CrazyFly Pure

Here’s a fact: CrazyFly love creating things to put your feet on and get powered by a kite with. They live and breathe board technology and we could tell right away that the Pure board was something that – even with all their experience – they were pretty stoked about. So, what do we have? Well, when it arrived at TKM HQ we thought maybe it was some A1 promotional materials we had been expecting. Tiny box, weighing nothing… When we opened it, what emerged was one of the stealthiest and most insane looking boards we have seen. At 88 x 43cm the Pure weighs in at 1.58kg. And that is with the deck pad, which we’d guess has to be 250g or so. It’s all black and unmistakably all carbon but there is much more to it than that.. The Pure board is packed with more tech than a first glance would suggest.

First up there is the ‘air inside’ core. Initially utilized on the mega-light Elite II twintip, the wood core has holes CNC’d into it before it is finished. These hollow spaces inside reduce weight and increase buoyancy and don’t impact on the stiffness of the board. Weight has been further reduced through building the board without a top or a bottom sheet, so what you see and feel is the outer layer of carbon. This is very impressive both from an aesthetic perspective but also from a build perspective – to lay up this board so precisely requires some pretty extraordinary board building skills. We were quite impressed with the Pure board, although it is of course worth mentioning that with this kind of premium build, comes a premium price tag. But you probably guessed that already…

Your foil is screwed into four inserts, the same as you have for foot straps, and we initially rode the Pure with the front but not back straps. For this test we rode the Pure with CrazyFly’s Up foil. We were mainly riding in gusty offshore conditions so were pleased to have the straps to get up and going, but once you are away (and in more forgiving conditions) you are fine riding the Pure strapless, particularly with the subtle concave in the deck and full deck pad which keeps you nicely locked in.

The downside to these super thin pocket boards can lie in the amount of flex you get, but as soon as you pop up it is clear that this is not an issue with the Pure. The board is very stiff and gives you a uniquely connected feeling – pretty much like you are standing on the mast plate! Every slight movement is immediately dialed in to the foil and the smallest movements are transmitted. For transitions or in choppy conditions there is not much forgiveness and ideally you want to keep high on the foil. There is a nice amount of kick in the nose to help you bounce back up with slight touch downs and if you need to put the board on the water for transitions you may have a second or two, but essentially the Pure isn’t a board that wants to be too close to water, aside from at the start and end of your session – it’s a board that wants to fly and it does that very well indeed.

In a sentence: You can’t help but be impressed by the Pure from a technological point of view, and the good news is: it’s very impressive on the water too.