I used to prefer telescopic canes because I still mostly navigate by sight and the cane is more to warn people and make them get out my way. I'd mostly be looking for upright objects and not too fussed with changes in elevation, so I would sweep back and forth above the surface. In that way, no sweat when it comes to resilience. In my personal experience, and that of someone else I know who uses them, they break because people cut you off and snap them - and that's not hard to do. They are great for being so portable though and are easy to store on yourself when you're at the pub/restaurant/whatever.

In recent years though I've changed to a more heavy duty ball cane. The only thing that annoys me about it is the bulk to store when I'm out. Other than that, I prefer using it.

We don't get too many telescoping canes in Canada, but there are two I've seen. One was made of carbon fiber and I believe came from the UK. That one used friction fit to hold the pieces together, and was generally not strong enough for daily *outside* usage. Direct frontal impacts against something dense enough (poles, fire hydrants, curbs) would often pop a joint and collapse itself in. It does depend on your speed and strength, though.

The other one was a similiar design, but it was made of aluminium and had locking telescoping joints. There was metal nubs that would pop up and lock each joint in place, so even strong direct impacts wouldn't collapse it. It came from Korea (the client was from Korea), so I don't know if that is a standard design from there.

My husband uses tapping more than constant contact, but he uses a telescoping cane, and has for six-plus years. He used to use straight canes. He's had several break- about a cane a year. However, he's quick to point out that almost all of those are from shutting it in car doors. I think, actually, that of the many canes that have broken, two were cracked beforehand in the car door, one I'm not sure of (it broke right near the tip. He had shut that one in the door, too, but I don't know if it'd cracked it), and the others were all crunched in one car door or another.