Meet the Team - Tom Bing

Hey, Tom again.

Tasked with the challenge of writing about myself and what I do to contribute here at Yonder.

I’ll keep it brief and relevant in this post. I’m from a small Norfolk village ten miles from Norwich and fairly far from the sea. By the time I was around 11 I got my first proper skateboard and by the time I was 13 that was my life. Skateboarding, inhaling skateboard magazines, skate videos, the music from the soundtracks. I’d get the bus to the Skatepark in Norwich and spend all day covered in dust skating with friends.

When I was 15, I did my work experience at the local BMX shop Revolutionz in Norwich which was the hub of the scene at the time. I had had a BMX and had been dabbling in the woods with friends for a while but stepping into that world which was the hub of a thriving BMX scene was mind blowing to me. I’d been there, glued to VHS tapes of skateboarding and BMX out in the countryside and dreaming about living somewhere where this stuff ‘happened’ beyond the curb outside my house. Suddenly, there it was. Riding skateparks, digging trails, street riding into the night and a few times a week going to watch bands at the local venues. Bands that sounded like the bands on the VHS tapes I’d watch.

I struggled at school. Felt trapped, thought I knew better, dreamed of road trips, skateparks and doing something with my life. I have a brother who is five years older than me and the summer of my GCSE’s we packed up a tent into our Mums Astra and we drove down to Croyde for a week. We did some surf lessons and I remember standing up and loving it but went back to BMX life as it was so much more accessible.

The BMX scene I was a part of was really special. I was friends with older guys who took me under their wings. At the time; we were all vegetarian, super arty, and loved the music and art scene in the city. The BMX scene was like that then; completely about the DIY, creative and well connected across the country.

I failed 6th form, getting two U’s and and E (Photography, Graphics and Art). I got a U in photography because I never went to lessons really and never did coursework, I was too busy shooting photos and developing them in the school darkroom. I re-sat a year and ended up getting my head down and getting enough college education and a portfolio to get into Leeds College of Art.

Leeds was the choice of any punk rock loving BMX rider in the mid-00’s. That was the hub of the scene. Squat gigs, basement shows, BMX jams, street riding, I relished it, loved it and met inspiring people. One of them was Sally. As soon as we met, we started to go on adventures together, picking up surfing was very much at the heart of that.

My story and Sallys then become fairly interconnected. Whilst she worked for the British Refugee Council and the Red Cross I worked a string of jobs whilst trying to ‘make it’ as a freelance photographer. I was young, inexperienced and i wasn’t the right time for me although the passion was there. I trained to be an art teacher and found a job in a secondary school so we moved (as per Sallys blog) and pretended to myself it was what I wanted for a while. The pressure was horrific, the hours inhumane, the kids challenging the whole thing jarred with everything I am as a human. I hated school and here I was.

I never stopped shooting photos or gave up on being a photographer and having a job that you hate and makes you miserable is a good kick up the backside to do something; staring down unhappiness until you retire is not a good feeling. Motorbikes had always fascinated me and I wanted to do a trip that people couldn’t ignore when I told them about it with the work I was shooting along the way.

Santiago to San Francisco. That had a ring to it. Looked kind of possible. We booked flights and gave it a go. I shot loads, kept a blog, submitted articles, videos etc to other blogs and websites and worked on my portfolio and style and name as we travelled and surfed 16,000 miles across 12 countries on VERY little money.

After this I moved into a studio in Newcastle with Ryan Roadkill and Ashley Willerton and got started on building a career for myself. It was scary, I didn’t have a lot but I worked hard. I made connections and started to make some headway. One job lead to another, one client led to another. Mainly motorcycle industry work, working with the Bike Shed, Built Magazine, Sideburn Magazine, Harley Davidson, Barbour, Indian Motorcycle, Dickies etc. It was job to job, hand to mouth but it worked. I traveled lots, spend weeks on end in California, went to India, Italy, Norway, Florida, New York, France and all over the UK. I was my boss, nobody else, it was awesome.

Meanwhile, Sally had founded Yonder and I was 110% behind her and her project. When she worked I took Billy and we helped to build the brand through photography, social media, design etc. I used my skill set and imagined that Yonder was my dream client. I thought of strategy, used connections, built stories and supplemented the work Sally was doing. Teaching myself at the same time.

I built the Yonder website myself, took all the photos, we found illustrators and designers, laid things out, shot videos etc. I was always in demand with Yonder and wanted to do it to help us fulfil what we felt was it’s potential. Working for 6 weeks straight on a job for another brand (although better paid) felt frustrating as it meant Yonder had to be put on hold whilst I worked.

When Covid hit, I was half way through the biggest project of my career and it got called off. The phone went dead, the emails stopped; all I would hear were that budgets were cut, trips were cancelled, events called off, race meetings not happening. Shoots were impossible with restrictions and our mortgage was no longer getting paid by me for the foreseeable - my career died the day that the first lockdown looked imminent but I had one client left over still. My worst paying, most time consuming but definitely the most rewarding; the one I believed in with all my heart - Yonder. I’d seen how it had taken off, captured hearts and minds and was having a visible impact on the community.

The only problem was that with the lockdown it meant that Sally could no longer teach surfing, our only other form of income; our camps were cancelled and the future looked pretty uncertain. With Yonder being new, it wasn’t eligible to any government help; my income had been affected by Sally and I juggling childcare and work the past two years so we took a month Universal Credit and figured out how to move forward together, as one.

We launched the clothing, accessories, surf supply and my job with Yonder is to tell people what we do. Though the website, socials, marketing, blogs etc. When it’s Sallys turn to work, I hang out with Billy, when it’s my turn to work (like now, she hangs out with Billy). Our house is chaotic, its growing to-do lists, never ending jobs, being good parents to Billy, all whilst trying to surf as much as possible. Some how we get a lot done and manage to keep the books ticking over whilst we continue to steer the good ship Yonder in the direction we see it going.

In my head, Yonder is a big DIY punk project. It’s doing it ourselves outside of the mainstream surf industry, it’s championing our vision of surfing, ignoring what the big brands are doing, looking to female skateboarding and BMX for inspiration. It’s an outsiders approach to running a surf brand, fuelled by passion and Sallys knowledge, understanding, feedback from her lessons and camps. Yonder is about what we have felt is missing from the lifestyle we have dedicated a combined 30 years of our lives to.

It’s about championing the outsider, the queer, the mother, the unrecognised shredder, the dedicated, the lost and the smiley. It’s about celebrating a culture that is new and exciting, giving a voice, a platform and space to female surfers from all walks of life. Connecting with other rad people, makers and organisations that we love and respect. Someone told us that the way to make friends recently is to wear a Yonder T-shirt. True or not, that makes me more proud than shooting any big job for someone else; as fun and rewarding as that can be.

Here is a little gallery of some of my work. Thanks for reading and the amazing response to the last one of these we did!

Tom x