A question from Roz G

It feels like there is a lot of pressure and social stigma about girls freeskiing. I'm 18 and didn't start really getting into the park until I was about 16 when I got over the fact that the boys' opinions were irrelevant to my skiing. I think the support is definitely getting stronger but when I was 14-15 and trying to hit jumps or boxes, boys were mean! Once you conquer their opinions and truly not care what anyone has to say about you, it's much easier to focus on your own skiing and be able to start progressing. It was really intimidating when I started, and took me a while to get over that. I look at the girl freeskiers out there making money that are like 20-27 and realize that my journey is only beginning and I aspire to be as badass as they are.

This is such a hard one because is there one factor? And why is it easier for some women in some areas rather than others. Hard to pinpoint it to the gender as a whole because it's clear that not all women are held back- and many, take tatum, angel, roz, etc. into account (and so many others)- many chicks are kicking guys' asses when it comes to skiing.

-One thing is culture, where I grew up there weren't a lot of female freestyle skiers to a.) look up to, and b.) ski with. Different places across the U.S. and the world as a whole are different however, many have programs to get women into skiing and park meccas such as Summit County and Park City have larger crews of ladies hitting the parks.

-Secondly, I completely support SheJumps for everything it is and does with introducing girls to skiing, but in my opinion it doesn't push women to exceed in the sport.



I'll touch back with more thoughts later but that's a start

erica-Secondly, I completely support SheJumps for everything it is and does with introducing girls to skiing, but in my opinion it doesn't push women to exceed in the sport.

I'm curious why you think that?

el_mn_opI'm curious why you think that?

Their events are primarily centered around getting those who haven't necessarily had the chance to ski an opportunity to get out on the snow.

My response is similar to Erica's. This is coming from my experience as a park rat in the midwest:

As a young girl, it is intimidating to go into a park filled with teenage boys, and try something new. It's not exactly an inviting environment, and when there are no other girls skiing, it can really feel like you don't belong or aren't wanted. Learning to ski park usually involves a lot of failure before becoming good at it, so falling on your ass over and over again is all the more frustrating for a young girl when she is surrounded by impatient teenage boys.

In this case, I think role models are really important. Someone who can show young girls that they do belong in the park, and that it's not just a boys world. This season I was fortunate enough to meet several younger girls who had decided to learn park skiing, and was able to encourage them to try new things. I like to think that watching me hit the big features in the park and keep up with the guys gave them inspiration to keep skiing park.

I wish that more girls were exposed to women's freeskiing media. There can't be a woman in every park throwing down and being a role model for the younger girls; we're not there yet. But maybe if girls saw more women's edits, more women in ski movies, more women in skiing media in general, that would help.

This is a hard question. So many factors, and no easy solution.

Mostly it feels like girls don't really have much of a role model to look up to. There have always been guy skiers all over the place, and always a sick new edit from a dude to watch wherever you look, but you never really see girls that emerge doing sick new stuff. I mean Diamond Annies is an amazing project and one I support fully, but they aren't exactly on the world stage, if you will. So yeah, I feel like the ladies need more role models in skiing.

Just wanted to post a couple more responses --

From Roz G:

I suggested this question for other females, not because I have a good answer, but because I am curious what answers they have. It is a dilemma in our ski community and the sports world generally. I've read a lot of pieces about this but wonder what is accurate.

I do think that seeing more females freeskiing will attract more females to freeski. I was attracted to freestyle because I watched female moguls and aerials in the SLC Olympics on TV in Quito, Ecuador so my mom found a freestyle club when we moved back to Canada. In Canada, female hockey has exploded with young participants whereas the number of boys playing hockey has diminished. All the media about our successful female hockey team and its players makes it very appealing... I've read that this has helped our hockey industry plus created new small businesses making female-specific hockey gear. It is something for the ski industry to remember–they likely aren't getting their share of the purchasing power of the female population.

From Cass Sharpe:

Watching the world's media focusing on young women being weak and incapable, it's hard for them to want to be the badass tomboy in school and keep going with any sport. #likeagirl is an amazing tag, promoting girls to do anything they want. They're capable to be whatever they want and to be proud to run, throw, punch, ski #likeagirl.

I was pushed because I was the only girl in my family, being surrounded by my two brothers and their friends made it easy for me to want to keep pushing. I wanted to be better then the boys, I think that's what kept me on this path. But I'm not sure it's just limited to young girls -- I think being in the snow sports industry is very expensive. Regardless if someone is really talented the parents of the kid might not be able to afford to keep them going in the sport until they can be self sufficient!

el_mn_opI'm curious why you think that?

It's true. Every year I have to badger them into putting a park group together, because they never plan on it. Typical shejumps event goes like this: 9am let's make tutus so everyone can see how awesomely girly we are. 9:30am okay lets do some stretching and yoga. 10:00 photo time! 10:30 Okay lets break into groups by skill, oh crap I didn't expect anyone to actually want a park group. 11am - skiing is hard work, lets watch a movie. Noon - time for lunch. 1pm - it started drizzling I don't think anyone wants to go back out. 2-4 nothing happens. 4pm raffle time!

The premise of Shejumps is excellent. We definitely need more ladies getting involved with skiing. The reality is that it doesn't push women to excel at skiing, or to get into the park side of things, even though sometimes their ads make it sound like that's their goal. I wish there were more resources available to ladies who want to push things and get rad.

The Shejumps logo is the Girafficorn, but as a park skier I feel like the real mythical creature at shejumps events. I guess that just isn't their goal.

For me, it was a personal/ mental challenge to get over...

BACKGROUND: i grew up as one of those bratty race club kids, then quit as a teenager and became part of an Aussie mixed freeskiing development squad for a few years (i was mainly there for moguls, but it incorporated all aspects of freeskiing). I enjoyed it because of the friendly vibe, but apart from straight airs and 50/50s i never excelled in the park.

During those years I can't blame anyone else (e.g. males) for my lack of progression, I put a huge amount of pressure on myself making me freeze mid air or flake on the jumps completely. Park skiing was one aspect of skiing I sucked at, and i hated failing.
I put it down to a lack of self-confidence, if there was a chance of anyone looking at me (e.g. off the chair/ in the park line), it made me super shy, embarrassed and nervous before I even dropped in. Later on, few years ago (when i was around 20) I became friends with a nice group of guys who were really into park skiing. They coaxed me into it last year and (importantly) encouraged any progression, from me sliding on a box 90, to now when I'm attempting harder rails. I don't know why but that small amount of encouragement and being told "you can do it" and "who cares if you fall" made all the difference. It wasn't the fact it was guys saying that either, all my lady friends were/are super supportive as well (shout out to B.Aussie for being the most supportive of all haha).

TL;DR lack of self confidence/ embarrassed at others watching so I avoided freeskiing. Made some supportive friends who loved skiing park and helped me overcome fears of falling in public.

Lots of insightful replies here! Thanks for taking the time ladies.

Here's another answer, from Canadian slope skier Yuki Tsubota

I don’t think this is a problem in just freeskiing but in all extreme and contact sports.

When I look back to when I was growing up I was no questions asked, a tomboy; I played hockey, soccer, climbed, biked and skied. I think when I played hockey there was maybe four or five girls that played compared to the 30-40 boys and a similar situation for skiing. Most girls want to dance or do gymnastics, which there is nothing wrong with but you’re on the ground not flying through the air or have someone running into you, I think those sports have impressions of being less scary.

There is no doubt that these sports are all high risk and scary as you get older, competing and playing competitively, but I believe it’s about learning properly. I would way rather do a backflip off a 60ft jump then have to do one on a beam or a crazy bar routine, but that’s because I started on a 5ft jump and worked my way up. If we can get girls out there young and teach them the fundamentals of skiing and that it’s not scary if you work your way up we will have a much bigger and stronger group of girls in the generations to come.

I already see it…. every spring I get asked to coach the Slayers camp that Tami Bradley puts on in Whistler and you should see how many girls show up, last year we had about 10-15 girls every weekend which was almost the same as the boys. These kids are doing flips into the airbag and starting to spin the jumps and they’re barely 10 years old.

I also think with how expensive the sport can be it keeps kids away. I was very lucky that my parents could afford to put me in programs and buy me gear, it wasn’t always easy but managed.

And here's Cassie's full interview if anyone is interested in checking it out.

Everytime I see a girl skier in the park I don't know, i will go and introduce myself. And if she is alone, always invite her to ski with me/whoever else im with. Just get girls involved and push each other. I think girls are naturally more wary/scared so we need to support and push them in the right ways. This year i've seen more girls in the park than every before, so we are moving in the right direction!

NSwidowEverytime I see a girl skier in the park I don't know, i will go and introduce myself. And if she is alone, always invite her to ski with me/whoever else im with. Just get girls involved and push each other. I think girls are naturally more wary/scared so we need to support and push them in the right ways. This year i've seen more girls in the park than every before, so we are moving in the right direction!

Me too! I saw 4 other girls skiing park in the midwest this season which is 4 times more than last year!

NSwidowEverytime I see a girl skier in the park I don't know, i will go and introduce myself. And if she is alone, always invite her to ski with me/whoever else im with. Just get girls involved and push each other. I think girls are naturally more wary/scared so we need to support and push them in the right ways. This year i've seen more girls in the park than every before, so we are moving in the right direction!

Yes Maddie!! You are a bright ray of sunshine on the grey bird Keystone days haha. Great response.

As a girl it’s intimidating going into the park, especially when you’re not really good. Meeting a good group of friends really helps with that. Sarah Burke and Kristi [Leskinen] were the pioneers when i was growing up and now there’s so many awesome lady skier role models out there for little girls to look up to. Skiing is a very expensive sport too, so many people think you need to pay to have coaches and be on a team. I don't feel that's completely true, I learned most my tricks from friends in the park. As NSWidow mentioned, having a good group of motivated friends, rather they be girls or guys, is super important!

In terms of continuing as you get older, I feel our best years lie ahead! Some of my biggest skiing and snowboarding inspirations are in their 30’s., when people play the age card I think it’s rather silly. It’s awesome to see groms throwing triples but at the same time there’s so many overlooked riders out there that don’t receive the exposure they deserve. What’s great is women’s freeskiing will only grow over the years in every aspect. The future holds what we create!

There are so many great female focused organizations out there these days that help promote freestyle skiing to the younger generation. Also websites even have their own section dedicated to women’s content which is huge (shout out to SBC Skier and Newschoolers).

For me a huge obstacle to overcome was being afraid to be seen learning, and inevitably failing. I understand how stupid this is, but it was definitely difficult because of the amount of criticism I witnessed the boys giving each other, and I never saw much support between different people. I prefer to hit stuff if no one is around, and the few park girls at my mountain are the same way. It's just easier to focus and learn when the pressure of other people is gone. It's tough to be confident in your general skiing, and then to have it suddenly drop when the pressure of other people's judgments is present.

That being said, once you can think "screw what other people think, I'm the best skier on the mountain", the entire thing becomes much easier.

laura.obermeyerThat being said, once you can think "screw what other people think, I'm the best skier on the mountain", the entire thing becomes much easier.

Hah! Yeah that's when the real learning takes place!

Queen_SelassieYes Maddie!! You are a bright ray of sunshine on the grey bird Keystone days haha. Great response.

There are so many great female focused organizations out there these days that help promote freestyle skiing to the younger generation. Also websites even have their own section dedicated to women’s content which is huge (shout out to SBC Skier and Newschoolers).

You're such a doll. and AWESOME interview in SBC. Stoked to know and get to ski with you chick.

This is an old thread but I wanted to put my 2 cents in.

Like most I was a tomboy and grew up around guys playing sports, super competitive etc.etc.

For me personally though, I've always skied, my whole life, but I never really knew/got into freestyle or park until I was 16/17 years old. For me there were about 0 resources. I didn't know any girls who rode park, knew maybe 2 or 3 snowboarders that rode park but not well. All the camps/clubs stopped generally around 18 y.o. and i was just on the cusp of that so my first experiences were basically watching videos and watching people in the park and trying it by myself. I finally started meeting people but of course I was too old for any kind of lesson/camp/club so I was still pretty much teaching myself which also doesn't make for a huge boost of confidence in my ability or style. When my ex and I were together, he was a coach so when we skied he would give me tips, critiques if i asked and I generally skied with the club which was nice. but i still didn't know any girls. went to momentum adult camp and blew my knee the 2nd day of camp. then blew my knee the next year too.
100% I know if i had the resources and opportunities I would be wayyyy further and not just skiing as a hobby now.