"Just" a 41 tail for Nate

[A_B]

 

 

Credit to Schnitz videos

[Ed_Johnson]

So how did he do coming back at 43 ??

[Rich]

Amazing Tail wind performance, makes you rethink the sport. He stays with his ski so well!

[A_B]

@Ed_Johnson, half at 43.

[gmut]

Is he riding the new Quest?

[Brady]

@AB I am simply blown away. The acceleration can be seen so perfectly coming off 4 ball. Amazing!!

[Texas6]

Unreal!! For Nate, a few of his turns weren't his best executed turns and he still pulled it off. To complete that pass with anything less than perfect execution says a lot about this kids potential

[Jordan]

Crap--- he looked early, even with a few squirrelly finishes (of turns).

[SkiJay]

@gmut I can't really tell from the video, but Nate had a quiver full of new Quests at the Dodd's last week ... and ran 41 on one.

[6balls]

There's really no way to express just how crazy simple he made that look...41????? Sick.

[SkiJay]

@gmut Yes, Nate is on the Quest in this video.

[mwetskier]

his ski has quest graphics but thats not an absolute lock that it is a off the shelf quest

[gregy]

I remember reading a quote from a pro level skier that they preferred a slight tail wind on there harder pass because it helped them keep there speed up to get wide. Were as a head wind caused them to slow down too much.

 

Can't remember who it was but it surprised me when I read it. Nate has definitely raised the bar. That's just unbelievable.

[6balls]

I'm by no means a slalom super stud, but most of my life I've wanted headwinds on tough passes as I was often a power pull kind of guy. As I've gotten better technically, a light tail at my shortest pass can be pretty nice...a LIGHT tail!!

[swc5150]

That's off the hook, wow!

[Horton]

sick - he backsides 5 ball.

[gator1]

everything you guys said, plus the nonchalant little flip he gives the rope after six ball where a mere mortal would have run over it. Not this boy's first 41 off rodeo. I have a vid of a guy I ski with hammering some fall moguls with sketchy snow cover. Bunch of bushes showing through. Noticed at Mach Schnell in the zipper line that he flips his right pole over a bush so he can stay in the zipper. At that speed in moguls 95% of my processing capacity is utilized in prayer, while the remaining 5% is focused on staying mainly upright.

 

How Nate can have the processing speed to give that little rope flip after getting late to six is and always will be beyond me.

[SkiJay]

I wish my average 6 ball was only that "late."

[ral]

@mwetskier, any backing information on your statement about Nate's Quest? D3 is not is not a company that usually makes special skis for its team.

[Inboardfix]

@ral my guess is @mwetskier is referring to the days when skiers would get special makeup skis or even more common when a company would put a top/graphic of their "new" ski they were trying to promote on the bottom of whatever ski the skier liked. This was very common in the '80s and '90s. Not sure if it is still done today but it wouldn't surprise me.

 

Companies need to sell their new stuff and skiers need to ski on what gives them the best chance to win/perform well. Sometimes the 2 needs aren't met so a company may need to be creative. Not saying it still happens but if it did I wouldn't consider it a bad thing.

[mwetskier]

when a new ski is being proto typed its pretty common for the top an bottom graphic to be made from whatever printed fabric they have extra of, radar for one company is well known for this. so it could be the graphic on a ski nate smith chose after trying several may or may not be what the final produced off the shelf ski will be. not trying to argue with ral or anyone else just dont think the graphic of a top skiers ski always reflect 100% what the ski really is so nate smiths ski could be the next generation ski with quest graphics or whatever

[Gloersen]

How many L/R 41 off runs does he now have?

 

Between he, CP, & Asher could be a great season for stabs at the WR.

[Roger]

Nate has 20 and Chris has 22 as of Sunday night. Nate and Chris both looked fantastic at our tournaments this weekend; what a pleasure to watch!

[jlittle]

Damn kid. No respect for how hard shortline really is.

[ral]

Nate is not a tweaker. D3 is not a company that makes special skis for team skiers. MB did not switch to the Nomads and kept skiing with his X5, not a disguised X5 with other graphics.

[jwroblew]

and it seems like Nate skied on the same X7 for two seasons, or at least he didn't switch to the new graphics last year

[SkiJay]

@jwroblew Nate told me "(he) used the same stock ski for two years without touching the fin once." Where other ski companies may have updated the graphic on his ski, D3 did not, even though the newer red X7 was out of the same mold with the same layup as his yellow ski. He's only changing to the Quest because his old yellow X7 has had a long hard life between all the airlines, 39s and 41s it's had to endure. Any ski would age after two years of that. If there were a poster-boy for the expression, "It's the Indian, not the arrow," Nate would be that guy.

[teammalibu]

Watched him pull a new Quest out of the box a LaPoints two weeks ago he said he destroyed his with a handle pop. Up the rope popped the handle at 5 ball at 41 tore all 4 fingers off his glove. He was pissed because he would have to break in a new pair of gloves. Fun to watch.