Originally Posted by
hurley.girl
I've participated in lots of male-dominated sports, but I haven't felt so conspicuous since I first started snowboarding and was one of only two women on the entire mountain on a snowboard (the other woman was my sister in law). Women are a very small percentage and we stick out like sore thumbs. Luckily we get our own races.
This year, NJ split the Crit Championships into two days - one for Masters. Well, the person in charge of the Masters Crit Championship has decided to lump the Women, Men 55+ and Men 65+ into a single field, and throw in some non Masters championship races. I've never raced with the men before. My team is talking about boycotting in entirely. I'm not sure if I should try it or not. My team captain has me scared to race with men (that's how she broke her arm). After that race, I have two more crits left in my season and both are Women's Open fields. So I'm wondering if I should try to race with the older men, or take another weekend to work on hard intervals.
Wow. You should come up to the Northeast. There's plenty of women boarders on the mountains up here. At least 30%-40%. I can't tell you about the races as I don't watch them.
I would not be afraid of Masters in terms of riding skills. The problem may be speed, but if you stick together as a group in the field it may be a very interesting experience.