WOMEN'S GEAR NO LONGER A BUNCH OF DUDS.

Byline: Barbara Lloyd The New York Times

If you're a woman, and you snowboard, chances are likely you will hear yourself called Betty or Betty Shredder now and again. It is a term of camaraderie shown by a mostly Generation X group of male snowboarders who dominate the sport.

Women make up about 18 percent of the boarding population. But their growing presence - industry insiders expect the rate to be 40 percent by the end of the decade - is persuading manufacturers of clothing and equipment to take special notice lately.

In skiing, meanwhile, women have represented about 40 percent of the participant population for decades. Yet it is only in recent years that most companies have begun to recognize the nation's female skier market.

In an effort to encourage this turnabout, ski areas and sponsors are organizing the first National Women's Ski and Snowboard Week, which runs through Sunday and is being staged at Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, Winter Park Resort, Colo., and Stowe Mountain Resort, Vt.

Women are demanding more attention in recreational skiing and snowboarding, and their pleas have prompted a major transformation. In a flurry to keep up, production lines are displaying gear more suited to a woman's frame and anatomical differences.

Last spring, more than 30 companies introduced a wide variety of new skis, boots and bindings for women, a move that was none too soon, according to Victoria Jealouse, a 25-year-old Canadian snowboard champion who is promoting the week of women's events.

"Even though there are masses of women out there, their demands hadn't been heard," she said. "People in the industry were slow to react. They had the opportunity long ago to do something about it."

Gone are the days when women's narrower feet had to slide around in men's boots and their skis and snowboards carved turns like a locomotive switching tracks.

The new skis for women weigh less and are more flexible for turning than men's. Bindings are mounted farther forward to account for a woman's center of gravity. Boots are made with shorter cuffs, narrower heels and heel lifts.

The same design considerations are being addressed in the snowboard industry.

Boards are lighter, shorter and skinnier and come emblazoned with mermaids, butterflies and flowers, not just the traditional hard-core graphics preferred by the testosterone-fueled crowd.

Until recent changes in boot designs, some women actually had to wear ski boot liners or several pairs of socks to provide more support inside the smallest men's snowboard boots. Still, they were often too wide.

Even snowboarding clothiers, with their signature baggy look for men that appeared even baggier on women, are offering better-fitting female fashions.

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Photo Professional snowboarder Hillary Maybery of Del Mar is leading the wave of women using new boots and snowboards that are smaller, narrower and lighter. David Sprague / Daily News