Pure EP
HomeInnovationPure Ep

Pure EP

Hockey performance without irrigation

Water has played an important role in high level hockey for decades. Irrigation reduces friction between the ball and surface, helping create the speed, control and consistency expected from the modern game. Pure EP approaches that interaction differently. Instead of using water to influence friction, the system is engineered to create the required playing characteristics through the surface itself. The result is hockey turf designed for competitive play without irrigation.

Why remove the need for water?

Traditional water based hockey systems are irrigated before and sometimes during play to achieve the required surface characteristics. That requires water as well as the infrastructure needed to store, distribute and manage it. Local water availability and restrictions can also influence when and how a field can be used.

Pure EP was developed around a different question: can the surface provide the required interaction between ball, player and turf without relying on irrigation?

How Pure EP delivers performance

Ball behaviour is strongly influenced by friction between the ball and the surface. Pure EP uses fibre geometry and surface construction to manage that interaction. By reducing the effective contact between ball and surface, friction can be controlled without using water as a lubricant. This allows the surface to support the speed, control and predictable ball movement required for hockey while remaining dry.
Water free by design
Pure EP is engineered to deliver hockey performance without irrigation. Friction is controlled through fibre configuration and surface design rather than the application of water. No pre-game watering is required for the surface to achieve its intended playing characteristics.
Less water use
Removing the need to irrigate the playing surface eliminates the water normally required to prepare the field for play. The amount of water avoided depends on factors including climate, irrigation practices, frequency of use and the conventional system used for comparison.
Consistent ball interaction
Pure EP is designed to maintain controlled friction between ball and surface without relying on irrigation to regulate playing characteristics. This provides predictable ball movement across changing playing and weather conditions.
Simpler operation
A surface that does not require irrigation also removes the need to operate an irrigation system before play. This simplifies field preparation and removes the dependency on water availability for achieving the intended playing characteristics.
Tested and validated
Pure EP has undergone laboratory testing, durability testing and field validation to evaluate its playing characteristics over time. Testing against recognised hockey requirements provides independent assessment of characteristics including ball behaviour and player surface interaction.

From research to the field

Pure EP is the result of rethinking a principle that had become established in high level hockey: that water is needed to achieve the required playing characteristics. Research focused on understanding friction between ball and surface and how that interaction could instead be controlled through fibre and system design.

Prototypes were tested, measured and refined until the required characteristics could be achieved without irrigation. The result is not simply a dry version of a water based surface. It is a surface engineered around a different principle.

Water savings in real-world use

  • Weesp

    The first Pure EP installation was completed in 2023 at MHC Weesp. In the first eight months of use, approximately 4.2 million liters of water were saved compared to a traditional irrigated main field. This equals 525,000 liters per month, or over 6.3 million liters per year, based on training and match usage.

    To put that into perspective, this annual saving equals 67,000 ten-minute showers. One person could shower every day for 184 years using that amount of water.
    It also means more than half a million toilet flushes per month are no longer required, simply because the field remains dry.

  • Mierlo

    In Mierlo, two Pure EP fields are currently in use. Within just three months, an estimated 3.75 million liters of water were saved. This equals 1.25 million liters per month, or 15 million liters per year, compared to conventional water-based hockey fields.

    That volume corresponds to six Olympic-size swimming pools, or five people taking a daily bath for more than 65 years.

This video cannot be loaded without your cookie consent.

Rethinking water in hockey

Pure EP demonstrates how understanding the interaction between ball, player and surface can lead to a different approach to system design. Instead of using water to create the required playing characteristics, those characteristics are engineered into the surface itself. Hockey performance without irrigation.