Composite Playboat Prototype #1

I got bored and added some stickers.

The First Glass and Kevlar Prototype

The first prototype of my composite playboat started early this year but the process has been drawn out a long time because we have been working so hard on other boats and we want to get this thing just right.  The composite playboat is really a long term goal that we are trying to achieve, and that goal is to create a boat that folks would like to paddle in the 2013 World Championships here in North Carolina and a boat that we'd like to paddle anywhere we go to playboat.  No they aren't for sale... yet.

Jordan Poffenberger loving life on the Ottawa River

I have been working a lot with young ripper Jordan Poffenberger on this design because, well... he rips.  Jordan has been working hard on his playboating.  This year he made the U.S. Freestyle Team and went on to the World Championships in Plattling Germany.  Now Jordan's goals are set on Worlds at the Nantahala River and the big waves around the world.

A different and fun part of this process is working on the construction and build of this boat.  Since we are working with resin, fiberglass, Kevlar there are a lot of new considerations in the construction of the boat compared to building a plastic kayak.  The goal is to try and get the boat down to around 22 lbs, and be able to take a beating unlike many of the composite boats that are on the market today.  So the build of the boat itself is a big part of the testing that we are doing.  The initial boats are built with a combination of glass and kevlar to increase the stiffness and impact resistance.  We thought a lot about carbon but the trade off for cost, weight savings, and actual durability pointed us towards this combination.  We are also constructing this boat with the cockpit integrated into the boat itself rather than attaching a rim like other composite boats.  Its a difficult and time consuming thing to do in a composite mold but it also adds a ton of strength to the boat itself.

Prepping the Mold

Fiberglass and Kevlar Materials

We vacum molded the boats and parts to help keep the weight down and make a strong part.

Heading up the actual construction of the composite boat is Bryon Phillips who helped start Lidds Helmets, and the creation of The Sin and Drain squirt boats with his brother Aaron back in the late 90's.  We also have the long time composites crew from the Greensboro area that has been building boats for quite a while that are putting in all the time huffing fumes.

Bryon sending out a prototype

First thing I did when we pulled the first boat out of the mold was head to Big Rocks on the Nolichucky river to give it a spin in a good loop hole and throw a few old school ends.  It is also a good place to test the durability of the construction.  I will admit I found a good place to hit a rock and I did it over and over to see how strong the seam where the two halves of the boat were put together turned out.  In the hole the new shape worked out really well.  There was plenty of volume for my big ass and the ends were coming through very smoothly.  The square ends seemed to really help the boat come straight over the top cleanly for loops forward and backward, and I was starting to learn some new stuff in the hole as well.  The bow volume was a little hard to get under the water for flat water stuff but other than that it seemed like a great start to the design.

Getting all 200lbs of Shane out of the Water! 

I had to throw in some old school.

The next thing I did was fly out to Colorado to paddle with Ross Herr.  The Glenwood wave on the Colorado river was in perfect form so we went for it.  Ross and I paddled the boat for a week straight which was a perfect scenario for picking apart the initial shape.  The first part of the week we noticed that the boat wasn't as loose as we would like and it was a little bogged down speed wise.  Mid week I took some materials and added some harder chines on the hull to sharpen the looseness and also pull the stern up out of the water while surfing which made the boat much quicker and faster on edge.  

Ross Herr working the Clean Blunt

This photo you can see the different color stern chine where I worked the shape a little.

After that testing I went back to NC to reshape the model and prepare for making the next prototype.

I will post about prototype 2 and 3 later.  

Shane

p.s.  We still don't have a name for this boat.  Got any ideas?
p.p.s. I will be at the Grand Opening of the new Nantahala Wave with the latest proto.

Here is the whole album of shots.

Composite Prototype #1

Freeride 67 prototype

Ken and Ryan buffing out the model

The Freeride 67 is getting close to the final design.  We just pulled a prototype mold off of this model and molded a couple test boats.  The first thing we do when we make a boat for bigger paddlers is walk down to shipping and receiving and get Tall Steve to hop in and see if his 6'5" height and 35" legs with size 13 dogs can get in the boat.   And yes my friends we have a winner!!  Steve hopped in no problem.  Next test will be Woody.

Tall Steve and Shane standing with the Freeride 67

Specs on Steve
6'5" tall
205 lbs
35" inseam
13 shoes

Specs on Shane
6'1"
195 lbs
33" inseam
11 shoes

The specs for the Freeride 67 are:
6'9" long
26.5" wide
67 gallons

Woody and I hope to get these things out on the water this weekend.  Should be fun.  Steve isn't a big time kayaker but he did volunteer for me to throw him down the stairs in it.

Cheers
Shane

Liquidlogic at the NOC shootout and Demo

This past weekend I went over to the Nantahala Outdoor Center to show boats at the store as well as watch the action at the Shootout, which is the first event in the USAFK point series.  Liquidlogic had a few entrants and they showed proud for the event both in the new playboat Biscuit series, and older freestyle designs.  John Clark from NOC rocked a Skip in the C-1 category and was amazing out there slicing an dicing and throwing in the big loop on just about every ride.  Jordan Poffenberger came in Second to John in C-1.  He was throwing massive loops and doing this crazy McNasty entry move.  Maria and Adriene represented in the Women's category really well with 2nd and 3rd places.  Maria consistently threw blunts and roundhouses to tally up the points while Adriene looked destined for a disappointing performance when in the last few seconds of her last ride she threw a huge loops and stuck it in the very flushy feature.

We also had a big winner in the Attainment race.  Chris Hipgrave took the gold, beating a field of 20 plus by paddling UP river to Nantahala falls and then paddling back down the fastest while.  This race was fantastic to watch because it was a La Mans start.  Everybody started out of their kayak, then ran to their boats, jumped in, and paddled away all together.  The fun was watching people try to put skirts on quickly and then battling in the eddies for position to paddle upstream while 20 other people hacked away with ther paddles as well.  Chris was in the Remix Stinger race boat and made it look oh so fast.  Congrats Chris!

The Nantahala is also going to be home of the 2012 World Cup and 2013 World Championships.  It is going to be a great place to be during the time.  It should be like a world paddling village.  I can't wait.  Some of my favorite paddling experiences have been in situations where paddlers from all over the world are camping, paddling, and living together.  It is always a good time.

The NOC demo day was great as well.  Almost all the our boats were out at some time or another but none were out as much as the Remix XP 9 and 10.  It just seems like this is the boat of choice for a bunch of paddlers both new and old to the sport.

All in all a great time.  Here is a slide show of all different parts of the event.
Enjoy
Shane

All 3 sizes of Biscuits are running now at Liquidlogic

Today we started running the largest Biscuit. So now we have all three sizes up and running. The largest was the last to come on line. Its cool to see all three sizes next to each other. Of course these photos don't really show everything and the lighting is terrible to show the hull so I hope to have better hull photos up soon.

The Three Side By Side

Up the Line

I just jumped in the Biscuit 65 with my shoes on.
That make me thing big comfortable loops.

Marlow Left His Boat Out in the Snow.

But He Still Paddles Pretty Well.

Thanks to Jeremy Laucks for this photo. The Original BIscuit From First Biscuit

Later Shane

The Molds for the Biscuits have arrived.

The Biscuit Model

So this is the Biscuit just before it was sent away to the mold maker. After a couple months of work by the mold makers the molds have come back to us ready to rock and roll. The whole Legacy team jumped in to get these things going fast. There is a lot to figure out to get a boat into production. We spend a couple days making sure all the parts fit well, the logos are placed right, the thicknesses are to our spec, and the shape of the boat itself is what I am looking for in performance. As cliche as it sounds its like a new baby arrives in the plant. Everyone comes around to see how it looks and congratulations go all the way around the factory. So check it out. The first pictures. I will do better soon when I have good light.

The Biscuit Mold Comes In


Shiney on the Inside


Very Shiney


I Hate it when they drill holes in the mold with a big drill bit.


It Makes Me Nervous


First Couple Boats Clean The Mold and then...


The First Biscuit Pops Out


Ooooohhhh


This is the 55. Its the middle size of three. 45, 55, 65


Aawwwww



Wwhooooa


Yeah Baby Bad Ass Outfitting


Obie Can't Wait To Get It On The Water.

Anyway I thought you all would enjoy seeing the first ones built out of the mold.
We will have much more posted about them in the future.
Later
Shane

Testing the Biscuit: High Tension on the Gatineau River.

Old Man River Workin' on the Clean

Back on the blog again. Still trying to fill you all the way in on the trip to Canada where we were testing the Biscuit. Like I said before the water was not ideal for the big stuff on the Ottawa but the smaller playspots were on. So it was a great testing for that. But we were getting a little concerned that we wouldn't find a nice big wave for us to really check out its big wave potential. And then we got the call from Guillaume. High Tension Wave was coming in on the Gatineau River. Marlow's eyes were lighting up and non of the rest of us had ever paddled this wave but I had seen tons of photos and videos from the spot so we knew it would be good but we didn't realize how good it would be.


Yep its that good

But first lets get some good old fashioned Canadian culture under our belts. We were traveling in the middle of no where and this kayak drew us in. We didn't really know what it said but we did see the sign for Poutine. If you don't know what it is then you need to go to Canada just for a paddling trip and check it out because just like the paddling it is decadent, rich, basic, carnal, and heavenly all in one fell swoop. First you take french fries which we all know so well, then you throw on top some cheese curds (the white stuff in the photos), and then, why not, toss some gravey over the whole thing. In fact I am embarrassed that someone in the south didn't come up with this one first. Poutine, yes, is grits, biscuits, sausage, fries, moonpies, rc cola, and humidity all rolled into one. Its the bomb.


Parle Francais?


See if you understand the menu


Mmmmmm so much goodness in one place


Yonton in a state of lovin' it


It looks like heaven to me

Oh yeah back to the High Tension Wave on the Gatineau River. Lets just say 6 feet high, smooth and glassy, eddie service if you are on it, and it you aren't there is an eddie with a 60 second portage back to the wave just behind the next rock. Theres a pile to land all your tricks in if you can't land them clean. The good folks can stay on this wave to seemingly forever, the front surfers can stay on this wave to eternity and yep the Remix XP can surf it as well.


Marlow cleaning it up



Mar trying out another color



backwards, fakie, switch, whatever... clean


ollie off the rib

So obviously this was an amazing place to test the big wave ability of the Biscuit. We are maybe half way through the process of testing this boat out and things are looking really good. The first proto showed that the boat needed a trim in volume to balance the boats out. While I was in Colorado I was able to paddle in several awesome spots during the high water season but most notably was the Glenwood wave all the way from about 12 grand up to nearly 21 thousand. We also paddled it on big water on the Arkansas River. The Salida hole was working, and the Numbers were high but there were tons of different spots to play. These later protos were more balanced volume wise and I tried to increase the loosness. At the High Tension wave the looseness showed and all types of moves were working well. On the next round I am going to work on the edges a little. They are a little too dominant right now, especially near the ends of the boat. So the next transition will be perfecting the edges so that they are positive on a wave and easy to use otherwise as well as increasing the bounce and speed from the point where we are now. Hopefully I will have the next round of protos at the Gauley. In the mean time check out lots of photos from the trip up to the Gatineau River. There are also a bunch of other photos from the trip to Canada.



Enjoy it
Shane