“You want to Rochambeau on it?” My paddling partner and I were scouting the first of the S-Bend rapids on Washington’s Skagit River, and while not the rowdiest water, my kayak was full to the brim with overnight camping kit, making for an unknown element in how it would fare.

Carrying all this kit in a whitewater boat is a bit like slapping a luggage rack onto your Porsche 911 — it doesn’t belong there, but it’ll get the job done. The Liquidlogic Remix XP I was paddling, however, was made for this.

Even after I lost the best two out of three, the boat laced the off-camber entry and skidded confidently into the downstream eddy — camp chairs and all.

Widen a classic river runner shape, throw a skeg on it, and stick a waterproof hatch on the back, and you’ve got the Remix XP, a hybrid yak that aims to extend your whitewater missions to week-long trips. After half a year of paddling, this is what I’ve learned about this inbetweener.

In short: The Liquidlogic Remix XP is an odd duck, but it floats with the best of them. While hybrid boats won’t conquer either realm entirely, this kayak hits the high points on whitewater and the flats. And, it opened up many new paddling possibilities for me, because of its versatility and load-carrying capabilities.

Looking for a new kayak? Check out GearJunkie’s Best Kayaks Buyer’s Guide to see how the Remix XP compares to the rest of the fleet.

Liquidlogic Remix XP: Review

The whitewater/overnight hybrid space is a pretty small market slice (the Dagger Katana, Pyranha Fusion WW, or Wavesport Ethos are really the only competitors out there), but the need is real. Big rivers often take days to paddle, and without a gear boat to support you, you’re up a creek otherwise.

The XP is available in 9’2” and 10’3” lengths (I tested the 9’2″). It tweaks a classic river runner shape to add storage space and make a better flatwater paddler for those long sections between whitewater. Dedicated playboats and creek boats will obviously be better for the fun stuff, but to its credit, Liquidlogic didn’t tip the scales too far in creating the Remix XP.

Whitewater Chops

Right off the bat: the Remix XP isn’t going to be your all-water crusher, but it also doesn’t claim to be. I set out to test it in some fun Class III water that wouldn’t overwhelm the river-runner shape (or me), and all things considered, it impressed. 

After that initial proving on the first rapid on the Skagit, I felt a good bit more confident in what the Remix XP could handle, and even got a little loose on the next few rapids, lapping a few fun surf waves. Despite the wider hull, the shape has a good amount of secondary stability to brace through awkward water, and the longer waterline keeps the Remix moving downriver quickly.

The cockpit is significantly larger than similar whitewater kayaks; the Liquidlogic Remix 47 has a 17.5”x28.5” opening, while the XP is ~21”x36” — depending on the length. This can mean that getting an appropriately sized skirt can be difficult. I actually had to borrow a packraft skirt to test the XP, which worked well enough.

The outfitting is classic Liquidlogic and comes with the brand’s newer Gorilla Grip thigh braces and hip pads, as well as foam and shims to dial in volume.

Rolling the Remix XP is going to be more difficult than other river runner shapes, but the lower deck height on the stern does aid in the effort. Keeping equipment evenly distributed in the boat will help a lot in nailing your combat roll.

Flatwater Cruising

Downstream of the rapids, the Skagit mellows significantly and flattens out into a sluice of blue-green that wends toward the Pacific. As we passed through the last of the rapids, I flipped the lever on the right side of the kayak to deploy the skeg, pointing downstream for a 10-mile float.

This skeg isn’t an afterthought, either: Once down, the stern steadies up a good bit and relieves you of much of the corrective paddle strokes you’d otherwise need to make. The lever is a surefire way to avoid the confusion around cord and cleat deployment systems, and it stays in place once flipped.

The kayak’s width has been bumped out a bit to between 26 and 28 inches, which gives the boat good primary stability when needed, and that long waterline keeps it cutting along.

The seat is certainly from the whitewater side of the spectrum, and while comfortable for the 10-hour day I did recently, it might begin to get a bit old when the days begin to stack up.

Storage Abounds

The big deal on the Remix XP is the storage hatch in the stern, and pulling into a river bar at 8 p.m. recently, I popped the top and started offloading an impressive amount of overnight gear. In total, I was able to get an entire Slingfin Cinder Cone tarp (and inner net), sleeping bag, pad, camp chair, pillow, food, and other odds and ends tucked in there. 

The cockpit of the XP is also generous, and that extends up between the legs, where you can stash even more gear. The kayak uses an adjustable foot peg system instead of a solid bulkhead, which isn’t as supportive for bigger water, but allows for this added storage. Liquidlogic also makes a bulkhead retrofit option if you want to upgrade.

Behind the seat is where I stashed my kit, including lunch, water, and a first-aid kit, which I’d be accessing throughout the day. Two shock-corded areas on the kayak’s deck round out your quick-access storage, and I migrated some kit to these once the water mellowed out. 

In all, it’s tough to ask for more storage on the XP. Experienced paddlers will certainly be able to stash 4-5 days’ worth of equipment in this kayak, and if you balance it correctly, it won’t impact the paddlability too much.

Sacrifices Made

The overall performance of the Remix XP has been blunted a bit to make it a more general craft. At 73 gallons in the 9’2” length (and 105 in the 10’3”), the XP is higher volume than your modern half slices, and won’t be as keen to get low in the foam — but this actually makes the XP a danged-decent beginner whitewater boat.

As mentioned above, the adjustable foot peg system won’t be the full-tilt gas pedals that creek freaks are looking for, but again, the tradeoff in storage makes it clear that there’s a reason for the tweak. These braces felt pretty solid in my testing, but I wouldn’t want to really press on them for all it’s worth — lest they break.

Finally, an unfortunate truth: The storage compartment on my Remix XP isn’t 100% waterproof, which I found out at camp when I pulled dripping drybags from the hatch. This seems to be an issue on rotomolded kayaks with molded-in cover rims, where the cooling process can produce odd-shaped openings due to shrinkage. 

Thankfully, a little DIY know-how will get you right, and a few layers of electrical tape to build up the rim sealed the hatch up again. Still, it’s tough to swallow a hatch that isn’t waterproof straight from the jump, and I’d recommend inspecting this before pulling out the wallet and making the leap into one. It’s likely an area where Liquidlogic’s limited lifetime warranty would come into play.

Liquidlogic Remix XP: Who Is This Kayak For?

There’s a reason the Liquidlogic Remix XP is frequently the boat of choice for those looking to paddle the Grand Canyon outside of an oar boat — this kayak covers the spread. During my time with it, I learned to easily work around its shortcomings within the first day, and after that, it was a dream to paddle.

The interesting thing about the Remix XP is that it could very well be the first whitewater kayak you buy, or the third or fourth. The beginner-friendly nature of the wider hull and high volume keeps amateur whitewater paddlers happy, and it’s a solid option for veteran paddlers who are building out their fleet beyond a solid daily driver.

Like any do-it-all option, you’ll lose some performance on either side of the equation, but I’d argue that Liquidlogic has nailed the entry and rode the rapid clean. For those looking for a specialized, whitewater-to-camp kayak, the Remix XP is ready to mix it up.