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"\"&lt;p&gt;From pro riders to retailers, the women&amp;#8217;s force is coming on even stronger for the 2001\\/2002 season. At the 2001 TransWorld Media Riders&amp;#8217; Poll Awards, Victoria Jealouse graciously accepted her award for Best Female Big-Mountain Rider by encouraging more photographers and filmers to get women in front of the camera. Girls in snowboarding aren&amp;#8217;t Frou Frou any more, and after talking with dealers and designers, the industry is starting to catch on.&lt;P&gt;\\tBurton has a long history with women&amp;#8217;s products, and according to Burton&amp;#8217;s Scott Rivers, the expansion of its women&amp;#8217;s offerings across the board is indicative of what&amp;#8217;s happening both in the shops and on the hill: &amp;#8220;One example is the Japanese market where the &amp;#8216;snowboarding because it&amp;#8217;s cool&amp;#8217; thing has pretty much gone away. But it&amp;#8217;s still growing because women are legitimately getting into the sport. They&amp;#8217;re not just doing it because their friends are doing it, but because they love it. \\t&lt;P&gt;&amp;#8220;We&amp;#8217;re seeing that in America as well,&amp;#8221; Rivers continues. &amp;#8220;Some girls are probably still getting into snowboarding because their friends think it&amp;#8217;s cool to do, but definitely the stronger aspect of it is women are sticking to snowboarding because they&amp;#8217;re athletic, and they love it.&amp;#8221;&lt;P&gt;        Last season Burton introduced its OSI line of apparel. It was the first time it offered women&amp;#8217;s-specific apparel. This year it expanded the line into three divisions: Radar, OSI, and Formula. &amp;#8220;Going from one specific line to three shows, we&amp;#8217;re making a ton of stuff for women because there are a lot of women demanding more product. It&amp;#8217;s the fastest-growing aspect of snowboarding right now.&amp;#8221;          &lt;P&gt;K2 Snowboards has also increased its efforts by diversifying its women&amp;#8217;s product offering by increasing outerwear to three lines, adding a new, higher-end board, and advancing the technology of its women&amp;#8217;s boots. &lt;P&gt;        &amp;#8220;I think retailers are just becoming more aware that women want specific products for them and are buying accordingly,&amp;#8221; says Haley Martin, K2 marketing director. &amp;#8220;Women are willing to pay more to have a better fit. And not just a better fit for comfort\\u00bfthey don&amp;#8217;t have to sacrifice technology.        &lt;P&gt;&amp;#8220;The retailers are becoming more educated because women are coming into their shops looking for higher-end stuff.&amp;#8221;&lt;P&gt;        Chorus Snowboards, launching for the 2001\\/02 season, is in a unique situation\\u00bfit only offers boards for women. &amp;#8220;I think people are definitely interested in the women&amp;#8217;s market, and I think the dealers can see the growth in the surf industry and the skate industry for women&amp;#8217;s-specific products as well,&amp;#8221; says Georell Bracelin, marketing director for Chorus. &amp;#8220;That&amp;#8217;s kind of set the stage for us.&amp;#8221;&lt;P&gt;        Unlike some women-specific companies in the past, Chorus is focused around a strong team of high-profile professional riders. &amp;#8220;Because we&amp;#8217;re so different than anybody else, and we have such a strong team, it&amp;#8217;s easy to see where we&amp;#8217;re positioning ourselves, the kind of product we&amp;#8217;re offering, and what type of image we&amp;#8217;re setting up for.&amp;#8221;&lt;P&gt;        So is Chorus a pioneer for women, or are they just in the right place at the right time? According to Bracelin, it&amp;#8217;s a bit of both: &amp;#8220;We&amp;#8217;re hoping to help pioneer the market. The philosophy behind the girls who helped start the company\\u00bfthe teamriders\\u00bfis exactly that. They want to  inspire women to ride, push themselves, and have a voice among snowboarders.&amp;#8221;&lt;P&gt;        From the dealer&amp;#8217;s perspective, there&amp;#8217;re definitely more girls of all ages getting into the sport, so women&amp;#8217;s products are selling out faster than ever. Marc Loreau, snowboard buyer for Surfride Surf Shops in Oceanside and Solana Beach, California, says he is increasing his orders for women&amp;#8217;s products. &amp;#8220;We&amp;#8217;re ordering more than last year for girls,&amp;#8221; he says. &amp;#8220;They&amp;#8217;re riding as hard as guys now, and they want what the guys are riding. We had more girl customers last year, and we had a great sell-through in all our women&amp;#8217;s products.&amp;#8221;&lt;P&gt;        &amp;#8220;Foor us it&amp;#8217;s a little bit different because our stuff is so feminine,&amp;#8221; says Darcy Lee, owner of Cold As Ice women&amp;#8217;s snowboard apparel. Lee has been in the women&amp;#8217;s market since its infancy and has seen the progression first hand.  &lt;P&gt;        &amp;#8220;As far as the women&amp;#8217;s snowboard market, I was kind of thinking it had settled down from a hype standpoint,&amp;#8221; Lee says. &amp;#8220;But this year we&amp;#8217;ve had even more &amp;#8216;core shops interested in the line than we&amp;#8217;ve had in the past. &lt;P&gt;        &amp;#8220;It could be any combination of a lot of things,&amp;#8221; she continues. &amp;#8220;The retailers might also be looking for more customers. If you only have one thing for the women to choose from, they&amp;#8217;re not going to come into your shop. Shop owners have also gotten smarter and are realizing girls spend money.&amp;#8221;&lt;P&gt;\\u00bfRobyn Hakes&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n\""^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://snowboarding.transworld.net/photos/womens-market-heats-up/>