This whole thing has always confused me. Iv actually been thinking about it a lot recently.
When it comes to sports that are truly physically demanding, for example, sprinting, there is a clear reason why men may surpass women and require different groups of competition. The reason for this, clearly, is that men have an array of physical factors that weigh in thier favour from birth.
Skiing, however (in the park) is by no means physically demanding!
Someone made the arguement that the womens field in skiing is much smaller than the mens, so there has not been as much opportunity for tallent to appear, but as far as I see things, there is one field, independant of sex. There are lots of young kids out there who have barely hit puberty who are destroying shit in the park, and they have physical builds similar to a lot of girls. So i dont think that is any excuse (including center of gravity.. more fragile.. blah blah blah).
My theory (and feel free to argue, or disagree with it, its just my own conclusion) is that women, in general, have a different mentality than men. Most girls that ski that i have encountered (with one exception) all have this attitude. Its the one that sounds like "i dont know if i can do that.." "it looks too big.." "that looks too hard" "you guys go ahead and hit it" .. it just seems like a lame excuse to play it safe. The same goes for style, its a good excuse to not work on it.
Do girls really think skiing is easy for guys and that girls have some sort of unempathetical difficulty that guys dont understand? Wake up! its just as hard for us!
I think sashac actually has a good attitude about things. Instead of doing the stereotypical "you go girl.. that was sooo good" (when it wasnt) thing, shes just looking at it like it is. I dont know her or anything, but from what iv seen in the media on here, she is a lot better than most of the females on this site, probably because she doesnt use her sex as an excuse to not try. I think she deserves a little respect for moving girls skiing in the right direction.
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Formerly mauii
Mike La Anyane
www.mikelaphotography.com