paddling with a camera

I have several different boats in my paddling fleet. Most of them are custom built by more or less exotic builders, usually one-man operations. Before ordering a boat or even before e-mailing or talking to a builder I do extensive on-line research. However, my research has been limited to boat design and construction.

There was a lot of heated discussion and controversy on paddling.net forums about outsourcing kayak production to South Africa or China. We could see an outburst of some nasty comments directed to paddlers who buy these kayaks: "traitors," "back-stabbers", etc. These comments came from a paddler manifesting his strong religious beliefs at any occasion. So, it was really hypocritical, and quite disturbing for me.

Another paddling discussion forum. One of the paddlers reported an obviously racist comment from his phone conversation with a known builder of racing kayaks: "my boats are not made by a bunch of darkies or coolies." I suppose he meant that they were "proudly made in USA." That post was followed by a statement from another paddler saying he wouldn’t paddle boats made by such a racist under any circumstances, and, that there were more important things than racing and winning.

So, if I paddle a kayak from that builder does it make me a racist too? Should I check political and social views of a kayak builder before ordering?

I would really prefer not to mix politics with paddling ...