023
X-5 RP PURE
Status
Object
Length
Width
Thickness
Volume
Construction
Price
MFG Date
Origin
C/O
Location
Tested
Owner
Serial
Production
S-3 RP
5’10”
19 3/16”
2 1/2”
31.5L
Polyurethane/Epoxy
$Prototype
10/01/22
OBX
Rieflin, Tatum
ECUSA
Yes
N/A
00028
This is a snapshot of a model I’ve been developing over the past year. Name still TBD but I’m circling around PURE as an identifier. The model isn’t a huge departure from the X (on website) that’s been my go-to shortboard for years, but it’s been reconsidered through a value filter that I think gives it its own identity.
Basically it’s a shortboard that has no features. Or rather its features have been smoothed or reduced to balance into an overall package that looks simultaneously like every shortboard you’ve ever seen, and none in particular. The point is to sort of depart from focusing on features and benefits and go with a board that’s easy to forget about. At best, it’s a promise of a pure, frictionless connection with the ocean. A board that disappears from perception.
The model pictured is X, an everyday shortboard shape, which made it a natural test pilot for this streamlined treatment. But I could see PURE, if that’s what it ends up being called, being a version of every AR board model. Just think there’s plenty to say about useful objects that aesthetically please with as little design as possible. The ones that give the most room to self-express.
One thing about designing a board that aims to be a kind of summary of all is the moving target. As the art and science of surfboard design and riding waves evolves, we gain new assumptions about what a normal shortboard looks like, how it’s made, and of course what it feels like to ride. The idea is to design something normal now, which will probably be far from what’s considered normal in 2053. Maybe then it will be a novelty.
The board shown in these pictures is a prototype built entirely in the USA as all Advanced Research surfboards are today. I think there are still some details and lines that can be reduced in this one.