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Jackson Kayak is a producer of kayaks, founded by its namesake, Eric "EJ" Jackson. After working with Wave Sport Kayaks as a team member and as a designer, Eric Jackson and business partner Tony Lunt formed Jackson Kayak in Rock Island, Tennessee in October 2003. [1]
In their first year, the company sold 2,500 boats, resulting in $1.5 million annual sales. Year-on-year sales increased by 80% until 2007, and the company sold 7,515 boats in 2008. In the United States, the company sold 40% of whitewater kayaks in 2008/2009, and the expected sales in 2009 was 7,000 boats. It also has the largest market share in England and Japan, and increases its share in France. [2]
The kayaks have become very popular as high-performing playboats of Freestyle athletes. Many of the world's leading Freestyle paddlers use Jackson kayaks, and Jackson Kayak's sponsorship of some of the best Freestyle kayakers in the world adds to this development (see below).
The sponsored team includes some of the world's most successful Freestyle K-1 kayakers. Among them are the Jackson family (Eric, Emily, and Dane Jackson), Nick Troutman, Claire O'Hara, Ruth Gordon, Jason Craig, Clay Wright, Stephen Wright, Jez, Rafa Ortiz, Mike Dawson, Nouria Newman, Ben Stookesberry, Joel Kowalski, and Steve Fisher. At the 2007 World Championships, Jackson Kayak's team took the K-1 World Title in Pro Men, Pro Women, Junior Women, and third in Junior Men. At the 2009 World Championships, the team took the first three places in the K-1 Pro Men and the first two in the K-1 Pro Women competitions as well as the runner-up for the K-1 Junior Men's title; the team did not sponsor junior women at the time.
In addition, some of the competitors who were not sponsored by Jackson Kayak rode kayaks of their brand, including in 2009 the two first places in the C-1 competition, the first place in the K-1 Junior Men's competition, and second to fifth place in the K-1 Junior Women's competition. In 2011 the Jackson team managed to collect 5 gold medals, 4 silver and 3 bronze medals. Dane Jackson became the first person to participate in all four of the freestyle disciplines and walked away with three gold medals and a bronze medal.
In the 2013 World Championships held at the Nantahala, Jackson athletes took out K1 Men's, K1 Women's, Junior K1 Men's, Squirt Men's and Squirt Women's while gaining podiums in C1 and OC1.
Jackson Kayak works primarily with smaller dealers instead of large retailers. They have particularly promoted Kayaking as a family sport, especially by producing boats for children as small as weighing 13.5 kg (30 pounds). Canoeist Joe Jacobi, an Olympic Gold medalist in 1992 and teammate of Eric Jackson at the Olympic Games, believes that Jackson has "made whitewater kayaking a family sport in a way that no one else in the industry has been able to do." [2]
After a peak in 2006, the kayak market in the United States has declined. [2] In view of their success and their inexpensive boats, Jackson Kayak has been accused in the kayaking world of flooding the market with kayaks and, also by creating a large second-hand market, of being in part responsible for the market to decline in recent years. Opponents of this view blame the evolution of kayaks for the market development: As long as kayaks evolved fast, and differences between boats of different generations were large, the market boomed, and Jackson Kayak was there to serve the demand. Now that the evolution has greatly slowed down, they argue that the interest in new boats has naturally decreased. Eric Jackson himself claims that his company has actually activated the market. [2]
Jackson Kayaks were early supporters of then Team Jackson Kayak member Steve Fisher for his Dreamline Kickstart fundraiser for a Fresh Spin on Kayak Instruction. [3] Additionally, many Team Jackson members including Eric Jackson were instructors in the filming of the project. [3] The last update related to the project was in an interview in November 2016, with the product still undelivered. [4] As of Aug 1, 2023, Steve was no longer listed as a Red Bull athlete [5] and was no longer a member of Team Jackson Kayak. [6] [7] [8]
Whitewater kayaking is an adventure sport where a river is navigated in a decked kayak. Whitewater kayaking includes several styles. River running; where the paddler follows a river and paddles rapids as they travel. Creeking usually involving smaller, steeper, and more technical waterways. Creek boats tend to be short but high volume to allow for manoeuvrability while maintaining buoyancy. Slalom requires paddlers to navigate through "gates". Slalom was originally the only whitewater event to be in the Olympics but Kayak Cross - a new subcategory of slalom involving gates and more natural whitewater elements - featured in the 2024 Paris Olympics. Play boating involves staying on one feature of the river and is more artistic than the others. Squirt boating uses low-volume boats to perform special moves in whitewater features.
Wildwater canoeing is a competitive discipline of canoeing in which kayaks or canoes are used to negotiate a stretch of river speedily. It is also called "Whitewater racing" or "Downriver racing" to distinguish it from whitewater slalom racing and whitewater rodeo or Freestyle competition.
Canoe slalom is a competitive sport with the aim to navigate a decked canoe or kayak through a course of hanging downstream or upstream gates on river rapids in the fastest time possible. It is one of two kayak and canoeing disciplines at the Summer Olympics, and is referred to by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as Canoe/Kayak Slalom. The other Olympic canoeing discipline is canoe sprint. Wildwater canoeing is a non-Olympic paddlesport.
Great Britain, the team of the British Olympic Association (BOA), competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, from 13 to 29 August 2004 with the team of selected athletes was officially known as Team GB. The British sent a wide-ranging delegation to the Games, continuing its ubiquitous presence at the Olympics. Great Britain's 264 athletes, 161 men and 103 women, competed in 22 disciplines throughout the two-week event. The team entered the opening ceremony behind the Union Flag carried by judoka Kate Howey. Double gold medal winner Kelly Holmes carried the flag at the closing ceremony.
The Royal Canoe Club (RCC), founded in 1866, is the oldest canoe club in the world and received royal patronage in the 19th century. The club promotes canoeing and kayaking, focusing on flatwater, sprint and marathon disciplines. Members of the club have represented Great Britain at World Championships and the Olympic Games. The club is based at Trowlock Island on the River Thames in Teddington near London. The premises are also used by Walbrook Rowing Club, The Skiff Club and Kingston Royals Dragon Boat Racing Club.
Clay Wright is a professional whitewater kayaker and kayak designer. He designed a signature "Java" creek boat for Perception Kayaks. He has appeared in 50+ extreme or instructional kayak videos. Wright is a pioneer in creekboating and playboating. He has won many freestyle events and extreme races throughout the world including the first Green River Race in 1996.
Richard Munro Fox is a British slalom canoeist who competed for Great Britain from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s. He won eleven medals at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships with ten golds and a bronze. Fox also won the overall World Cup title three times and the Euro Cup four times.
National Student Rodeo was a freestyle kayaking event in the UK hosted by Leeds University Canoe Club. The National Student Rodeo was the biggest freestyle kayaking competition in the world, with 670 entrants and over 1000 party goers from 36 universities at its peak. It was held annually at Holme Pierrepont (HPP) National Water Sports Centre in Nottingham.
Eric "EJ" Jackson is a world-champion freestyle kayaker, kayak designer, slalom kayaker, founder of Jackson Kayak, and a Professional Bass Tournament angler on the FLW Tour.
Alexander Grimm is a German slalom canoeist who has competed at the international level since 2002.
Danuta Kozák is a Hungarian sprint canoeist. She has won one silver, one bronze and six Olympic gold medals, three of which in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, making her the first female to win K1, K2 and K4 at the same Olympics. At the 2020 Summer Olympics, she won a gold medal in Women's K-4 500 metres, and bronze medal in Women's K-2 500 metres.
Rush Sturges is an American professional whitewater kayaker, film maker, and musician.
The ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships are an international event in canoeing organized by the International Canoe Federation. The World Championships have taken place every year in non-Summer Olympic years since 2002. From 1949 to 1999, they had taken place in odd-numbered years. The 2001 championships were scheduled to take place in Ducktown, Tennessee from 20 to 23 September, but were canceled in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
The 2010 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships were held 8–12 September 2010 at Tacen Whitewater Course, Slovenia under the auspices of International Canoe Federation for the record-tying third time. It was the 33rd edition. Tacen hosted the event previously in 1955 and 1991 when it was part of Yugoslavia, and joins the following cities that have hosted the event three times: Spittal, Austria ; Meran, Italy ; Bourg St.-Maurice, France ; and Augsburg, Germany. Women's single canoe (C1W) events became a medal event after being an exhibition in the previous championships.
Liam Heath is a British sprint canoeist. He is the most successful British canoeist at the Olympics with a total of four medals; he won a gold medal in the individual 200m kayak sprint event at the 2016 Summer Olympics and a bronze in the 2020 Olympics, as well as a silver in the men's double with Jon Schofield in 2016. and a bronze at the 2012 London Olympics in the K-2 200 with Schofield.
Jessica Esther Fox is a French-born Australian Olympic and world champion slalom canoeist.
Canoeing – recreational boating activity or paddle sport in which you kneel or sit facing forward in an open or closed-decked canoe, and propel yourself with a single-bladed paddle, under your own power.
Michelle Russell is a Canadian sprint kayaker.
Kimberley Woods is a British slalom canoeist who has competed in C1, K1 and KX1 at the international level since 2011. A six time world and eight time European champion, she won the bronze medal in both the K1 event and the first ever women's kayak-cross (KX1) event in Paris at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Steve Fisher is a former professional extreme whitewater kayaker and filmmaker. He is best known for his undelivered controversial Kickstarter campaign for a kayaking instructional film, his first descents, and expedition kayaking. For the Kickstarter campaign, he partnered with Kayak Session and recruited many of the world's extreme kayakers as instructors including Eric Jackson, Pat Keller, Ben Marr, and Dane Jackson. With nearly 850 backers contributing more than $83,000 to the project, Fisher failed to deliver on the majority of his promises. Instead, backers were treated to sporadic reports detailing multiple paddling trips to exotic destinations. The last such update was posted on March 17, 2017.
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