Pyranha Shiva M test (EN)

What I first thought by looking at the boat is that it was going to be very rigid. I honestly thought that I wasn’t going to like it. I was afraid putting it on the water for the first time as I was about to do a highest water descent of a Soča Cataract I had ever done on a suggestion of my crazy friend Andrej Bijukčič. 150 m3/s of volume on a siphonish class V section wasn’t where I would normally take a new boat but I figured I could always take out if I felt the boat wasn’t responding to me. I was really blown away by the first metres I did and I knew instantly that my estimates were wrong. The boat was fast, turned whenever I wanted it to but besides that almost never drifted off line. It actually handled a lot like a bit longer slalom boat (without the stern turn advantage of course). The boat is narrow, which makes it a bit more unstable than most contemporary river runners but it also has a bigger draft than most, which by my opinion makes it less influenced by the surface boils. Shiva really turned out to be a great big volume kayak by this features alone, but what surprised me the most was the function of this strange big stern – narrow bow design. The ease with which it busts through big stoppers is incredible, like a hot knife through butter.

In the next days I took Shiva down some low volume technical creeks. I again wasn’t disappointed. I must say that in my opinion it is not a distinct Creeker. It lacks some looseness for manoeuvring amongst tight low-volume lines. I got stuck between two rocks on a delicate spot just because it kept too much speed while turning. Yes, good carving capabilities aren’t good in all situations which just proves it’s impossible not to have compromises in kayaks. Other than that I had no complains. I knew instantly Shiva is hard to overboof so there’s no use pulling really hard on drops. It boofs as much as it can, which is enough to land safe (and usually soft) on any kind of a drop. It also keeps speed on landings and rarely goes into “cobra mode” (stern stall). I guess it is so because of its bulky backside and a lower back rocker. I thought I would mind the lack of control here but I really never missed it too much while testing the boat. It just has a distinctive way it has to be ridden. Shiva’s character isn’t as playful as Burn’s. It felt like a “serious” kayak which I would suggest to anyone that needs a reliable boat that doesn’t surprise you very often. It is interesting how different Shiva felt to me compared to a description Pyranha markets it by. And that proves what I had written earlier about paddler profile affecting kayak performance, so go on and test it yourself. I guarantee you’ll enjoy the experience.

 TEXT: ANDRAZ KRPIC