LiquidLogic Braaap Initial Review

When new whitewater boats prototypes start showing up on rivers, in photos, etc, they sometimes create a lot of buzz. The kayaking community is a passionate one, and rumors, speculation and lots of stoke starts to fly around. Especially when said new boat is coming from a well respected company like Liquid Logic and ESPECIALLY if it's a boat that the man, the legend, Pat Keller, was one of the designers of.

The new kayak in question is the LiquidLogic Braaap, named after the sound a motocross bike makes when you goose the throttle. Since Pat became a full time LiquidLogic employee, he has worked with LL co-founder and designer Shane Benedict to make this brand new high performance craft. Pat and Shane designing a kayak together? That's a dream team right there and part of the reason for all the excitement.

I met up with Pat recently at the Muddy Rivers Festival in Cookeville, TN (OMG what a fun time) where he was on hand to let folks demo some Liquid Logic boats. Being the super nice guy that he is, Pat was gracious enough to let me demo his new baby on a full run of Spring Creek. Despite the water level being really low, I headed to the put-in with some serious stoke!

Click to see the gallery

First impressions when looking at the Braaap... It's easy to see why people are wondering if it is a more modern version of the Dagger RPM. Especially since Pat paddled one all the time, got Dagger to re-release it and basically caused tons of paddlers (myself included) to start paddling one. Despite some similarities though, the Braaap is definitely a different beast. Allow me to explain.

While the RPM was designed as a playboat (back in the day), the Braaap is designed to be the (to quote LiquidLogic) "ultimate short race boat using characteristics derived from the new age Olympic Slalom kayaks among other things." Basically this means that the Braaap is intended to be a high performance river runner and it definitely lives up to that.

First, let's discuss the stern. While the stern shape is similar looking to the RPM, especially from above, it does have a bit more volume. This means you are not going to throw down the tail and stare at the sky at a moment's notice necessarily, but you can still throw some mean squirts in harder eddy lines, etc if you are so inclined. The edges on the Braaap are pretty soft too. So despite the low volume, wedge shaped tail end, you don't get tripped up with water constantly loading the stern.

The design of the stern and of the Braaap in general, allows for incredible maneuverability. My favorite part about the yak is the ability to do pivot turns, similar to slalom boats. What I mean by this is that you can slice the stern under the water, do a quick turn and then you can feel it rocket you back out of the water in complete control and ready to go fast. This is a feeling you have to experience yourself to fully understand but once you get a taste... you will be hooked! Check out the gif below to see Pat Keller demonstrating this on his way to a win of the Rey Del Rio waterfall championship that was recently held in Mexico.

See the full vid here. 

On top of extreme maneuverability, the Braaap feels very fast. I'm only going by "seat of pants" feel so far but we are talking like two strokes to get up to speed. I'm thinking this is gonna be a beast on the racing circuit and Pat is already racking up wins in his prototype. I can't wait to see other racers get their hands on it as well.

Another one of my favorite things about the Braaap is how comfortable it is. There is only going to be one size but LiquidLogic has designed this boat to fit a wide range of paddlers sizes and weights. To give you an idea of where you might stand, I am 6'1" with long legs and I can fit in it with my Astral Brewers on, with room to spare. A relatively high knee position helps with that while not detracting from the stability of the boat. In fact that extra volume around the knees helps the stellar stability. As far as weight, I am around 180 lbs and I have heard you are good to go up to around 220+. Possibly even more but we will have to wait for LL to release official numbers. I sat neutral in it and was at an even keel in the water. On top of all that, the Braaap comes with the ultra comfy LiquidLogic Bad-Ass outfitting that gives you all-day comfort, so you can spend more time on the water.

To top it all off, the Braaap has some serious rocker on the front of it. Yes, that means you can take it creeking with a bit more safety. I'm looking at you, RPM creekers... lol. :) I can firmly attest to how nice it is having that rocker after dropping the ledges of Meat Grinder at the very low water level. Thought a piton could possibly be in my future (and maybe a pissed Pat Keller) but nope, the Braaap did just fine and skipped down the ledges with style.

All the stats, etc are great but what you probably really want to know is a simple, how is it? Is it fun? YES. I can't even express to you how much I love the Braaap. So much so that I believe it is my favorite boat I've ever paddled. A bold statement, I know, but a true one. The boat has everything I could want in a kayak. It is super fast, ultra stable, turns on a dime (dat pivot turn!), surfs like a champ, boofs like a boss, so easy to roll and has all-day comfort. I spent the whole run with the Braaap just straight frolicking around the creek. My group just kept laughing at me because I just had a huge grin on my face the whole time. And really, at the end of the day, that's what it's all about.

June can't come fast enough, but when it does, I'll be first in line to pick up my LiquidLogic Braaap and I strongly suggest you do the same. It will be my go-to boat for just about everything and I guarantee that it will become a LL best seller. SYOTR!!!

SPECS:

Length: 8' 11.75" Width: 24.5" Volume: 69 Gallons

PROS:

- Very fast
- Slalom like pivot turns
- Bow rocker helps with boofs and overall safety
- Stable
- Super easy to roll
- Comfortable
- Accommodates wide range of paddler weights and sizes
- Grin-inducing fun

CONS:

- One size.
- ??? I really can't think of any at the moment. Honestly.

RELEASE DATE:

- Tentatively June 1st.

TLDR:

- It's awesome. I'm buying one. You should too.

Click here to check out a cool blog post about the Braaap at LiquidLogic.com including a video of Pat Keller rocking the Raven Fork in his Braaap like it's a slalom course.