That shock ought to wear off soon. Long a bastion of punky youths in grungy duds carving and hopping down mountains on what look like scaled-down surfboards, snowboarding is beginning to warm to its feminine side. About 1.8 million Americans are now snowboarding – 20 percent of them women. And as the craze glides from underground to mainstream, many in the industry are making it easier for women to get up and riding in what has been largely a young man’s world.
The most important recent concession to women is the design of snowboarding boots made just for them. Because women generally have a narrower foot and lower calf-muscle flare, they flop around in boots tailored for men. And fit is crucial, since the boots, which slip into bindings on the board, help transfer the rider’s energy to the board’s edges in turning. But until Vermont-based Burton offered a women’s boot this season, female boarders had to make do. ““I have pads stuck in my boots and I duct tape my feet into them every time I ride just to keep them in,’’ says California rider Kathleen Gasperini, summing up female frustration. With other companies rushing out their own women’s boots, she’ll soon be able to chuck the tape.
Boots are important, but nobody wants to spend a day in ill-fitting fashions either. Female-founded companies like Deep and Kurvz are now turning out duds that address concerns male designers overlooked. Kurvz, started by 20-year-old University of California, Davis, student Kristin Roach, has moved their pants’ suspender straps to avoid cutting across the breasts, and designed hoods to keep longer hair out of the eyes. And next year, the traditionally dark colors of boarder fashion will lighten up when pros Shannon Dunn and Tina Basich roll out the pastels. The line’s name? Prom. ““It’s kind of a joke,’’ says Basich.
Basich and Dunn have also designed their own ““signature’’ snowboards. They’re lighter and thinner than traditional boards, allowing women to more easily execute the aerial tricks that define the sport’s radical style. This season, Dunn’s board is one of its manufacturer’s top-selling models, perhaps because its appeal is as much esthetic as technical. ““We want our own stuff,’’ says Boulder, Colo., rider Alison Berkley, 24. ““All men’s boards have on them are [pictures of] guns, cars, skateboards or naked women.’’ Dunn’s board sports a sunflower.
It’s one thing to change gear. It’s another to change attitudes. ““Two years ago the comments were really sexist, like “Oooh, a chick snowboarder. Can’t see your body under those clothes’,’’ says Californian Cynthia Fleming, 20. Now, though, ““it’s gotten to the point where there are a lot more girls and the guys are a little intimidated to say that now.’’ And small victories add up. At last March’s U.S. Open Snowboarding Championships in Vermont, male rider Jason Evans took third place in one event – on Dunn’s sunflower board.
