personally i think its pretty stupid unless you're getting skis for free, but people do it to add extra gnar points. if you can get a rail before wrecking yourself on cheese-grader stairs or recover from a fall on said stairs and go do it again thats seen as sicker. I don't worry about it much because i don't want to wreck my skis every time i fall off early. call me a pussy but i'm not trying to replace 300+ dollar skis after every urban rail.