4/12/2023 0 Comments Shrinkit cast![]() ![]() “I would think of what I wanted to do and the skis would just do them.” “They were so responsive,” said McCallan, who described herself as an advanced skier. Jennifer McCallan, 43, of Tahoma, California switched to a pair of Coalition SOS skis in March of last season and said she noticed the difference immediately. “It was really exciting at the top to put on my boots and be 100 percent confident skiing down the terrain.” “If you can squeeze through a tight treeline and pick your way through the bushes, it is pretty important,” she said. This time Rees had no problem deploying her skiing skills on the descent. Together they boot-packed up the treacherous Aiguille du Midi to ski Vallee Blanche, an iconic glacier route on Mont Blanc. In April, Rees and her husband returned to Chamonix and this time she was skiing Coalition SOS skis, an all mountain model. “They basically took all the metal out so it was a soft, floppy noodle,” she said of the skis, which sapped much of the fun out of a visit to some of the world’s most iconic terrain. Unfortunately for Rees, the women’s version, which came in pink, didn’t share the performance characteristics even though it was marketed as a women’s version of the same line. “His model was great, could hold an edge in firm snow,” said Rees, a lifelong skier and snowboarder and snow sports instructor. Shortly before the first trip during the 2010-2011 season her husband, an advanced skier, bought her the female version of the all mountain ski he was using at the time. Rees experienced firsthand the difference between traditional women’s gear and performance gear during ski trips to Chamonix, France with her husband. In contrast, beginners in either sport tend to benefit from softer material because the flex makes it easier to start turns at lower speeds.īecause women’s gear is much more likely to be built to beginner specifications it can be a challenge for more advanced women to find gear that meets their performance demands. In general, more advanced skiers and boarders prefer stiffer and stronger gear because rigidity aids in carving smooth, high-speed turns. “They are just like flimsy noodles, they have no performance, they don’t hold up.” Because women’s skis and snowboards suck,” Gurecki said. ![]() “There is a reason we say we make women’s skis and snowboards that don’t suck. In short, Coalition Snow is a rebuke to the “shrink it and pink it” approach to making women’s gear that’s common in the snow sports industry. ![]() I want to be at the (expletive) table making real things.”Īnd with the West Coast ski and snowboard season off to its best start in years, Gurecki and Rees are hopeful this will be the winter Coalition carves itself a niche in what they believe is an overlooked part of the snow sports industry: women who shred. “Don’t tell me I should be making beanies. “Everyone expects women to make clothing, you never expect women to make hard goods, to make skis and boards,” Gurecki said. ![]()
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