wow, i know ns.com is ignorant, but this is great. You people that are banging on Andy and Pep have no fucking idea what you're talking about and I will go out on a limb and say that you are the reason this sport is turning into a junk show. By junkshow I mean lets see who can spin and flip the most off a jump. Skiing is just like any other board sport in that what we do is completely all about individual expression. Ski how you want, where you want, and as fast as you want. To the kid that asked "What Pep has done in the past 5 or 6 year?" and "K2 just likes him that's why he is in videos." Let me be perfectly clear, you embody everything that is gay about skiing and skiers, in essence you are the one footed slide. I want you to go and buy the Oakley Movie Sessions 1242 and watch Pep's segment. If you watch while remaining objective, meaning without bias, you will have to ask yourself, "what the fuck was I thinking?" Pep is one of the few pioneers for switch skiing in the backcountry and ambi spins(spinning in all directions). Kids its not how you fast you can spin, it's how good you are able to control each body part in the air i.e. style. Now I'm not saying that only style is important, but if you approach skiing from more of a building block perspective, you will find your potential limitless. That I can assure you. Now we come to your thoughts on Andy Mahre, Andy is the future of progressive freeskiing, quote me right now. Who cares if he has poles or not, again it's about individual expression. I used to be the biggest hater on no poles until I first had the opportunity to film with Mahre, if you're skiing switch, poles have zero functionality, that being said you can use them if you want to. Once you ask yourself why you're against something and really explore your resistance you usually find out that its' based on some ill concieved notion. To free yourself of this can be liberating and can make you a better skier. Am I saying that skiing with no poles will make you a better skier? No of course not. Am I saying that maybe one day you go out and try to ski every run at your local ski hill switch from top to bottom? Absolutely! After doing 10 runs at your local ski hill you will ask yourself, "What the fuck am I holding on to these for?" I don't care who you are, you will ask this. I'm willing to bet thought that 85% of the people on this sight can NOT ski every run at their ski resort switch, but instead of working on their craft they sit on here and bitch. Normally I don't even read posts like these but this one happens to concern a good friend of mine and the sport that I love. If doing 1260's onto a rail is what you love then by all means do it, but if pep and andy want to due a whole run spinning nothing more than a 5, then by all means respect that. Go and watch the holes that Andy won at the back 9. Period. Here's a novel that I just wrote and you may want to print it. Hopefully my words will have some impact on your ideas concerning freeskiing, more than likely however you will shut them out. Do with them what you wish. I'm gonna go bang some switch runs.
Max