Michigan Divas Cant Balance with Jeannie Thoren

[Jilly]

TR needed in the morning girls!!

[Jenny]

You don't have to wait until morning - I only had a 15 minute drive home!

It was great fun - she's a really good and interesting speaker. This is only the second time that I've heard her and I recognized some of her talk, but her basic point isn't going to change anyway. Oh, and sorry Denver Divas, but she said that Bill & Paul's was her favorite stop anywhere, so you ladies will have to settle for second best!!

There were tons of giveaways - socks, gloves, jackets, base layers, a season pass to Crystal, something about a one day pass in Salt Lake (I didn't quite hear what that was), and a $300 gift card to Bill & Paul's (which, sadly, I did NOT win). But I did get a pair of Gortex gloves.

And, best of all, I got to meet SnowHot and PermaGrin and also see VolkGirl and Mr. VG without everyone being all bundled up. So now my Diva in person tally is up to 3. Oh, and I now have a Ski Diva sticker, too.

All in all, quite a profitable evening from all standpoints.

And my bootfitting is tomorrow night so I still have that to look forward to.

[SnowHot]

TR:
Jenny, it was a pleasure to meet you. April, your as dynamic as I had suspected. I can't wait to ski with you!

Volklgirl and I arrived with Chet in tow(and behaving like a true gentleman) Although he refused to wear his I'm a SkiDiva sticker.
The greetings:
We were immediately greeted by a mutual friend Tina, who rides mt bike and dirt bike with Vg and Mr SnowHot, respectively. Then PermaGrin! OMG she is too nice. She greeted us with a hearty hug and "let me take you to talk to Jeannie!!!"
She introduce me to Jeannie as, "The one from SkiDiva!"
Evidently Jeannie wants help with logging onto ski diva and pleads computer ineptness.

So, we exchange pleasentries and find our seats, as well as some good food(why didn't I take a picture of the food?)
The Talk:
Jeannie Thoren(BTW, we've been spelling it wrong, who knew), talked of many of the laws of physics that have held some amazing women skiers back from advancing and many beginning women skiers from enjoying the sport, because we were expected to perform on equipment designed by men, for everyone.
It took Jeannie's chutzpa, and a line of progression from the mid 70's to the early 90's to make the amazing changes, that she envisioned. Then the shaped skis came, and "they" said, "with shaped skis everyone should be able to ski them with no tweeking for gender".
Das not gud!!!!
So, this born and bred in the UP, said, "We're still vimen vit da same bootie dontcha know"

In reality, as Jeannie said, 80% of women will benefit from these adjustments, while 10% on either end of the specturm may never utilize this technology that her vision has realized.

To sum it up:
Due to the gumption of this yooper, we women have options. Some of us may fall into the 10% on one end of the spectrum, and others in the 10% on the other end of the specturm. But the important thing is that 100% of us have the options! Thanks for that Jeannie!
Pics and Dynastar/lange info to follow

[Ski Diva]

Thanks for the TR! Wish I could've been there.

[Jilly]

Is she still showing the Nordica boot ad? It really shows the difference between men and women's lower leg anatomy.

All in all she's an ambassador for the sport and a resource that the manufacturer's need to listen too.

[SnowHot]

To begin, Jeannie showed some obvious differences between men and women and where the center of mass goes when we initiate turns.

^^^Sorry the pic is fuzzy, but you get the idea.

This difference in the COM and where our knees tend to point, due to our hips and cute little arch in the small of the back, makes it difficult for most women to lose the A-Frame.


The following picture shows the rate of change that girls begin developing hips and their COM begins reeking havoc - Note how the smaller girls stand straight, (right) but as they progress in age(left) the A-Frame begins showing.

Volklgirl is a very good student...........see! She's paying attention!!!


From Left to right:
Volklgirl in Center
PermaGrin, SnowHot, Jeannie, Jenny's friend(sorry I forgot her name), Jenny


Gear info to come: Hopefully others will add their take on this.