Carved Imperator Lightwind 145 x 44cm 2015
Reviews / Twin Tips
2,356
At A Glance
Carved are a very high end custom board manufacturer from Germany, they’ve been making exceedingly light and fast boards for some time on a bespoke basis for their large customer base. Now though they are making limited production runs of some of their most popular shapes and sizes. They make two lightwind boards, a larger 151x45 and this smaller 145x44. Both are built using their unique CARTAN® carbon construction technique. The design premise was to make a lightwind board that wasn’t just for cruising though; these have been built with tricks and jumps in mind.
On The Water
We’ve ridden lightwind boards before, but nothing has quite compared to this… With a slight concave on the underside and a large plan shape the Imperator Lightwind gets up onto the plane really quickly. The rails have been shaped a little to give maximum bite and the board is quickly flying upwind with ease. What’s great about the 145 though is that you can really engage the rail and get some great pop from the board. Even in light winds with a big kite this board is a heap of fun to ride. Landings are easy with the wide tips giving you a stable platform and the board feels very lively underfoot. It’s fast too, the flat rocker giving the board a really high top end speed whilst the concave underside ads control.
Overall
If you want a lightwind board that you can still pull some moves on, and is really fun to ride the Imperator Lightwind is a good choice. It’s not cheap, but it’s built to last and you’ll get lots of seasons of fun out of this board. It looks pretty sexy too!
This review was in Issue 47 of IKSURFMAG.
For more information visit CarvedRelated
By Rou Chater
Rou has been kiting since the sports inception and has been working as an editor and tester for magazines since 2004. He started IKSURFMAG with his brother in 2006 and has tested hundreds of different kites and travelled all over the world to kitesurf. He's a walking encyclopedia of all things kite and is just as passionate about the sport today as he was when he first started!
