Bad Ass Outfitting by Liquidlogic Kayaks

We have had Bad Ass Outfitting in our kayaks for a quite a while now and the feedback has been phenomenal. It used to be that people just raved about the boats but now as much or more than any other feature people comment on the outfitting. I wanted to write a story about the outfitting because there are a couple questions that people ask that I would like to cover. While I am at it I'll just cover everything about the outfitting. If you have any questions let'em fly in the comments section.

Bad Ass Outfitting came out of a desire to make a seat for a kayak that would give you complete control, and total comfort. The idea came from looking at race car seats. They are one body contoured seat that keeps the driver in a performance driving position but is also comfortable enough that they can be in their cars for hours at a time. Other parts that we worked really hard on were making the outfitting easy to adjust and durable enough to take a beating. Because kayakers are impatient, and tough on their gear.

This whole presentation is done in a video at the bottom of the page or Click Here.

For those of your that like browning and stuff like that make sure to check the video at the bottom of the page. It is not LL condoned, it is ill advised, slightly profane, and somewhat hilarious and entertaining.

Bad Ass Outfitting in all its glory.

The picture above is to show the contoured seat, back band, and hip pad sections all combined together to give you completely outfitted feel with no gaps or openings that leave you wishing for more. The materials that we use in this outfitting are used in the auto industry because of their durability, UV resistance, draining properties, and comfort against the skin. The facing material is a spacer mesh that is very UV resistant. You can leave this material out in the sun and it won't break down or fade. The inside material which you can see in the photo below is a thicker 3 dimensional spacer mesh that gives it more cushioning properties. The seat cover itself has the facing material and a layer of the 3D spacer mesh sewn into it, add that to another layer of 3D spacer mesh on the backband and you have a very cush ride.

The Main Points for Bad Ass Outfitting Materials.

• All one contour padded construction
• UV resistant facing material
• Quick draining mesh construction
• Anti-microbial material, lets just say "less paddler stench" :)
• Durability you can't rip, or tear this stuff.

Quick Access to the Back of your boat.


One of the largest issues that people bring up or try to sell against LL boats with the Bad Ass Outfitting is the ability to get into the back of our boats. What I want to do now is show you several options on how to get into the back of the boat. I think everyone will find once they know how to get in the stern of a Liquidlogic boat you will see that its easy. First thing as you can see in the above photo is that you take the back off the back band. It's held there by a hook and loop material.

Access to the back of your Liquidlogic kayak.

The Full Access Option

1. Pull the back of the seat pad off the back band.
2. Release the ratchets until the back band is all the way to the back of the cockpit rim.
3. Lift the back band up and onto the back of the cockpit rim while continuing to release the ratchet. Presto magico, all the access you will ever need.

Quick Access Option

The Quick Access Option

1. Push the back band back a couple inches.
2. Push down and towards the front of the boat on the backband.
3. It will fold down flat on the seat for access. A little forceful but quick.

The Easiest Option

The Easiest Option

1. Pull the back of the seat pad off the back band.
2. Loosen the ratchet all the way on one side of the backband.
3. Pull the loosened side up and slide gear in under the back band.
4. This is a quick an easy way to get access to one side of the stern.

Hip Pad Compartment

The other part of this whole system that is very cool is the ease with which you can adjust and place your hip pads just where you want them. The hip pad compartment is easily opened by pulling the material from the cockpit rim. It opens a pocket that takes the hip pads and shims to create a proper fit. One nice trick to placing them in exactly the position you would like them is using a piece of paper, index card, or post card from Grandma as a spacer behind the hip pad so it won't stick in place while you are trying to locate your pad. Then once it feels like its in the right place just pull the paper out and the pad sticks where you want it. This allows you to place your hip pads exactly where you want them while you are sitting in the boat.

The Paper Trick for locating your hip pad is easy to do while sitting in the boat

Hip Pad in place. Now just close the compartment.

The thigh braces are easily adjusted with just a couple turns of the screws under the outside edge of the cockpit rim next to the thigh braces. There are two screws that control the thighbraces so loosen each of them a couple turns. Then just move them where you would like and retighten the screws. This will give you more control over the feel of the thighbraces.



Important
Loosen the screws just a couple turns if you loosen more you may take the screw all the way out of its threaded nut and that can be hard to fix.

The seat is also adjustable with a couple turns of the screws next to the seat. There is a screw on either side of the boat so make sure that you loosen both of those a couple turns then just move the seat where you want it, and retighten the screws.

Important

Loosen the screws just a couple turns if you loosen more you may take the screw all the way out of its threaded nut and that can be hard to fix.

Here is a video that Woody put together covering the same things. There is more information on this video and its great to see the adjustments done in the video.

Woody Callaway talking about Bad Ass Outfitting


The below video is not condoned or approved by Liquidlogic :) However it is funny. There is poor behavior and some bad language but you gotta love the energy. Like I said don't watch it.

LiquidLogic Kayaks Badass Outfitting from Fred Norquist on Vimeo.

Fred Gnarquist talking about the Bad Ass Outfitting from a "younger" point of view.

Please leave any comments or questions below in the comments and I will answer them.
Thanks
Shane

Linux Network Printing from progeCAD using Samba

One common network configuration for business file storage and printing is the use of Linux file and print servers on low-cost PC hardware. The advantages of UNIX & Linux servers in an SMB office automation environment are:

• Linux (also some UNIX, i.e. Solaris) is free to download
• Linux is secure, fast and stable
• Linux is scalable and highly configurable

Microsoft Windows, on the other hand, does work very well for supporting graphical end-user applications. progeCAD is a strongly graphical, end-user application for AutoCAD-compatible Computer Aided Design. To connect Windows PCs to a Linux back-office, we use Samba server. Samba is free Linux server software for sharing Windows folders or printers on a network:However, Samba will slow progeCAD's performance if not correctly configured. Samba is packaged for a wide variety of Linux types ("distributions") and installation is best carried out with free packages available for your version of Linux. Here are some more tips for setting up a network USB printer.

Once the USB printer is itself correctly configured by the local Linux printing subsystem (CUPS, LPRNG, UNIX LPR) the printer is then "shared" by its queue name onto the Windows SMB network in the Samba configuration (usually smb.conf, section shown here for Debian Linux - see Samba website for complete configuration details):

[printers]
comment = Sample Printers
path = /var/spool/samba
create mode = 0700
browseable = yes
writable = yes
guest ok = yes
public = yes
printable = yes
use client driver = no
printer admin = root

[My5500]
comment = Demo Example HP 5500 colour (change this with your own printer)
path = /var/spool/samba
browseable = yes
writable = no
guest ok = yes
printable = yes
default devmode = yes
use client driver = no
printer admin = root, administrator

Explanation: Driver configuration can either be client-side or server-side. We strongly recommend server-side drivers (default devmode = yes, use client driver = no) for speed and reliability. Only the Linux administrator is here given permission to "set up" the printer on the server side (printer admin = root). However this creates some challenges. The Windows driver will need to be "uploaded" to the Linux server. We will need to create an additional Samba configuration for allowing this:

[PRINT$]
path = /var/lib/samba/printers
guest ok = yes
browseable = yes
read only = yes
write list = root
admin users = root
create mask = 0644
directory mask = 0755

Once smb.conf is saved, Samba needs to be restarted. A quick network browse of our Linux machine from Windows (i.e. from Windows Explorer type '\\server-name') should list the shared printers and folders on that 'server-name'. NOTE: For security purposes we have only allowed "root" (and administrator) any kind of admin rights to the Samba printers. Our problem is that Windows doesn't have a UNIX user called "root". We get around this by initially connecting to our new shared printer from the DOS / Command prompt as follows:

runas /netonly /user:root "rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /p /t3 /n \\server-name\printername" (i.e. \\pc123\My5510 in this example)

You should be prompted for the Linux password for "root", and then prompted whether you want to select a Windows driver at this time - click "No".

A spartan Properties Box for this printer should appear. Click on the "Advanced" tab along the top of the box and click the "New Driver.." button. Select a 'Generic -> Ms Publisher Color Printer' if you want to send Postscript to your Linux printer (this is a good idea, CUPS will automatically reformat Postscript files to something usable by the actual USB printer hardware if correctly configured). Windows should begin uploading the local driver from your PC to the Samba server. Now click the "Apply" button at the bottom of the properties box and you should see several more tabs appear in this dialogue box if everything goes as planned. You may now close this Properties Box.

Because "administrator" is also listed as an admin for our My5500 printer, Windows administrator can make centrally-stored changes to this Samba printer (like setting paper size from Letter to A4, or changing the Postscript mode). NOTE that we have thus far only highlighted steps to configure Samba printers on the server side. Now we can finally add this as a Windows printer by navigating to \\server-name in Windows Explorer, right-clicking the printer and clicking "connect" from the drop-down menu that appears.

This post does not completely cover Samba configuration, only those tips found best practice for printing. We have found the above approach to offer best performance and reliability for printing to Samba server on Linux in progeCAD IntelliCAD (as well as Microsoft Office applications) from Windows. However other procedures may work better for different plotters and we welcome your comments here.

Indoor paddling? Play's the thing!

We weren't looking forward to the indoor paddling season this year. In the past, we made good use of true "flat water" time to practice specific skills like rolls, braces and rescues. But these days, the things we want to practice require space and waves. There's just no good way to work on surf landings indoors.

But we've been pleasantly surprised to discover that this has actually been a very fun and productive indoor paddling season, thanks in large part to our BCU training (with Bill Lozano of BCUNA, Scott Fairty of Geneva Kayak Center and Kelly Blades). We credit the BCU with helping us get out of our work-on-a-specific-skill mentality and into more of a learn-by-play approach.

In the coming weeks and months, we'll post some of the games we've been playing, along with photos and videos. If you have some to share, please post them in our comments.

Liquidlogic Remix XP on the Grand Canyon

Woody went out to the wild wild west to do a self support trip on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon with a big group of folks. The craft of choice was the Remix XP 9 &10. Thanks for this awesome first video from the trip goes to Will Lyons who did all the videoing and John Grace and Chelsea for putting together a great new resource for kayak campers. Campingbykayak.com

There will more updates on this trip and kayak camping coming soon!

Here is link to a great story done by Ted Keyes on the Canyon trip Click Here

This makes me want to it do next year!

Check it out!

Shane

Whitewater paddling in a Sit-On-Top kayak: The Coupe by Liquidlogic

Hey Everybody I had a trip this summer where I paddled with Sarah Bell from Green River Adventures on the Upper Section of the Green river in the Liquidlogic Coupe sit-on-top. I took a bunch of photos and video so I figured now that the boat is out on the market I would put up the shots that I got as well as Sarah's thoughts on the trip.

Trip Report

8/09

1^st Trip in the Coupe on the Upper Green River

I was at the end of my rope, (it was a stressful day in the office) Woody and Shane showed up and wanted to go kayaking….with a new toy.

I hadn’t paddled the Coupe on whitewater, so we decided to take it to the Upper section of the Green River and see how it did. At first I was thinking I should wear knee pads or a butt pad….a sit on top on the Upper Green? Surely I was going for a few swims. I was shocked at how stable the boat was! I couldn’t have flipped it over if I tried. ;)

We ran all the rapids we would have in decked kayaks, and I had no issues with feeling top heavy like I usually do in a sit on top. Even running the drop at Bayless Boof. The Coupe came through well. If I had the LL thigh straps I could see running it down good class 2 and 3 confidently.

There’s a great wave towards the beginning of the river, but nobody surfs on it because it’s above a tricky spot, "Wanda's". Once the boat was surfing, I couldn’t get it off the wave! It handled it soo easily. I never felt like I was out of control. After surfing, I thought for sure I would be in for it…the next rapid was just a few yards below. The Coupe turned so much faster than expected, and I was able to line up for Wanda’s Hole with no problem.

After the first set of rapids, the river has a stretch that feels like a scenic float. Dropping the skeg was simple, and cruising along the flat water was effortless. I didn’t feel like I was fighting the weight or length of the boat. Shane hopped in for a surf at this great wave by the take out….I don’t know if it’s considered back surfing if all you do is swivel the seat around so you’re facing backwards? I can’t wait to take this fishing on the lower section of the Green.

Its exciting….a sit on top that can surf, run rapids, won’t flip over, is easy to paddle, and actually has mechanical parts that are easy to use! We’re excited to get them in the outpost at Green River Adventures when they arrive. So many of our local clients live on the lakes surrounding the Green. So, they want a boat that can be fun on the lake, in moving water, and on whitewater….it’s the first of it’s kind. A do it all kind of boat.

If thats what you are looking for you should check it out.

Sarah

Here is a slideshow of more shots and a video of the day.
Cheers
Shane

The Liquidlogic Coupe paddling whitewater. from Shaneslogic on Vimeo.

The lake in solid state

After two weeks of frigid weather, the air temperatures returned to the 30s and we considered paddling on Lake Michigan, ice permitting.
Our enthusiasm exceeded our opportunities. Here are a few images from our trip to scout launching and landing sites:

The North Avenue beach house behind waves of ice and snow.

 

Snow fumaroles.

Curtains from ice drape over the North Avenue jetty.

 

A snow fence does its best to keep the ice out.

 

A lonely snowman guards the beach.

 

There was some open water, but no safe access to reach it.

Forecast For A Winter Trek

I'm heading with a group for an overnight snowshoe and camping trip to Prince Albert National Park this weekend. The forecast is for pretty mild weather, but we're still a few days out so there's room for change. Let's have a look at what the two main forecasters are predicting for the area for the weekend. I'll revisit this next week, after we come back.

I've taken screenshots from the website of both forecasters (just after 5 pm), cropped and rearranged them a bit, and posted them here.

First, the forecast provided at www.weathernetwork.com:

And now, the same from Environment Canada at www.weatheroffice.gc.ca:

So that's the forecast, lets see what reality brings....