Women Are Not Small Men

At some point during childhood, we look around and realize we are built differently than the boys. It is unclear why this concept was lost on designers in the outdoor industry for so long but about 15 years ago they started to wake up. Perhaps it was the fact while women make up only about 40% of the skier population if the woman doesn’t ski, neither do the husbands or kids. Manufacturers realized they in order for the sport to continue as a whole, they needed to start paying better attention to their female participants.

The women’s ski equipment movement started out with a phase that we like to call “shrink and pink “. They took their unisex models, took the guts out, added pink flowers, and called it a women’s ski. Needless to say, we were wholly unimpressed. It took many iterations of women's skis before they finally hit the mark. Now, manufacturers have whole design teams designated to creating women’s specific product that helps ladies perform their best and enjoy the sport of skiing just as much, if not more.

How is Women’s ski equipment different?

There is definitely a camp of ladies out there who turn their noses up at women's skis. Spending lots of time testing both unisex and women’s models it seems the benefits much outweigh the drawbacks. Can strong women skiers ski a men’s ski? Of course! But they can ski the women's version better and with less effort. There was a generation of skis that were crap but years of research and development with teams of women have generated skis that work better for the beginner to the expert-level woman.

Women’s skis are shorter and softer

The idea that a woman’s ski needs to be shorter than a man's is somewhat a no-brainer. Women are on average, 6 inches shorter, than men. It makes sense that a 5 foot 4 woman is not going to ski something the same size as her 6-foot husband. Especially as ski lengths have decreased across the industry it is essential that ladies have skis available in appropriate sizes. Thanks to some physics that I won’t bother boring you with as the ski gets shorter, it also gets stiffer. In order to match the flex profile of the ski to the weight/strength of the person skiing it the skis have to also get proportionally softer. It’s not a direct insult to us ladies, it's just math.

Mounting position

If there is one thing that has been found to be true across the skiing spectrum it is that women do better with their bindings mounted slightly more forward. This is a trait that can be found in almost every women's ski on the market today. The best way to accomplish this is to not simply take the unisex model and move the recommended mounting point forward. The best-selling and best skiing women’s skis are built from the ground up around a more forward mounting position. This means all the skis' dimensions and flex profiles are crafted to work around this forward position.

Why do women benefit from this position? The answer is two-fold. Mostly, it is due to our distribution of body mass. Women carry more weight in the hips while men carry it in the shoulders. What happens when we lean forward is that this mass tends to go out over the tails of the ski, making pressuring the tips more difficult. By picking up the skier and moving them forward on the ski it is easier to weight the tip of the ski and initiate the turn. No amount of working out in the gym will change the fact that we carry our weight differently than a man.

The other reason to move a skier up on the ski is to do with foot size. Manufacturers base their geometry off an average, usually a 27.5 ski boot size. This is roughly equivalent to a women’s size 11 street shoe. If you are wearing a women’s 7 you are over 3 centimeters off from who the ski was designed for. Moving forward can help adjust for this offset and allow for better control.

Other things…

Ski companies can come up with a lot of other technologies they like to call out that make their women’s skis unique. The bottom line is women benefit most from having skis that are shorter, softer, and designed with geometry that matches our physiology.

It’s all About Balance

One of the core philosophies that drives outdoor DIVAS thoughts about ski equipment is that balance matters. Balance matters in all aspects of our lives, including our ski equipment. When the concept was originally introduced the analogy about buying a set of new tires was given. You wouldn’t spend $800 on new tires for your car without getting them aligned and balanced. The same should be true for your new $800 pair of skis.

How does balance impact skiing?

In most athletic pursuits your “stance” has a bit of bend at the ankle and knee. Think about getting ready to volley a tennis serve or field a ground ball. This position allows you to react quickly and in any direction, you might need. In a soft sneaker, you can easily maneuver yourself into the stance that is most comfortable. Now, lock yourself into a rigid ski boot on a rigid binding. If the equipment has you out of balance, you can’t react easily to changes. Not to mention it can be horribly uncomfortable to be held in a position that is not in line with your natural physiology.

Getting Balanced On Your Skis

Balance starts at the bottom and works its way out. It starts with the right boot, then the right footbed, then the right binding, and the right ski. Each piece of this system is important and affects the other. A perfect ski boot fit can be ruined by a bad orthotic or a binding that has you way out of position. Bindings are often an afterthought in many ski purchasing decisions but a binding with the wrong ramp angle can make turn your favorite ski into an unfamiliar beast.

A lot of time and energy has been spent addressing balance in top athletes. Lindsey Vonn’s ski equipment has definitely been modified down to the millimeter to give her every possible advantage. The problem is, that the elite skier doesn’t need the help. They are already biomechanically gifted, otherwise, they would not have reached their professional status. The weekend warrior, struggling to get above the chronic intermediate stage needs the help the most. Too often they think, oh that stuff is for way better skiers. It’s not! It is for everyone especially those who are trying to progress.

Why balance is more important for women

We are physically weaker than men. There I said it. Let the feminists out there argue about it but it’s true. Sure, there are exceptions, but on the whole, men have an average 26 lbs more muscle mass than women. If men are off balance on their equipment chances are they have the power to overcome it and keep skiing.

We have spent over 20 years searching out the best women’s equipment for all levels of skiers. In our quest, we have found that being in alignment with your equipment is the most important part of the equation. Ski manufacturers and engineers have laughed at us wedging trail maps under our boots to increase or decrease the ramp of a binding at ski tests. We know it matters. A binding can push skiers too far forward, or in some cases, put our toes higher than our heels. A binding that actually puts you in the backseat? How can that be beneficial to anyone -especially women?

Not to mention the leading ski injury is the ACL tear. Women are 5 times more likely to injure their ACL. Some of this is due to the shape of the intercondylar notch being more narrow. Other factors include our predisposition to being knock-kneed thanks to our wider hip or Q angle. The slow, backward twisting fall is the most common mechanism for this season-ending injury. Putting yourself on equipment that already puts your weight back is just opening yourself up to potential harm.

Why is no one else concerned about this? Are manufacturers doing this intentionally? No. The problem is ignorance. While ski brands have made huge leaps in making skis and boots better for women they still haven’t considered all the pieces. They have teams of women helping them craft better women’s specific products. The issue is, that these women are frequently ex-US ski team members, professional athletes, and long-time ski instructors. All women who can ski well. These ladies can compensate for the equipment being a little off. They shift their weight, muscle the ski around, and make it work. The recreational skier often can’t.