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We received a history lesson from a man this week who thought he was doing us a solid by sending us nine live chat messages over the course of 30 minutes during his happy hour (full transcript at the bottom of this post). We're so grateful for men who spend their lives admiring women who behave in the ways they find appropriate, only to use that appropriateness as a way to demean and diminish women who challenge them.
But what do we know? We're just over here “alienating a portion of our potential market.”
Dang James. We learned a lot about snowboarding from you. What would we have done had you not thrown down all that knowledge that completely opened our eyes to how we're man-hating “psycho feminists.”
Renee Sessions. Bev Sanders. Good on ya’. You named two women in the entire history of snowsports. Gold stars, medal for musical chairs, A++ for you! We're sure your pointer fingers got tired and there was no one to hold your beer and that’s why you didn’t mention the founders of Chorus Snowboards: Cara-Beth Burnside, Leslee Olson, Roberta Rodger, and Tomo Yamakoshi. I’ll give a nod to Donna Carpenter as well because she’s done some things. Stephanie Nitsch, founder of Pallas, needs to make that list too.
Let’s chat about Renee Sessions for a minute since Winterstick isn’t. It’s like they forgot she was one of the founders. She is included in their 50-year shout-out, but her name is misspelled, and nowhere do they highlight her substantial and formative role in the company. Super weird a woman was written out of history.
Bev Sanders faired much better. She is included on the Avalanche website, which hands down wins the most innovative design award, as the wife of Chris Sanders and the co-founder. She has also received accolades in the press, and she absolutely deserves the recognition. Hard to focus on her accomplishments though when they’re busy clickety clacking away on Instagram, gawking at boobs like 11-year-old boys. Or Elon Musk.
No one is alienating a portion of their potential market here, are they James?
IG post by @avalanchesnowboardsarchive
“While there is little doubt that an image like this appearing in a Snowboard magazine today would create an absolute uproar, In the simpler times known as the early 90s things were a little different.
Tell us about it Avalanche Instagram guy. Let’s get back to the simpler times when women knew their place and men could objectify women without any of this “me too” nonsense. we do have to give him credit though, as he is right about one thing: Dudes in snowboarding are so uptight these days. We should be able to say whatever the fuck we want when we want to. Unless of course you’re a woman saying things about a man and then you should keep it fucking shut because fEeLiNgs. Men are quite sensitive, aren’t they?
“But why the hate towards men? I'd be supportive of your brand, but honestly how could I be if your [sic] not supportive of me? You can be pro women [sic] without being anti men [sic] .”
You’re right, my dude. You sure can be pro-women without being anti-men. And we do it every fucking day. Too bad you can’t figure that out.
The full chat transcript from James, nine messages sent over the course of 30 minutes one Monday evening, misspellings and all:
Hey I saw a friend of a friend post one a pair of Colilition boards for sale. Honestly I didn’t know the brand so I googled you guys. Just a bit about me. This is year 37 on a board for me, I also coached for 10 years. In those years if coaching I tought hundreds if not thousands of people how to ride. The interesting fact is the majority were Women. It did not take long to realize that women typically did better in my lesson than men. We could discuss the reasons why, but that is not the point. It's pretty cool to have a women specific company, but holly hell I think you may have gone to psycho feminist for most. The first snowboard designed specifically for women was an Avalanche.
If you don't know Bev Sanders then you have a history lesson to learn. She was a driving force behind Avalanche an early pioneer in snowboard history. Chris Sanders was the first to approach ski factories, the first to bring ski technology to snowboards as well as bring production to Austria.
Another name you should know is Renee Sessions. She was a pioneer in the early 80's with Winterstick snowboards the founder of the sport. I guess what I am saying is women have had a long history in the sport of snowboarding. Women are great, none of us would be here without our mothers. Why the anger and hate towards men? It's quite off puttIng really...I also mountain bike. Ive heard the shrink it and pink it saying before. That is old history too. Bike companies now focus on women in the sport as the largest untapped market. While some ladies do want pink flowers, others want matt black paint and high performance equipment. All good with us dude. We, cool righteous dude love, Respect and support all women, and especially women athletes. My girlfriend was a collegent athlete, a much higher level than I ever obtained, im just a broken old man weeken warrior. She is awesome even mid 50's she is an athlete. A beautiful women and mother of 3. She is strong, smart and feminine. I hold her in the highest of regard.
I may be an old man and out of touch with reality but i fimd your message is quite off putting. Support and encourage women to snowboard, I do, why not its super fun in so many ways. Women are amazing snowboardsers. But why the hate towards men? I'd be supportive of your brand, but honestly how could I be if your not supportive of me?
You can be pro women without being anti men. Honestly I think you would be a lot more successful. Also I didn’t see any pictures of inside your factory. As an engineer Im always currious to the materials, tools, equipment and proccess details involved in the manufacture of boards. I will end my rant here, wishing you the best of success.
#madeinusa #skilikeagirl #ridelikeagirl #shredbetty