Sweden's Tor Lundstrom established a name for himself thanks to his effortless style, showcased in numerous video parts including 2017's "Arcadia" in a shared part with longtime friend and Beyond Medals co-founder Kevin Backstrom.

Initially starting out as a filming crew, Beyond Medals released a web series before moving on to feature length films "Betty Ford", "Relapse" and "Bahamas". Now a fully fledged company, Beyond Medals has an apparel range, a snowboard team second to none, a burgeoning skate team and in 2022 released their first outerwear collection.

After watching Tor snowboard in the early Beyond Medals videos we quickly became fans. Following a chance meeting with Beyond Medals videographer Ryan Scardigli in Amsterdam, Ryan put Tor in touch with us to stock the Beyond Medals range in our stores. We jumped at the opportunity to bring Beyond to New Zealand and have gone on to stock their apparel and outerwear collections, building a relationship with Tor and the Beyond family.

Between riding for Bataleon, filming and running Beyond Medals, Tor keeps himself pretty busy. We reached out to ask him a few questions about snowboarding, running a business and keeping the passion.

How did you get into snowboarding?

I got into snowboarding during a family vacation to Hemsedal when i was around 5 years old, I started boarding together with my father. Hemsedal is about 8h from my hometown Gothenburg. When i was 13 i started taking the bus to Hemsedal on the weekends with my younger brother who was into freestyle skiing. We could always stay at my dads friend who worked in the ski patrol.

What inspired you to start Beyond Medals?

Watching snowboard movies and looking at other brands that got started by riders. I always felt a uncertain feeling about my future cause you never now when you loose your sponsors or get injured. So i always wanted to build something for myself so I could control my future and didn't have to be dependent on someone else.

What keeps you motivated to grow the brand?

Everything. We worked really hard to get where we are today and the setup and the people we work with are all amazing. The motivation has never been higher and i feel like the sky is the limit right now.

Running a business takes a lot of time and energy. How do you balance this with staying passionate about snowboarding?

At times it is challenging for sure. Last season it was a lot of ground work to be done with the first outerwear collection and that definitely took away some time on the board. Now we have a great team and a good structure in place which makes it easier to travel and board more :)

What advice would you give to young snowboarders that want to pursue a career in the snowboard industry?

That depends on what kind of career the kid wants to have but I think its easy to get caught up in wanting to show everyone what you good for too early instead of just focusing on riding, meeting new people and having a good time. If you are driven and love snowboarding the opportunities will come your way sooner or later, then you just pick and choose :)