Liquidlogic Sweet Ride Review

By: E Emch

Alder Creek just got in some new Liquidlogic whitewater boats including their versatile half slice the Sweet Ride. I have been paddling the Sweet Ride for about a year now and wanted to share my experience with you in case you’re interested in picking up one of your own. To start off, the specs on the boat look great; it’s 9’ long, 26.5” wide and has a volume of 72 gallons. Liquidlogic offers a paddlers weight range of 120-240 (which I feel like is a bit off but we will get to that). I originally got the Sweet Ride as a do-everything, quiver killer boat asI don’t particularly care for creek boats and I wanted a larger half-slice. At 5’11”, 170 lbs and a size 11 Astral shoe, the Sweet Ride fits like a medium/large boat. When compared to other popular half-slices, it falls right between the medium and large Dagger Rewinds. The Sweet Ride is almost the same size as the large Pyranha Ripper 2 but it is smidge wider and has one more gallon of volume. Compared to the previous 9ft half-slices Liquidlogic offered like the Mullet, Braaap and Party Braaap, it is slightly larger and 2” wider.

Let’s talk about outfitting and comfort, the Bad Ass Outfitting Liquidlogic has been using for years now is one of the most comfortable on the market; however, I have a shorter inseam andI had to order their larger foot plate to fill in the extra foot space so it would properly fit me. Ordering a new foot plate was a free option, and I only needed to contact them via email. With a 29” inseam, I ordered a B-plate as it offers increased safety for my feet in the event my body is pushed forward. Something to keep in mind, though, is having a larger foot plate does limit the adjustability of the boat. I also shifted the seat back about an inch and a half from stock and adjusted the thigh braces. Additionally, I upgraded to Gorilla Grip’s Thigh Braces released earlier this year, which makes a world of difference for being connected to the boat. One downfall to the boat’s outfitting is in order to access behind your seat, you either have to pull the back band almost all the way out to get under it or push it as far forward as possible to get over it.

Moving onto the hull, the Sweet Ride feels very similar to the RMX creek boat. Its bow suggests it is closest to the RMX 76 in size and as it is the same length and the rails and rocker are nearly identical. In my experience, it has the perfect bow rocker and rail combo, allowing you to carve into eddies and waves without worrying about wearing out the edges on low water. The biggest difference between the Sweet Ride and RMX is the stern, since it’s a half-slice! Even with moving the seat back, at 170lbs the stern is a bit tricky to get down. I could move the seat further back but I feel like I’d be losing some speed and dragging the stern around. The stern is “slicey” enough that pivot turns were easy once I got the hang of it, but going for stern stalls is a different story. This boat doesn’t want to stay vertical, it wants to sit you back down flat and keep going forward. Maybe it’s because I am on the smaller side for the boat, but I personally haven’t been able to hold it vertical for long without it setting me back down to one side or another. But for quick turns, surfing, and tail loading for boofs, it’s been amazing. It lets me paddle the way I prefer compared to the RMXs.

Now there are a few nit-picky things about the boat that bothered me, but may not bother you. First off, the awesome logo graphic is a sticker and when my boat arrived it was already peeling and had air bubbles under it. I finished the job and peeled it off and considered getting a replacement but didn’t. Since I installed the B-plate, I found that the bulkhead foam didn’t fit as neatly with gapping around the edges of the foot plate. My last “complaint” is about the boat’s drain plug. While the plug is in a good spot to make sure you don’t lose it and that it’s out of the way, it doesn’t drain the boat completely. I always have a few cups of water left inside and which pour out when I load it onto my car. Compared to the RMX which has excellent drain plug placement, this is a mild disappointment.

Many have expressed concern about the boat’s longevity and whether or not the plastic can withstand the harshness of whitewater. The plastic that Liquidlogic uses is probably the most malleable and bounciest I have ever felt, which isn’t not a bad thing. The plastic will take gouges, scrapes and flexes instead of cracking if you take an unexpected hit. There have been a few times where I thought it would have cracked after landing hard on a hiding rock but it was totally fine other than a few new large scratches on the bottom. The flexibility of the boat’s plastic also makes it quite bouncy. When going for a splat or boof I don’t get the contact I expect; instead I find myself bouncing off the rock wall. With splats, I have the feeling of being almost spring boarded away from the rock and a friend pointed out that it looks like I am doing two boofs on one rock or skipping across the top of it. After a year the plastic and rails have been holding up well to low water runs, rock bumps, and everything I throw at it. Liquidlogic has some sort of magic in that plastic!

Talking about hitting rocks the Sweet Ride performs fairly good on low water and is a hoot to bounce off of rocks as you move downstream. The boat is agile and can turn easily but you got to be careful when dipping the tail if you are accustomed to shorter half-slices and full-slices as it will tail tap. The bow rocker also goes over rocks and waves like a dream offering good stability to throw your weight around for tail loading boofs when your paddle doesn’t have much to grab onto. On medium/normal flows, this thing is amazing, running some class III on the Middle White Salmon or Upper Clackamas was great. The Sweet Ride feels like a RMX that you can swing about on the tail and I feel it can handle anything the RMX could. I definitely think it was built for medium flows and I find it to be the most fun at this level. When pushing into somewhat higher flows such as the Washougal above 8ft, I found this boat to perform adequately but sometimes with the slice stern it would get tractor-beamed backwards into a hole. This boat also gets the biggest air coming off of some peaked waves with so much hang time after landing, I would just break out laughing, until my paddling partner checked in on me.

Now why would you update from your older Liquidlogic half-slice for the Sweet Ride? I have spent some time in the older Liquidlogic half-slices, mainly the Braaap and Party Braaap. First thing you will notice is the Sweet Ride has rails and a semi planning hull while the Braaap has a semi-displacement hull and is much more round in overall shape. I find that the Sweet Ride rides over waves and holes a bit better and sheds water off the bow very quickly, while the Braaap’s bow catches water before shedding it off. For fun loops and play moves, the Braaap is easier but for general river running the Sweet Ride comes ahead. The rails on the Sweet Ride makes it surf like a dream carving up any wave, while the Braaap’s displacement hull and lack of rails makes it harder to really carve into waves, The Braaap is still nicer for bouncing off of rocks worry free. When I was paddling the Braaap and especially the Party Braaap, I was lighter/smaller than I am now and could get that boat vertical fairly easily. The Party Braaap was much easier in this regard than the Sweet Ride in my opinion.

I feel as though the Sweet Ride is definitely an evolution of the Braaap and Mullet series with its gains in speed and river running capabilities. It’s almost like the Braaap and the RMX had a child and we got the Sweet Ride.

If you want to check out the Sweet Ride or any other Liquidlogic boats, stop by and check them out! You definitely won’t be disappointed.