Before coldwater surfing became a marketing campaign, Ian Battrick and photographer Tim Nunn would be tripping through Canada, Iceland, Scotland and Norway year after year. No agenda just trying to surf, camp out on nothing and surf lonely waves. A few years later with hard drives full of shots just sitting there, Tim thought lets make a coffee table style book of a 6 year run of them.
Six years of travel, searching, cold water surfing & adventure in one photographic travelogue. Surfer Ian Battrick and photographer Tim Nunn have spent months in some of the wilder places in the Northern Hemisphere and this is their story in 200 pages of rich photography. From dealing with bears in the wilderness of Canada to volcanic eruptions in Iceland, driving for days in Norway to surfing heavy slabs in Scotland, this book is a window into some of the less explored corners of the surfing world. It is a book designed to inspire you to break free of the confines of everyday life and have your own adventure. To get out and see the planet for the incredible place its is, whether that be for a weekend, a year or a lifetime.
Over 200 pages, 400+ photos packed into one hardback book, along with some unique tales from off the beaten track around some of the world's remotest coastlines in Iceland, Norway, Canada, Scotland.
"Are you the solo-wanderer type, like Ian Battrick? The kind whose companions on the road are a small tent, a mosquito net or a 6mm wetsuit, an iPod and a well loved quiver of boards? You spend as little as possible and stay for as long as you can. You make plenty of friends out there - fellow travellers and friendly natives - but you're essentially a free radical, beholden to no one, bound to no place or schedule. Malaria, guns, bears - whatever.
Wandering the world in search of hollow waves is Ian's mission. He's been doing it for years and he's stored up gigabytes of great adventures in his memory banks. But he wont brag about them. In fact, it's hard to get Ian to spill the beans on any of his surf exploits but we try, and learn plenty in the process." - Alex Dick-Read (Editor of The Surfers Path)
"Everyone seems to jump on the 'Modern Day Gypsy' title because they travel for a living but these guys are THE REAL DEAL! Every time you travel with them you're going to be roughing it, camping out, sleeping on rocks, in the rain and snow in a place so remote you realise there is no back up plan if things go pear shaped. There are no hotel rooms or creature comforts with these guys, someone should do a doco on Tim Nunn and Ian Battrick. If you want to see for your self check out this book!." Micah Lester
Follow Tim and Ian as they seek out a bit of solitude, adventure and search for waves.
- camping out for months in the Canadian wilderness, cut off from any contact with the outside world or way to leave if anything was to go wrong. Living off the land waiting for fleeting moments where a fickle, perfect wilderness wave comes to life.
- interacting with the local wildlife - from bears and cougars onland, to killer whales in the water.
- sitting through volcanic eruptions, camping and surfing amongst mid winter snowstorms, subzero conditions, living beneath Europe's largest glaciers, searching and surfing some of Europe's most remote coastline in Iceland.
- sheltering from mid winter North Atlantic storms in Scotland, just waiting for those windows in the weather to score some of the areas reefs and points.
- surfing dry slabs in high levels of radioactive contamination, in a permanently contaminated DEAD ZONE in Scotland. Such a toxic wasteland that even when the site is cleared, these Scottish waves will be contaminated for the next 25,000 years!
- driving crazy distances, checking islets and fjords around Norway - a 4 month road trip from Jersey to the most northern tip of Norway. All along the 7th longest coastline in the world, in the hope of finding isolated lonely waves.
- converting a builders van into the ultimate cold water surf vehicle to be able to spend extended time along some of the world's wildest coastlines.
- meeting classic characters along the way like Timmy Turner, Chris Noble, Raph Bruhwiler, Eric Ramsey, Sepp Bruhwiler, Josh Mulcoy, Pete Devries, Noah Cohen, Toby Atkins, Ryan Turner and a whole lot more.
This book is no guide, there are no signposts, just pages to inspire you to strike out on your own, to break free from the conformity of modern life and have your own adventure. With only one life to do everything you'll ever do, life is too short not to.
- Limited Edition hardback book (254mm x 251mm)
- Over 200 pages
- 400+ photos
"This is actually an ode to the person who has not been discovered in the world of surfing." - Benedikt Boas
"Definitely one of the more interesting blokes I've come across in my travels" - Thayer Walker, Mens Journal USA
"This is hard core, the guy riding naked in the barrel in ice water is pure pyscho but wild....the shrinkage factor might last a while!!!!ha" - Don
"Congrats on the book- I haven't put it down since I got home! I think 'inspirational' is the best word to describe it! Oh and you're all crackers!" - Mike
"Well done guys, one of the best surf related books I've read, and the photography is outstanding." - Adrian Graham
"I keep going back to the book and finding new bits to read, excellent photography and funny anecdotes, absolutely loved it!" - Nick Stepny
"You guys are absolutely crazy...Beautiful stuff but you're nuts. Camping in the snow I would never make it into the water, I'm sure crowds were mellow. Ha... Inspired by your trips, you should write a book." - Pat O'Connell, former WCT surfer, 'Endless Summer 2' star, Hurley Marketing Manager
"The B.C. section is my favourite including as it does enough detailed and ridiculous bear encounters to make you both laugh and shit yourself, plus magnificent waves. The Canada missions sum up, in my view, an overall sense of the ridiculous and profoundly important extremes that surfing can takes us to. Most of us dream of empty, perfect waves and a life fully immersed in nature, but these guys have actually been experiencing both, annually. They get taken to a stretch of coast several hours by boat/jetski away from the nearest hints of human life, are dropped off with supplies, boards, cameras and a gun or two, then left to fend for themselves sometimes for over a month at a stretch. Camped out in their little bay, they literally 'survive' while they wait for a heaving righthander do it's magic. For those hardy enough to actually do it, NUMB is perhaps a blueprint, or at least inspiration, for radical, off-the-map surf adventures." - Alex Dick-Read, FOUNDING EDITOR of THE SURFERS PATH
"I've been travelling with Batty for nearly 15 years. I've still yet to meet anyone more committed to surfing than he is. The lengths he goes to purely to score waves amaze me. He goes where the pampered pro's fear to tread. If there was a world tour of exploratory free surfers he'd be right up there with Kepa Acero." - Roger Sharp, Surf Photographer, Writer, Editor of Carve Surfing Magazine
"This is a fricking awesome book, the wild frontier stories told within are inspirational as well as jaw dropping. Great words and real quality writing....I love it." - Rob Tipples.
"Tim I love it mate sick job. pride and joy of the coffe table. 6 years well spent. Ian is a ledge too well gel love his book sign off too so true." - James Mitchell
"The book is insane! I am truly impressed by your work and your dedication. It is inspiration in its finest form. The shots are incredible and the stories are amazing. I think this book has serious potential to be huge. A global tale of yours and Nunn's adventures over the years." - Chris Hamlet
"Loved the bear stories, had no idea you guys had had to deal with them to surf, brilliant and really good photographs, will be reading this for years, inspirational stuff, get out and do another one." - Michael Spragg
"So Batty wont use a mobile phone because of radiation but he will surf in radioactive waters.......haha. Great photos and loved the tales. Superb." - Stephen Thompson
"Just bought a copy of Numb off Tim Nunn today, safe to say it's amazing. Cold water adventures, incredible images, classic stories, and in such a beautifully finished publication. Hat's off Tim and Batty!" - Anthony Butler - Mr B Productions
"A truely beautiful, photographic travelogue of his six years spent searching and cold water surfing with Tim Nunn and Ian Battrick in some of the wilder places the northern hemisphere has to offer, blending stories and anecdotes from time on the road with icy images to stir the soul and fire up the wanderlust. The design is slick, giving room for Tim’s pictures – be they jaw-dropping Turneresque landscapes, images of extreme endurance or moments of pure surf perfection captured – to do the talking. We’ve been dipping in to this beautiful tome time and again throughout the Christmas break – as has everyone who has stopped by – and can attest that this is a must-have for surfers, searchers and dreamers alike." - London Surf Film Festival
"Got the books today. It blew me away. Probably the most beautiful surf book i own now - -fantastic! It’s very likely that other orders (from me and friends) will follow!" - Seb
"My cold water-loving, good friend Tim Nunn has literally spent the last six years of his life camping out in the worlds chilliest and wildest destinations to document surfing. The result of having a permanently shrivelled wang is his eagerly anticipated book 'NUMB'. All I can say is 'wow'...it's a thing of beauty. Buy it, put the kettle on for a cuppa and a hot water bottle and prepare to blown away......" - Ben Selway - WHOMP MAGAZINE
Since NUMB a lot has happened, many new stories for a future book and the chasing waves continues.