The original Nano One was a truly groundbreaking ski. It was not a particularly fast ski, and it was perhaps not the ski of choice when trying to ski as smooth as possible. What the original Nano One did was that it forgave the skier for committing otherwise unforgivable mistakes at the ball. Once the skier got to the apex of the turn, the Nano One was practically magic. The result was not the prettiest passes possible but scores beyond what was expected.
The Nano OneXT has the same shape as the original Nano One with changes to the rocker and to the bevels. The result of these seemingly small changes is a substantial change in speed and in smoothness, along with the effort required to get wide. With the right inputs, the XT can provide extremely smooth and flowing passes.
Off Side Turn & On Side Turns: The XT turns unusually symmetrically. On both sides, the ski works best when the skier is in a neutral stance and with understated movements. With refined technique, the ski will carve a tight fast arc at the ball line. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this ski is how much water speed can be maintained through the turn. With more aggressive/impatient skiing, the ski will change direction quickly but will lose water speed resulting in hard, frantic skiing.
This ski creates the right amount of cross course speed when the skier is centered and does not create extra load. Additional load is simply unnecessary, and with this ski, leads to less consistent results on the other side of the centerline. The skier needs to set angle, maintain stack and trust the ski. No more & no less.
From the wakes to the ball: To get the most from the XT, the skier must keep his or her shoulders level and weight centered when approaching the ball. If the skier can resist the temptation to move forward or backward of center on the way out of the ball, the ski will arc out and back with an amazing lack of drama.
Conclusion: More than any other ski reviewed to date, the XT holds speed from the wakes to the ball and back to the wakes. The result is less effort spent accelerating and decelerating. The possible downside is that excess speed created in a moment of panic is harder to bleed off. In terms of set up and skiing technique, the XT is finicky, but if you give this ski exactly what it requires, it is fantastic.