I have paddeled a Java and I think it´s a very bad boat. A few of my friends had one as well and they all complaned about it as well. The major complaints were hard to boof and hard to roll and unstable. If you have other options try them out first.
Now some one will start hating

I like the Nomad, I havent found a problem with it yet... except that small part of my soal I had to give away when I bought it.
I have heard that the Gus and Huck are nice boats. The Gus is a little big so a) if you small it might not be for you and 2) if the creeks your are going to be running are small it might not be the boat for you. The Huck is smaller and a little slow.