{"id":11810,"date":"2017-06-12T11:21:51","date_gmt":"2017-06-12T15:21:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beverly-hanks.com\/blog\/?p=11810"},"modified":"2017-06-12T11:21:51","modified_gmt":"2017-06-12T15:21:51","slug":"liquidlogic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.naibeverly-hanks.com\/blog\/liquidlogic\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding the Perfect Line: Liquidlogic"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Shane Benedict hits the river with his kayak, it\u2019s all about a smooth ride.
\n\u201cThere are so many different approaches to the river, but what I like about it is the smoothness of running a line in a rapid,\u201d he said. \u201cMy favorite way is to make a line really smooth, with the fewest strokes possible, just turning and gliding down that river. I\u2019m very lucky to have been doing this for a long time\u2014it\u2019s like walking for me, it\u2019s so engrained.\u201d
\nSitting behind his desk within an enormous warehouse in Fletcher<\/a> (just south of Asheville), you can see Benedict\u2019s eye light up when asked about what it\u2019s like to be out there, on the river and in the elements of the Green River in Saluda<\/a>\u2014home to some of the finest paddling anywhere in the country.
\n\u201cOn a personal level, it\u2019s about being in that water, in that sticky summer air, pushing through some rhododendron thickets, along ancient bedrock that the river flows over and around,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd with the Green River, you can hit the water year round, which just makes this place that much more popular with paddlers from all over.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/i><\/b><\/h2>\n

 <\/h2>\n

\u201cAll of this started with such a simple base philosophy, which was that we wanted to make the boats that we wanted to paddle.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/h2>\n

\u2014Shane Benedict, Liquidlogic <\/i><\/b><\/h2>\n

 
\nA lifelong paddler, Benedict is the co-founder of Liquidlogic<\/a>, one of the premier manufacturers of freestyle kayaks. Strolling the 100,000- square-foot Fletcher facility, Benedict noted there are 44 employees and 20 dogs within the building, a large family of passion and progress within an independent and locally minded business model. During the 2016 calendar year, the company built over 10,000 kayaks, shipped to every corner of the globe.
\n\u201cIt never gets old when I\u2019m traveling somewhere and see one of our kayaks atop a vehicle heading down the road,\u201d Benedict said. \u201cAll of this started with such a simple base philosophy, which was that we wanted to make the boats that we wanted to paddle.\u201d
\nHailing from just \u201cover the mountain\u201d in Knoxville, Benedict came to Western North Carolina as a young kid, camping and paddling the Green River. It became an aquatic sanctuary for him, a place he would soon call home when he arrived in Asheville during his college years.
\n\u201cThis was just the beginning of Asheville becoming this hip and up-and-coming city,\u201d the 50-year-old said. \u201cIt\u2019s wild just to see how far the city and region has come, especially when it comes to outdoor recreation, and the culinary and music scenes.\u201d
\nInitially, Benedict was working for a renowned kayak manufacturer in Upstate South Carolina. But he and several of his co-workers felt the products they were making weren\u2019t representative of what they as hardcore paddlers were looking for, let alone something that could evolve the paddling industry in the right direction.
\n\u201cWhen we started in 2000, we were the new company in the industry, but we had a 100 years of experience between the handful of us that started Liquidlogic,\u201d Benedict said. \u201cAs a group, we came out of the gate running.\u201d
\nDeciding to make Liquidlogic\u2019s headquarters between the Green River and Asheville was a no-brainer for Benedict, who to this day looks at their location in Western North Carolina as the \u201cbest of both worlds.\u201d
\n\u201cAsheville and the Green River is the perfect combination,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s that combination of a great city and a wild river that has made the paddling community what it is here. That community has exponentially grown since we showed up. I mean, how many outdoor enthusiasts can there possibly be in one region? It\u2019s mind-boggling to see where it is now.\u201d
\nWith their 20th anniversary just a few years down the road, Benedict is in awe of Liquidlogic\u2019s humble beginning and where it aims to go. It\u2019s an internal drive to bring the sport of paddling to the next level that never seems to waver within Benedict and his colleagues.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re in the water and we\u2019re thinking about how to deal with it, what we need to do to keep making a better product,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re at the core of this sport and we want to keep being that. We want to make the boats that are fun for all of us to paddle\u2014to push the sport forward.\u201d
\n\"Finding<\/p>\n

The Green River Narrows Race<\/p>\n

 
\n 
\nThis post is adapted from our annual <\/i>Welcome to Western North Carolina magazine.<\/i> Click here<\/i><\/a> to read more online, or<\/i> click here<\/i><\/a> to order your own free copy.<\/i>
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\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Shane Benedict hits the river with his kayak, it\u2019s all about a smooth ride. \u201cThere are so many different approaches to the river, but what I like about it is the smoothness of running a line in a rapid,\u201d he said. \u201cMy favorite way is to make a line really smooth, with the fewest… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":11817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,2],"tags":[3,109,100,95,7],"class_list":["post-11810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buy-local","category-commercial","tag-commercial","tag-green-river-gorge","tag-outdoor-recreation","tag-welcome-magazine","tag-wnc-businesses"],"acf":[],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naibeverly-hanks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naibeverly-hanks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naibeverly-hanks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naibeverly-hanks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naibeverly-hanks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.naibeverly-hanks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naibeverly-hanks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naibeverly-hanks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naibeverly-hanks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naibeverly-hanks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}