Eternity Hole with Proto #4 of the LL Composite Playboat

Yonton trickin' it up.

Its been a bit since I put my butt in a playboat sunny skies and upper 50s temps had Yonton Mehler and I jumping into a car with Kerry Porche headed for Eternity hole on the Tuckasegee River.  Yonton started jumping back in a playboat a couple months ago and is starting to show signs of his skills that took him to the World Championships.  I however am way off the back end.  It was definitely a case of the old dog trying to learn new tricks.  Fortunately I don't think anyone was taking pictures while I was paddling but I did get a few of Yonton looking good in Big Orange!  The session was enough to get me stoked to get back in the shaping room with the playboat model.  A little more time and I may be able to hit that Phonix Monkey.  Proto #5 in time for team trials maybe!
Shane

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

One of my favorite days as a designer: Freeride 67 with Woody

I am lucky, there is no doubt about it.  The skills and job that I have pretty much fell in my lap.  Sure I worked hard and have a passion for it but really I just did what I loved and followed the path.  One day I was a kayaker playing around with my outfitting and adding foam to my kayak to see what it would do and  the next I was hacking away at a big piece of foam with a chainsaw making a "toy", that one day, I would get to paddle.  Like I said, I am lucky.  On this day I got to see another thing that motivates me rather than my own desire to paddle new things.  I got to see an old friend find playboating again because of a design I am working on.  If you don't know, Woody actually was a bad ass playboater a while ago.  He used to spend hours dropping into mystery spots, blasting holes, throwing one arm bandits, screwing around, and doing paddle behind the neck bow draw squirts.  (It hurts my rotator cuff when I think about it.)  Sure Woody is still dropping down the Green and self supporting through the Grand Canyon but he has a little part of him that always wants to play the river and wooo the ladies with his play skills(no offense Kim).  That is why this day was one of my favorite days as a designer.  Woody, all 6'4" 250 lbs of man meat that he is came off the river and said, "that was awesome!"  That is like music to my ears, like a little sugar in my coffee, like 5 sqaures of toilet paper left, its like hard rain late at night.  Ok you get the picture.  It was cool.

Woody and I took the prototype Freeride 67s over to the Pigeon river, or "dirty bird" if you are a local that has been around since that stanky river opened up for public consumption.  The nice thing is that nowadays the "bird" is down right pleasant for paddling, and smelling.  There are several fun playspots, especially at the high flows we have been having.  There were many good waves in Initiation and on down to Lost Guide.  The wave at the bottom of Lost Guide was really fun, quick, and dynamic.  Woody was stretching his long lost play boating wings with wave surfing, spinning, but he never did pull out the behind the neck bow draw stern squirt.  There are more photos of the day here.

Heres a little video.  Excuse the music.  I was feeling my dubstep.
Cheers
Shane

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

The Freeride: A new playboat by Liquidlogic

Maria sitting pretty in the new Freeride by Liquidlogic

(If you would like a theme song for the Freeride scroll all the way down to Edgar Winters video and press play, if not just keep reading and looking at pretty pictures.)

The Liquidlogic Freeride 57 spins into the final cycle of the design process this week.  What’s been fun with this one is that it was a boat that we had started designing a while ago and then you all requested it from us through feedback on our facebook page.  Your feedback in discussions helped us fine tune and polish the completion of this model.  This communication also brought momentum to a mission that we have taken on fully here at LL and that is the "automatic for the people revolution".  In the coming years, we aim to bring you all what you want, to ask you for your advice and run with what we hear from you.  For that I can already say big thanks, you've inspired us to push forward on even more new stuff at Liquidlogic. 

And now the rest of the story.

A couple years have passed since the last all new whitewater design at LL. That gave me the time to develop several different concepts to have ready when we were ready to put new designs into our whitewater line.  The concept started with the desire to fill the vacancy left by the CR series, but with this advance in the playboat concept we added a more play performance-oriented hull shape and slicier volume distribution to a very stable and comfortable design.

Here are the stats on the boats.

Freeride 57

6'6" long

25.5" wide

57 gallons

xl cockpit

Freeride 67

6'9" long

26.25 wide

67 gallons

xl cockpit

We had paddlers in the 57 ranging from 5'3" and 135 lbs to 6'1" 200lbs.  The weight range seems like it will settle out to be 140 to 210, and the Freeride 67 will be around 180 to 250.  We haven’t completed testing on the 67 so that is an estimate.

Here is what the Freeride looks like in the digital world.  

Click Here to view or download a 3-D PDF that you can rotate yourself.  

PCs may be able to just click and view in your browser. 

Macs will need to download or save the file from the link.  Then open it with a recent edition of Adobe Acrobat. 

Once you have the file open it’s very cool to move around.

If you have a mouse you can use your mouse to click and move the mouse to rotate the model, or with a touch pad just click and move your finger over the pad to move the model.  Hit control and you can also move the model across your screen.

The Freeride 57 model in real life

When we first started talking about the Freeride, Woody and I discussed where exactly we should focus this design and we completely agreed that it should be: more playful than the CR series, easier to roll, faster and looser on a wave, slicier, and still get you downstream predictably.  We decided to make it a great playboat that was easy to paddle.  Of course we knew we wanted it to be comfortable but that’s easy when you put Bad Ass Outfitting in it.  I also added a few special little touches on this boat that some may not even notice.  The drain plug is positioned so that when you put the boat on your right shoulder (sorry lefties We are the minority) the water drains while you carry to the car.  I recessed the cockpit itself for a tighter fit for a skirt so that less water can blast up under your spray skirt, reducing the main way that water gets in your boat.  We also enlarged the size of our cockpits to make getting in and out easier even for Woody-sized people. (and to think, he still hasn’t grown up.)  I’ll share other bonus features in later posts.

Freeride model driven by test dummy

The first prototype of the Freeride kick flipped out like most of my first attempts at a new design.  It was great in some ways and terrible in others.  It had the speed and smooth carving edges I hoped for which made surfing waves easy and fast.  As is normal for me when working on a new design,  I like to pick one attribute or feature from which to build the boats character.  The main emphasis for the Freeride was to make a fast predictable and playful hull.  Followed closely by being an easy boat to paddle.  So I had gotten the hull very close on the first try but the volume in the bow was too much to really deal with when you wanted to cartwheel, especially in flat water.  The stern came through nicely but the bow was a little big.  We took it back to the garage for work.  I dropped quite a bit of volume out of the bow but kept the nose rocker up so the boat would stay on the surface while running the river.

Fergus and Isaac at the Charlotte Whitewater Park. They are dummies as well.

Prototype 2 was a huge improvement.  The lower bow volume made her much more manageable in the ends and the fellas cartwheeled clean and smooth.  They could bow stall much more easily.  We had lighter paddlers in proto number 1 who had a hard time initiating the bow stall but could control stalls and even do flat water loops in proto 2.  The one major downside of proto 2 was an edge that was catching a little on the stern of the boat while trying to cartwheel and run rapids.  It was subtle but could throw you off balance a little every once in a while.  Back to the shop again for proto 3.

Freeride front flip

Prototype 3, which we are paddling right now, feels right on the money.  I added a little more roundness to the stern deck of the boat so that water doesn't have an opportunity to pile up on it.  This really solved the slight edgy feeling I was getting from earlier versions.  The ergonomics are lining up really well. I have been paddling this boat with full-sole booties.  So the boat is super comfortable and the performance is really right where I want it now.  We have a few more trips we need to do to completely confirm the design, after all, getting out there and testing is the best part of my job.  

"Yeah, guys, it really looks like I need to go test that boat again today.  I'll see you later."  :)

Here is a little teaser video on the day we paddled with hundreds of ya'll on the Cheoah.

And of course the theme song for this boat will be...

Stay tuned for more updates on the Freeride which will be coming to stores in June.  Just in time for some summer lovin' 1972 style.

More posts to come about the Freeride!

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