The No Poles Thread to End All No Poles Threads: An Essay by Mr. WiRipper2

ThaLetterM.

Active member
Ladies and gentlemen, I am a believer.

Yesterday, I was at my local gnar shredding organization Alpine Valley, in Kewaskum Wisconsin. I have having what i could only describe as a shitty ass day. Every 270 i did i landed on my ass, my jumps were not dialed, and i was jusy generally not confident at all.

It was at this exact time, as i was crusing down the park, that i remembered the video on Film the Idea website of andy and pep at park city. it was the most stylish video i had seen in a while. then i realized that the thing that made it stylish and sick and original was the fact that these two world class freeskiers werent using poles.

with visions of pep fuja's hands-in-his-pockets-no-poles-nosepress dancing in my head, i dropped my poles in the left line and skated up to the loading zone. i got on the lift, feeling naked without my once necessary poles.

what a surprise that day was. skiing without poles was the most fun i have had skiing in my entire life. i just felt so, free, uninhibited, and, though you may think the opposite, i felt as steezy as samuel l jackson nigga. immediatley after dropping me poles, all my tricks were automatically dialed, as if by magic. spinning on and off of rails felt so natural and easy without 3 foot pieces of aluminum on my hands, aand i was able to hold my grabs for what seemed like hours on my spins.

kids, all of you that respond to a no poles thread with a resounding "no poles? gay faggot homo shit fucker penis licker" are about to have your lives changed. dont worry, i was one of you. i always thought that without poles, I would feel awkward and un stylie. in fact, i felt the exact opposite. so next time youre out on the hill and youre not feeling it so much, drop those useless sticks in the lift line. youll be glad you did.
 
in the first paragraph, it should say "i was having what i could only describe as a shitty day." sorry for the typo.
 
while this situation did not happen to me...i totally agree with that i dropped meh poles one day and wolla holding my grbas foreva and it really helped so fuck all u haters...it's not that gay
 
its just because its something different witch makes it fun

its like when you get new skis you get phyced and try new stuff
 
welcome to the dark side my friend

Fuck i did a rail jam on friday night and I shouldnt have used poles, i swear they were fucking me up. I've skied without poles quite a bit, not so much this year though, ... yet :)
 
True, I wouldn't ditch my poles for some steep and deep. But still, on those days where you've got to stick to groomers and park, no poles runs are hella fun. It totally improves your balance and stance, and going switch with no poles feels amazing. Try it before you dis it!
 
No poles is fun. But you do have to know how to do your tricks with poles first. Then you can drop the poles and dial in said trick and its good for you balance, style, etc... The only problem I have with no poles is all the kids that can't 360 or grind a box skiing around with no poles and acting gangsta because of it.
 
i like skiing with no poles every now and then. yesterday morning i had little choice but to wear thick mittens and ski switch with my hands in my pockets because it was a million degrees below zero. when it warmed up a little picked up my poles again and hit up the park.

about a month ago i tried hitting an s rail without poles and i just couldnt nail it.

yesterday though, i hiked a c-rail and tried it poless, nailed it, then copied pep and tried it with the hands in the pockets all leaned over like a nose press.

it was probably the steeziest thing ive ever done.

i refuse to seriously ski all mountain without poles though, its just so much harder to maintain good form.
 
same thing happened to me dude.

shitty day. falling further hurting my elbow.

decide to rock nopoles, and my airsense was fuckign awesome. i didn't want to hurt my elbow any more, so i just flowed through the park with super confidence fuckign around and having agreat time doign michael jackson grabs.

at one point i got really really backseat, and was going to bail to my back on the biggest jump. i did this wierd mule-kick thing mid air, what i've never done before, and i became centered over my skis again. that right there is why i ride no poles.
 
eventually ski design will compensate for the need for poles while skiing all mountain. we're not there yet but I feel we will be. if its something heavy and i'm skiing regular i've go poles because dying sucks.
 
also i've always sucked at grabs because i have the flexibility of the tin man, and i was tweakign the shit out of high mutes and criticals for basically the first time ever.
 
i think poles are neccessary for true, gnar big mountiain terrain. i would much rather, touch my pole to the ground and maintain my balance over my skis, then reach my hand to the ground and put my weight to the side. also they help with billygoating/jumpturning
 
billy goating is my favorite thing to watch. not do. on chair 22 at mammoth, after a really gnarly storm when it cleared up you would see the most fucked up ski tracks in a rock cropping. the guy had probably skiied the line a million times. he was probably some 50 year old hippy.
 
i dont like poles either, i film all the time though, so having poles along with me would make my life 100 times harder
 
Yea I have skied with no poles, not by choice but beacuse I broke mine, and it was wierd.. I didnt know what to do with my hands( if that makes any sence) I dont hate on people with no poles I just personaly think it is weird. If it is fun then do what you want.
 
You make think that you looked steezy, ect. But you might have just looked like a shit head.
 
Um, why don't we just call ourselves Snowboarders and get it over with.

Andy doing that rail while filming....SICKE!
 
cuz we're not.. we dont go ridin down the mountain sideways, with a wide board strapped to our feet.. we go down the mountain facin forward, w/ 2 planks on our feet..
 
I skied half the day sunday without poles, rails seemed wierd at first, but i got used to it, with jumps is where i found the biggest difference. I was able to grab much smoother without having to worry about my poles. After lunch i grabed my poles and went back out, after that i could find and hold my grabs much easyer then ever before. It felt like I still had no poles and could just grab and hold anything I wanted. I used to be one of the biggest haters of no poles i still think that it looks kinda gay and that 90% of the time you should use poles but I decided that no poles is not gay at all. Its fun as hell for a few runs everyonce and a while.
 
totally agreed. I decided to go with no poles one day and stayed with it for almost a month. However, and watching hours and hours of NS videos, and ski movies, I came to the conclusion that skiers do in fact need poles. It is incredibly difficult to ski with style without poles. To those who can do it, I applaud them. Yes, Pep can make skiiing look super sick with his hands in his pockets, but that is because he is a pro. Most kids on this site can't make skiing look as good as he does.

Poles serve a purpose. That purpose is to keep your hands from moving and flailing all over the poles. They ancor your arms at your sides. Once I realized this, and the fact that not moving your arms without poles is harder than it looks, I decided to get poles agian.

Do I like pole? No. They are restrictive and are extra gear that we all must carry. Skiing just plan old looks better with poles. The solution that I came accross was to cut my joysticks down to 20 inches. Super steezy. They don't get in the way, and they serve no purpose, but the fact that you have something to hold onto is what helps to bring out true style, aka, no rolling down the windows.
 
that's pritty sweet but the time that i tryed doign no poles well i died, my control on rails was shit. i keeped over rotating on rails.
 
I like my poles. Maybe I'll go poleless one day for a run or two, but they're useful. I can see how no poles would be good for handplants and stuff though.
 
The only time I dont have a pole in each hand...IS WHEN I'M POLE PASSING WOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now that is something everyone should try.
 
seriously tho shits so gay. before the pep and andy no poles edit almost everyone absolutely HATED it, and now since its the cool thing to do everyone does it and now they like it, hella gay
 
i dunno i dont think it matters... it helps you with your balance and where your hands and shit are.. so its good.. i def like to have poles in the powder 4 sure.. but every now and then i rock no polers
 
I just had a brain blast. Imagine someone doing a sick grab on whatever trick, how about them doing some sick use of their poles?? That would add variety, some sort of pole flip, between the legs pass or whatever. I know it sounds dumb, but i ahve never seen anyone try this
 
so many kids hopping on the bandwagon...

i drop the poles every now and then but i don't do it all the time.
 
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