Jackson Kayak have released the new Nirvana kayak. The boat has taken the last year or so to design/test/develop. The first production mold was completed last month with production kayaks landing this month. It has been designed as a “Creek Boat for Rapid Decent”.

The Nirvana is a fast 9ft racer creek boat that will be available in three sizes.

From Jackson:

Here is what you can expect from it.

When you paddle downstream, the bow stays high and dry, eliminating boof strokes that take up energy to get over the chop.

The boat goes where you want it without a lot of energy to get it started turning, and is easy to correct.

It glides out of drops like no other boat, carrying its speed while controlling with ease.
The way it handles big water is hard to describe without sounding cheesy. Basically, it takes the rapid down a class with incredible stability, non-edgy feeling, dry ride, high floating, bow dry, fast/nimble control. I haven’t seen Dane so fired up on a design in a long time.

Steep/technical rapids- the hull is stable, but it floats over rocks and handles narrow slots without torquing your hips when you connect with rocks off center. It boofs over holes and carries its speed past the holes even if your stroke timing isn’t great.

Big waterfalls- the hull shape, rocker profile, and bow softens the blow and is easy to control the decent.

Rolling- Great boat to learn to roll in.

Safety- Uni-shock bulkhead is standard, of course, as anything else is both dangerous and hard to adjust.

Rear of cockpit and rear deck allows your body to lay against it without hurting and supports your entire back without hitting your lower back first in case you get wiped to the back deck on a big drop.

Medium size, which is 9′ (maximum allowable racing length), handles a wide range of boater sizes nicely.

Production boats are now being shipped, with the first ones heading to Vail for Team JK to race at the Steep Creek Championships at the GoPro Games. There are quite a few Team Jackson paddlers who are as giddy as a kid at Christmas over getting the production versions of these boats, including me!