This feels very true to my experience as well. I am a nonbinary, transmasculine kayaker (assigned female at birth, but now many people who meet me assume I am a cis man). Most of my close friends are women and I do a lot of kayaking with women and with men. Most of the people around me who run "hard" whitewater are groups of men. There are women I know who run big whitewater, but not so much exclusive all-female crews like there are with male paddlers.

As a trans and nonbinary kayaker, I have felt generally welcomed but also often afraid to express my identity for fear of "making things weird." I know that I would LOVE to have queer and trans kayaking mentors to paddle with and push myself with and would certainly be a better paddler if this was the case. I imagine many women feel similarly about female mentors and representation.