreation at Pepperdine is more than just a program — it’s a gateway to adventure, fitness and connection. From group fitness classes and competitive sports to guided hikes and kayaking at the Channel Islands, Campus Rec brings students together in an active community that thrives on the unique landscape of Malibu.
For years, Campus Rec has been a resource students have had access to for any of their activity needs. At its core, Campus Rec is “dedicated to enriching the Pepperdine community,” and in doing so, has provided students with many programs that “encourage healthy, active and balanced lifestyles,” according to the Campus Rec website.
For Director of Campus Recreation Robb Bolton, Campus Rec is an essential part of wellbeing at Pepperdine.
“When [students] come to Pepperdine you live there, so it’s part of your lifestyle,” Bolton said. “You are there for academics, but there’s other needs you have for wellness and to thrive.”
Recreational Sports: Everything For Everyone
Recreational sports can help students fill their competitive kick.
One of the three pillars that compose Campus Rec is recreational sports, including Club Sports, Intramurals and Informal Recreation. Coordinator of Recreational Sports, Julian Baker, said they have differing levels of engagement available through sports programs, and it depends on the student’s goal to find their right fit.
“Some people really want to compete and they have that competitive drive, that’s just who they are, some just want to learn a new sport and they want to play casually, or they’re just doing it because their friends are doing it,” Baker said. “We think that we do a pretty good job of offering opportunities that meet all those different needs and everything in between.”
In terms of Intramural Sports, Campus Rec offers flag football, volleyball, soccer and basketball. For Club Sports, the organization offers surfing, tennis, beach volleyball and eSports.
These sports only run during the academic year, but certain sports are held in both the fall and spring semesters. Over the course of one semester-long league, events are structured in three main ways: a preseason, regular season, and playoff tournament.
Intramurals are Pepperdine-run events and are open to all current Pepperdine students, faculty, staff and dependents, according to the Intramural Sports website. Club Sports are the area where competitiveness typically kicks up a notch, Baker said.
“It’s kind of a sweet spot if you want to compete, but maybe you didn’t go come to Pepperdine to become a D1 athlete, but you’re still a student-athlete and you’re representing the university,” Baker said.
Club Sports allow students to compete at high levels, while promoting a balance for students to manage academics and a club sport. These teams practice regularly under a head coach and compete in state and/or national championships at the end of each year, according to Club Sports.
In 2019, the League of Legends Esports team, now discontinued, claimed the WCC Championships, the Tennis Club claimed a fifth place finish at USA TOC Nationals in 2022 and the Surfing Club has seen Ben Tran place fourth at the 2018 NSSA Nationals and Cayla Moore secure back-to-back College Women’s Titles at the 2018 and 2019 NSSA Nationals.
However, for Baker, the best part about these teams and leagues is how welcoming they are.
“Every sport, every league, any type of event that we do, is open to everybody in the Pepperdine community, every gender,” Baker said. “There’s definitely home for everybody, regardless of where you’re at.”
Pickleball, which has seen a surge on campus, could have a future in rec sports, Baker said.
“That’s gonna be really exciting to watch it unfold over this year, I’m having great meetings with those student leaders and they want to see it happen,” Baker said. “We’ve got the means to [make it work], there’s eight new pickleball courts on campus, and so anything we have the facilities for, we definitely want to try and maximize however we can.”
The goal is within one year’s time, pickleball is brought into the Club Sports program, Baker said.
Outdoor Recreation: An Escape to Nature
If the Malibu coast isn’t enough, Outdoor Recreation offers plenty of outdoor adventures.
Outdoor Rec strives to create a space and community where students can “facilitate connections to nature, God, and fellow Pepperdine students,” according to Outdoor Recreation.
Coordinator of Outdoor Recreation Kiana Ramli said the goal is to create a fun space for students — especially those who are international or out-of-state.
“Our goal and our mission is to be able to provide really fun, and community building, outdoor excursions for students that allow them to explore more of California and the beautiful recreation spaces that California has to offer,” Ramli said.
Outdoor Rec relies on students from top to bottom. Ramli said she chooses five or six student leaders each year to help plan, organize and then lead overnight trips a year in advance. Student leaders have the creative freedom to plan all the day trips.
“It does look a little different each year and each semester, but we try to stick with the typically three overnight trips each semester, three in the fall, three in the spring,” Ramli said. “The day excursions, they could [be] anywhere from three to maybe even five a month, depending on what they want to do, and how busy that month is, and the semester.”
Ramli said Pepperdine’s unique location and California’s diverse landscape allow students to organize a variety of trips, but it is all based on the season.
In the fall, Outdoor Rec hosts a lot of ocean and mountain-style trips, like kayaking in the Channel Islands and hiking and camping at Sequoia National Park. In the spring, Outdoor Rec heads to the desert for the cooler temperatures, to places like Death Valley and Joshua Tree.
In order to make these trips happen, Outdoor Rec plans their trips around school holidays. Outdoor Rec also offers rental equipment to students who want to go on a trip by themselves.
“Students [who] want to go and just have their own experience, plan their own trip, they can just take all that gear. They don’t want to commit and invest into purchasing a lot of expensive outdoor gear, they’re just going to go a few times, or they’re just trying it out,” Ramli said. “We’re trying to make the outdoors more accessible for students.”
Day and overnight trips within Outdoor Rec require a fee to participate, with fees varying based on the trip. The Wellness Fee, which students pay as part of their tuition, covers everything else in Campus Rec.
The students who have accessed the outdoors through Outdoor Rec got more out of the trip than just nature, but lifelong friends as well, Ramli said.
“Something about being outside and experiencing that together brings the group [together], no matter how different they are,” Ramli said. “We have had grad students and freshmen all in the same trip before, and seeing them all around the campfire together, sharing stories and laughing, exchanging phone numbers, building community, is the coolest aspect of this job.”
From camping to ocean kayaking, skiing to snowboarding, and even horseback riding, Ramli said they are thinking outside the box to find more creative and unique outdoor activities that students can get involved in.
Fitness and Wellbeing: Healthy Habits for the Body
The goal for Fitness and Wellbeing is to help Pepperdine students, faculty and staff build and “develop healthy habits and care for their body,” according to Fitness and Wellbeing.
Bolton said this pillar of Campus Rec is led by the Coordinator of Fitness and Wellbeing, Amanda Knight, and oversees fitness facilities that are spread out over campus. The main building is the Pepperdine Fitness Center, but they also have an outdoor fitness center on campus, called The Cage.
“The Cage is open to everybody and we have open hours twice a week for students to go in there if they just prefer to workout outside,” Bolton said.
At no additional cost, Fitness and Wellbeing offers group classes to the Pepperdine community that are led by professionally certified fitness instructors — who sometimes happen to be students.
“It’s a huge convenience because you don’t need to, as a student, go buy a membership at the spin place down the street from us, or another gym to be able to take these group classes,” Bolton said. “They’re all available, right on campus.”
The benefit of the classes expands beyond the affordability, Bolton said, as the classes offered are diverse, ranging from yoga one day, to a spin class the next day, followed by a strength class to wrap up the week.
Something new Bolton said they implemented this semester was an app called “Red Print” to its fitness centers. On every piece of equipment resides a QR code, and once scanned, students will be promptly taken to this app that will help guide them on their fitness workout for that session.
“You can actually track workouts over time, record progress on that specific machine with how much weight and how much volume of exercise you’re doing, and then there’s also ways to educate students on how to build an actual fitness routine combining different machines,” Bolton said.
However, the best thing Bolton said he has seen from Fitness and Wellbeing, is the community students have been able to find.
“One piece is the exercise, but then the other piece of that is the community,” Bolton said. “That helps keep people accountable, because they have that community of people that [they] will go and attend with on a regular basis that will check in on each other and ask, ‘Hey, are you going to class today?'”
How To Get Involved
Campus Rec is open and accessible to everyone in the Pepperdine community.
Besides open participation, Campus Rec is also one of the biggest employment offices on campus, behind the big entity that is Pepperdine Athletics, Bolton said. It’s an area members within Campus Rec pride themselves on, multiple sources said.
“One of the cool things is where they come in, and they maybe don’t have a community, but if you work at the fitness center, you become the face of [the fitness center],” Bolton said. “All of a sudden, you walk around campus, and everyone knows you because you’re that person that works at the front desk of the fitness center. It’s kind of cool because it also can help facilitate students finding a community.”
Campus Recreation hires around 100 students per semester, Bolton said, especially for the sports side of Campus Rec. Across the board, Campus Rec hires referees for sports, staff to operate and oversee fitness centers and marketers and student leaders for outdoor events, just to name a few — and just because students are employed doesn’t mean they can’t participate.
“I encourage all my students to participate in every one of our events,” Baker said. “At the end of the day, to make it super simple, I never want my students to have to choose between having fun or making some money. Do both, right?”
Campus Rec is making its way to The Mountain in the future, Bolton said. He is in the works of establishing a recreation center that will be included within The Mountain, however, his plans are much grander with his goals aimed toward establishing an entire wellness facility.
“It’s not just a weight room. It’s also a hub for all wellness resources because it’s all one piece, you can’t just address one piece of wellness, wellness is everything combined,” Bolton said.
Campus Rec strives to help the Pepperdine community achieve their recreational needs, and if students want to get involved, the best place to find information is their website and social media, all sources said.
“[It’s] a very important part of the university, because again, this is where students live, and it’s not just about academics,” Bolton said. “They need to have a whole life, and that includes community and wellness and well being, so you need all those things to thrive and that’s what we’re doing, we’re giving them that piece of being able to help connect and find community.”
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Email Justin Rodriguez: justin.rodriguez@pepperdine.edu
