I picked up my brand spanking new Yellow Jackson Kayak Zen 3.0 from Next Adventure, and right away the skepticism began. The shop employees and even myself had our doubts. Look at that big rocker with a big fat flat planing surface, won't that just push water? Why does it look like a diesel in the rear? Dear god this is a huge boat. Myself and the others all had our doubts, but shop talk rarely translates to how a boat actually handles on the water, so onward I went.

After getting the bike together and then waiting nearly a week for the dropper post we ordered to arrive, we finally got the bike together and went for a ride. We're blessed to live just several short blocks from a fun network of trails, although we sometimes drive to the entry solely so we can bring our dogs along without having to slowly walk them through the neighborhood.

We ordered our Haibike online, and it was on it's way to us within a day. We're in Oregon, and it shipped from California, so the box was delivered to a nearby FedEx location in 4 days. It normally ships to your house, but our situation dictated needing to pickup at a FedEx store in Oregon.

Our most excellent local Jackson Kayak dealer, Alder Creek Canoe & Kayak does a pretty good job of keeping Jackson demo boats in stock. It's no secret thought that we're often the LAST stop from Tenesee when it comes to shipping boats out, and Alder doesn't seem to have the budget to get shipment of the demo boats outside of their regular orders... so we rarely get the chance to demo them early.

Shortly after initially building this bike, I found myself falling in love with mountain biking. I also found myself hating climbing uphill, and loving shredding downhill. I was contemplating building out another bike (as I do love bike builds) however... it seemed wasteful to turn my bike on this build so soon. Plus, the real reason I was hating uphills is I'm out of shape, which will hopefully be changing. I hopped on my bike again and shredded it, only to remembered all the reasons I love it.