Yonder

A couple of shorts from the article @samhaddad wrote in the in the new @redbulletin book ‘Raised on Waves’ - surf stories from the UK and Ireland. It’s an honour to sit alongside good friends and colleagues from the surfing world in this one. It’s important for Yonder; a tiny family business, totally independent, carving out our own path and staying true to ourselves to get recognition in print media. We appreciate being selected and for Sam’s time and effort to come up and hang out and listen to the yarns. “In simple terms, Yonder is a surf school with multi-week courses and residential camps, but in many ways it feels more like a movement. Its purpose is not so much to get large numbers of surfers to stand up on a board as to create a smaller group of well-rounded board riders who’ll progress in the sport while also, through film nights and panel talks, learn about its culture - including tides, surf forecasting, safety and, of course, etiquette - and then integrate into the local surf community. “I don’t want to grow, grow, grow, and I don’t need loads of money,” says McGee. “I’ve got my van, my boards and my wetsuits. I’ve always just wanted to make a humble living and enjoy life.” Photography by @tombingphoto Available now. @finisterre #surf #surfing #uksurf

It’s rare as adults we get to play but that’s exactly what surfing is. Today I played for hours in the sea, a mindful experience, full of trial and error, flow and glide. Honestly so thankful for days like this. 🎥 @tombingphoto from surfing together to capturing these precious moments, always grateful 🙏 @sallymcgeesurf @finisterre @moulded.earplugs

Surfers Against Sewage - Tynemouth representing ✊ What an incredible show of solidarity. We need change and we need it now! Huge thank you to @tristan_fieldtrip for shooting this and to Josh for the drone loan. Epic turnout from @redrebels_ne Huge thanks to our speakers @gabedavies and Rose and to the awesome @anya3vans for all her hard work pulling this together and to rep @martyn_setepe and everyone that shared this event far and wide and came out to support and demand more for our rivers and seas, much much more! 🤝 @ian.stimpson.3 for the labyrinth 🙌 Tynemouth MP Alan Campbell Mp (Tynemouth) as Leader of the House of Commons holds a very powerful role within a government not in opposition but in power. Sadly though we invited Sir Alan to come and witness the show of solidarity for change we received no response from his office. #surfersagainstsewage #peoplenotprofit #oceanhealth

The @surfersagainstsewage Paddle Outs are happening up and down the country, if you can make it to support head down and surround yourself with like minded people passionate about our seas and rivers! These little legends (with the help of @lizziegem ) have made some awesome signs. From the mouths of babes indeed 💪 Tom and I are currently running our camps in Devon and will be in the middle of the country by tomorrow but there is an awesome team taking the lead in Tynemouth and so many good folk supporting. There will be some exciting guests heading down on the day and prizes for best signs so make sure to join in as we come together to demand systemic change, an end to the failed privatised water system that puts profit over people, health and our environment. Join us as we demand that safe, clean water be a fundamental right, not a revenue stream ✌️ Featuring, a bunch of little legends 🙌

It’s been eight years since our first official camp with Yonder. We did some awesome test runs back in 2018 with the super inspiring @camp_vc girls and good friends @kittenbuttz @elliebellycustard @vickycee @luciaaucott easing us gently into it but to be honest every camp since has felt like we’ve been building an extended family 💜 A message from the beautiful @yarners13 this evening sent me down memory lane, digging out just a few of the hundreds of photos we have from our adventures in Devon, Wales, Scotland, Scarborough and Morocco. Seeing some of these faces and knowing they’ve become part of the bigger Yonder family is a good feeling indeed, we are always so grateful and never take any of it for granted. You’ll notice a little Billy throughout, hooked under someone’s arms, he used to come with us on those early days and we cannot tell you how supportive every single person that joined us was, how now he’s known many of them his whole life. School means that Bill now stays with his nana, he’s missed for sure but I reckon he’s enjoying getting spoiled 🥰 Who remembers some of these camps? Legends the lot of you. We have our annual Devon camp over the next week and are really looking forward to hanging out with some more awesome women 🙌 @tombingphoto

North East Surfing U.K. // The tapestry of our seas is pretty magical ✨ Image taken from a memorable evening session a few months back but not sure why we never shared it. The surf wasn’t anything to shout about but the colours, the moods of the sky as the rain lines moved across the horizon and as the sun began to drop. Simply stunning. I was just told that it’s world earth day. Every. Day. But I do think on this one it really did put on a performance. One you want to capture and let it know just how valued it is. Forever grateful. Image 1 & 2 Just me @sallymcgeesurf and my little boy Billy though I specifically recall @surfthought being with us too. @tombingphoto partner and dad 🙏 #protectourseas #surfersagaisntsewage #worldearthday

// Paddle Out Protest // Tynemouth, Longsands Beach // Saturday May 16th @11am Every year we come together to let our politicians know and let each other know just how dear to our hearts we hold the North Sea, all our waterways. These events are bitter sweet but more than anything they are a chance for us to connect with each other and to unite in our passion for trying to change a broken system that continues to put profit over health, sustainability and our environment. Our voices together are what counts. Please stick this one in your diary. Come rain or shine we will be getting dressed up (or not!) we will be holding our signs and paddling out together in protest. Spread the word far and wide, this is for the surfers, the swimmers, the SUPers, the bodyboarders, the kneeboarders, the dippers, the TOSSERs, the sauna dippers, the wildlife lovers, the bird watchers, the dog walkers, the ocean and river lovers, this one is for you. Come paddle or just dip your toes in or stay on the beach, importantly, just come 🙏 If you’d like a copy of this to share on your own feed just message and I’ll DM you the image. Please spread far and wide, let’s make this one bigger than ever. @surfersagainstsewage #EndSewagePollution #PaddleOutProtests #SewageScandal

The North Sea Surf Film Festival could not have happened without the absolutely epic crew of volunteers that showed up, stepped up and went above and beyond 💪 We had volunteers setting up, packing down, on the door, on the merch, serving soft drinks, collecting photos for @surfersagainstsewage and generally just getting stuck in and supporting our initial little team massively. A huge shout out to all of them. We want to take a long minute to say a huge thank you because without them, well, who knows…. 🫠 Here are all the rad faces of that crew. Most photos were taken by little Rose and Billy whilst collecting ‘Im not a bather’ photos for the @surfersagainstsewage Campaign big thank you to them 🙌 Rose - top SAS knowledge Abbas - giving you all the best deals & sorting the lights 🤌 Zinah - the door 🚪 Mayar Rawda (All the smiles and vibes from this welcoming crew) @bridgetstratford & @actionfdn @jolejnik @cillian_white09 @simon.white.395 Paul & Susan Bing @virginia_barbour @lucymallard @tynemouthvlb - we asked too much of Dave 🔥 @sandykerr_ @samuel_howard_ for staying till the bitter end 🙏 @tristan_fieldtrip 🤝 @quinnshadyx 🤝 @rachlp the door on Thursday night 😅 @rachrenh

The idea and ‘why’ behind the Groms takeover was much like that of Cold Gold and the answer was to inspire and nurture the next generation of surfers and film makers. We wanted to give our local kids a chance to shine and those that haven’t yet explored the beauty of surfing, the chance to realise that it’s there for them too and that it can take you places. Importantly, the North East isn’t the easiest place for our kids to get into surfing and unlike some places we really don’t have a strong Grom scene outside of the surf schools but through encouragement and through supporting parents in our community and through this type of outreach we were hoping to plant the seed and go some way to creating the world we want our kids to grow up in. We’re nothing if we’re not the next generation and our festival means nothing if there’s no legacy. Hopefully including this on a sunny Saturday morning lit some tiny fires in some small bellies 🤝 An absolute huge thank you to the super inspiring and brave young people that stood up in front of their peers and parents to share a little insight into their worlds. Big thanks to @shieldsurf for coming along and bringing their crew, to @simon.white.395 for helping to host, @pinklanecoffeecollective for the free and much needed coffees and @_sum.place_ for the incredible insight into their recycled plastic projects 🙌 And of course all our amazing sponsors with whom without non of this could have happened. 🎥- @tombingphoto the silent work horse.

It came to both @tombingphoto and I last night that Cold Gold was possibly the most comprehensive audit of the north east surf scene that might have ever been conducted. Eighteen short films, all from completely different communities and completely different styles. From core surf bangers to high impact, community driven story telling then onto inspiring insights into the next generation. It became so clear to us all just what surfing means to so many different people. The feedback has been absolutely incredible we’ve been getting totally bombarded with messages this morning and saw a few people in the sea for a dawnie who were just buzzing from the whole experience. We are forever grateful to anyone that gets behind our hair brain ideas and Cold Gold was right up there. To everyone that came along and recognised the vision, to the first time film makers that put their hearts and souls into creating epic shorties and to every single volunteer that stepped up and went above and beyond to help us out, thank you, thank you, thank you. Cold Gold was always driven by a desire to not just showcase world class global surf cinema and bring it to the north east but to create space and encourage, support and acknowledge local film makers, aspiring film makers and film makers that didn’t even know they wanted to be film makers to recognise their own potential and honestly, it really did just that. A huge thank you from the bottom of our hearts to every single sponsor that has supported @thenorthseasurffilmfestival I can hand on heart say that the entire event would not be possible without them 🙌 How @tombingphoto manages to host an event and film it I do not know but he does 🙌 📽️ Thanks to @finisterre - @northernmonk - @fieldtripsupplies - @pinklanecoffeecollective - @karma.coast - @tynemouthsurfco - @surfersagainstsewage - @northeast_ca - @northseaweekender - @glass.surf_ - @wavelengthsurfmag @surfyonder Day 2 tonight @lewisarnold.surf @tombingphoto yew!

And finally Tynemouth, Longsands has its very own Surfers Code sign 🥳 This is one that has been talked about here for years. Tales of seeing these signs on visits around the U.K. the South West, Scotland, abroad in Portugal, France, Australia, the USA, practically every surf town has one of these, a way to inform, educate, empower and help keep everyone safe in the water. Well now, we are pleased to announce that we have our very own here in Tynemouth, Longsands ⚡️⚡️⚡️ This has been two years in the actual making. Lots of back and forths, ‘ums and ahhs’, ‘yey and nays’, a careful consideration acknowledging the importance of sensitivity alongside being informative and inclusive, colourful, creative and bold. It’s been a journey but an important one with a lasting legacy to support our surf scene. We didn’t want any old sign, we wanted a piece of artwork and we wanted @zach_rush_ to bring our beach to life. What a legend he’s been, patient, insightful, creative, endless conversations about what’s possible, what might need to be left out and what will look the best. Knowing that we might not be able to please everyone but making sure we do our best. We hope the wider community loves it as much as we do. A huge huge thank you to everyone that has been involved, the groups and individuals providing feedback and support and just getting behind it 🙌 A MASSIVE thank you to @northseaweekender for coming in and helping to push it over the line when we were close to giving up, awesome 🙏 @oli_wickham from @rapid9signs 🙌 @tynemouthsurfco // @sandykerr_ // 📷 @tombingphoto Importantly, a huge motivation for pushing on with making this sign was the number of surfers and swimmers that get caught out in the rip at Longsands. Devastatingly last May a young life was lost after a teenager who was celebrating the end of his exams got into difficulty in the permanent rip current. We really hope if this sign does anything at all, it helps go some way to preventing such a tragedy from happening again. Surf and create ✌️ #surferscode #staysafe

Sometimes we look at other places in the world with envy; Tofino in British Colombia for it’s trailblazing female surf scene, La Paloma Theatre in Encinitas, CA for it’s constant top level surf movie premieres, Byron Bay, Bilbao, Hossegor…Cornwall even for being the epicentre of the UK surf industry. We look at these places; but they aren’t home. This is home; Tynemouth. Where we know every nook and cranny of the coast, where we drive down coastal roads honking horns and flashing at the surfers we have met along the way. Where our kids first splashed in the sea and caught their first white water waves, where we often did too. So much of Yonder has been about this, over the past eight years; rather than looking and wishing - acting and doing. We’ve said it before many times, the message through the Yonder ‘Stick of Rock’ is and has always been “Supporting a Community, Celebrating a Culture”. How do we make this place the kind of place we want to live and be proud of? How do we add to the community, the culture and leave a positive mark and impression on the place we call home? Importantly for us, how to we help build the environment that we want our son to grow up in? Many of you on here will know how important all this is to us, you may have been on a lesson, a course, a camp or attended one of the many film nights, events or community calls to action. This little edit is longer than Instagram likes but we think it’s story telling like this that takes a few more minutes to really help folk understand why we do what we do. Beautifully put together by @lewisarnold.surf film maker and director of the multi award winning @thebigseaorg expose, please take a minute to have a watch and learn the ‘why’ to the awesome @northseasurffilmfest Thursday and Friday are both sold out but we have the fantastic @saltmarketsocial venue down in the Fish Quay for the Saturday evening and tickets are still available 🙌 You can also still come to the matinee screening of @thebigseaorg 3pm Saturday 28th @saltmarketsocial All further info @northseasurffilmfest