Unipole
At the 1985 World Championships in Seefeld Swedish skier Gunde Svan brought his homemade 230cm ski pole and used it on a training day. Until this date FIS rules did not have a definition for ski poles during competition. Traditionally, ancient Scandinavian hunters skied with one very long ski pole, similar to the pole Svan brought to Seefeld. At this same time FIS was debating the introduction of the skating technique with many traditionalists arguing that it should not be allowed because historically it was not a used technique. Svan's use of the long ski pole was intended to point out the hypocrisy of the traditionalists' argument (ancient Scandinavians did a skating-like technique) . A side-effect of Svan's protest was a FIS definition for ski pole sizing which made this very long "unipole" not legal to use during a competition.
Read more about this topic: Ski Pole