Beedlow cartwheeling at Maupin, OR Photo by WetDawg Staff

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I need to ask the women out there a stupid question; do you like the way your feet feel in high heels? I know I know, you love to walk around in them all day and never want to take them off...right? Haha, of course! We just pretend we're in pain at the end of the day so that we can merit ourselves a nice little foot rub every once in a while! Actually, we ARE in pain because heels were designed by men, for men, and somehow the market for these shoes has been successful regardless of how women feel. Men think women look sexier so they keep designing them, and women think they feel sexier so they keep buying them.

Since the emergence of playboating, boats have also been designed by men, for men. Guys think it's sexy to see a woman throw down in the hole, and trust me, women feel sexy doing it. But I can promise you won't see as many women hucking ends as you would like until boat designs change. It's true, up until now there has been little need for smaller boats, but over the last few years women, and smaller, younger paddlers have been emerging onto the scene. They can't wait to get out there and learn the moves being pulled off by the men, but can't understand why it seems to be so much more of a struggle than it looks.

Well, here's the skinny: men and women have differing power to weight ratios. For the most part, men weigh more and carry more muscle than women, and that explains why they are supposed to pick up all the heavy stuff! I do know this can be rather deceiving, so to test my theory I asked a few guys to try out some bigger boats. These men looked smaller than myself, but in actuality they weighed more and were inherently stronger than me, which rationalizes why they could handle a bigger boat.

Essentially, a boat needs to be designed with a woman's contour in mind. Volume needs to be displaced in different areas, the seat must be shaped differently, thigh-hooks, width and length - you name it, we are built differently in all aspects. I know you could name a few boats designed for women in the past, but if you've seen the average sized guy cramming themselves into them - they are not suitable for women!

Damn, it would be great to change places with my ape shaped boyfriend for the day. At last, his argument would no longer hold ground after experiencing the many problems I had ventured to explain in the past! And while he finally saw the light, I'd go throw 100 flat-water cartwheels and then stuff my face with chocolate cake!

Corran Addison once said that he'd design a woman's boat when women started cartwheeling. I recall kicking his butt at a rodeo that same year, but that's beside the point. Mark Lyle has been around since the beginning of freestyle, but he weighs about 200 lbs and is as wide as a refrigerator. EJ may not be the tallest paddler out there, but his biceps are also the size of my head! Don't get me wrong, I think all of these men have designed great boats, but how could they possibly think small? And furthermore, how could they possibly think female? In our world of consumption there's a reason why we have gender specific stores. Women design bras and men design boxers. Let's face it, guys can't fit their shoulders into our little tops the same way we can't fit our ass into their jeans. I'm not saying it's not possible, I mean, you could borrow your boyfriend's shoes to go for a run - but it wouldn't be much fun would it?

Editor's Note: What do you think? Post your opinion here.