Blue Mind: Vortex Visions | Scottish Cold-Water Surfing

More than 25 years of chasing a fickle wave on the coast of Scotland. Blue Mind: Vortex Visions brings together Scottish cold-water surfing, Thurso East barrels and GoPro footage from Lunasurf co-founder Ian Battrick, captured over the last few years.

At its heart is a connection to a wave, the friendships formed around it and those fleeting moments inside the tube when everything else falls away.

Watch Blue Mind: Vortex Visions on YouTube

Finding Blue Mind

Blue Mind, a term popularised by marine biologist Wallace J. Nichols, describes the calm, peaceful state we can experience when we’re near, in, on or under water.

It might come from sitting beside the sea, swimming, surfing or simply watching the waves. Being around water can quieten the mind and bring our attention back to the present.

Inside the barrel, that feeling takes on a different intensity. For a few seconds, the surfer is surrounded by moving water, focused entirely on the wave. The waiting, the weather, the cold and whatever is happening beyond it fade into the background. There is only the line ahead and the instinct to make it through.

That is where Blue Mind meets the vortex visions in this film: brief moments of complete immersion, seen from inside the wave itself.

Returning to Thurso East

Ian has been returning to Thurso East since the late 1990s, spending years of his life on the farm overlooking the wave. Over that time, he has slept in boardbags, tents, vans, caravans, and stayed in the cottage, the farmhouse and Alex’s house overlooking the wave. He has watched it through the seasons and experienced how quickly conditions can change.

Surfing here means waiting for the right combination of swell, tide, wind and daylight. Sessions do not always deliver. Sometimes the next opportunity is weeks or months away. But when the conditions come together, those few seconds inside the tube make the waiting worthwhile.

Filmed mainly at Thurso East over the last few years, Blue Mind: Vortex Visions brings together moments from that continuing search. Much of the footage takes the viewer inside the barrel, offering a first-person perspective on cold-water surfing along the Scottish coast.

Captured along the way

There was no film crew or production setup. Much of the film was self-filmed using a GoPro, both in and out of the water, or a static tripod left running.

Other footage came from friends, captured on different cameras across different sessions. Together, these moments became a collection shaped by years of returning to the same coastline.

In memory of friends

The wave has been at the heart of friendships spanning decades. This film also remembers four friends who shared Ian’s love of surfing and the search for the perfect barrel.

Alex Sutherland lived on the farm overlooking Thurso East and surfed the wave regularly for many decades. He played a founding role in bringing Lunasurf to Scotland, making him an important part of our story. His friendship with Ian stretched back more than 25 years, built around shared sessions, conversations and a lasting connection to the wave.

Hughes Oyarzabal shared a genuine love of surfing and a special affection for Thurso East.

Harald Steinmann and Ben Pike shared Ian’s love of getting barrelled. Both spent considerable time surfing in Indonesia, where their paths first crossed and the search for the perfect tube became part of their friendship.

Blue Mind: Vortex Visions is dedicated to Alex, Hughes, Harald and Ben. Bound by the ocean and chasing the perfect tube.

The connection to Lunasurf

The equipment featured in the film is from Lunasurf. Co-founded by Ian in 2010, our brand grew from a simple idea: make dependable surf equipment that surfers genuinely need, without unnecessary extras, inflated prices or hype.

We started in a garden shed and remain a small, independent, two-person operation. From product ideas, design and development to sourcing, production and running the online store, we are hands-on throughout.

Ian’s decades of surfing and camping, from Scotland, Norway, Canada and Iceland to Indonesia, feed directly into what we make. Different coastlines and conditions reveal what equipment needs to deliver, and what it takes to last. That experience, alongside feedback from surfers around the world, continues to shape our wetsuits, grips, front pads, fins, leashes and accessories.

Our wetsuits use 100% Japanese Yamamoto limestone neoprene, chosen for its warmth, stretch, lightweight comfort and durability.

This film shares the surfing life behind Lunasurf: time in the water, friendships built around waves and a lasting commitment to doing things our own way.

Made by surfers, for surfers. Less hype, more time in the water.

Discover the story behind Lunasurf

Film credits

ADDITIONAL FILMING: With thanks to everyone who contributed additional footage: Malcolm Anderson, Jamie Bartlett, Dave Bell, Zach Marrit, Jordan Thompson, Hamper, Thomas Horaig, Doug McAlistair and Jake Kelly.

MUSIC: “Wrong Side of the Sky” — Taylor Goodhue, Richie Nobrega Jr., Pat Oaks and Robbie Derosa.
℗ Myrtle Moon