Dang, loved it. Only thing getting me is the no ploes- he pulled it off so well, but i fear those following won't be as successful. I appreciate poles with skiing because it's an important factor seperating us from boarders. (I personally ski with boarders and totally support it, but I don't try to be them) The one gripe I have is that boarders sometimes do totally weird, non-steezy things with their hands (picture someone getting off balance, waving their hands in a circular motion 'rolling the windows up'). Having poles make us so much more conscious of our hands, so when people say 'poles look better', i think it's due to different body position/stance as well as just having the poles. Totally preference