Maybe Nate Needs to Practice Gates?

[ToddL]

I just saw in the Advanced section's gates poll thread: @Drago posted that Nate's US Open gates have been cut now. Not sure if this is confirmed...

 

@Sethski said that he believes too early of a gate can become a disadvantage at 39.5 and shorter.

 

I saw Regina's PWR earlier this month.

were clearly good (not even close to touching the right buoy).

 

There has been a lot of "gate" discussion as a result of Nate's gate cuts. He's an awesome skier to watch and is poised to push the mens WR further. Still, I hope he is playing around with practice sets where he intentionally skis right down the middle of the gate. He's probably good enough to do that and still run 41 off nearly every time. With some practice with a cleaner gate, I bet he'd still post scores in the 43 off line.

[Ryno]

True... All this discussion about changing the gate rule (on here) started after Nate missed the gates at Moomba. But Nate's done it a few times since then at other tournaments - Other pro's don't seem to have this consistent issue, so it seems like the problem is with Nate and not with the rule or judging.

It seems as though most on here think of Nate as the next Andy Mapple, so can't accept he could make mistakes, but it has happened and probably will continue to happen if he keeps cutting it so fine with the right hand gate ball.

[estrom]

The gates are part of the course and it's up to Nate how close he wants to risk it. He's a big boy and knows the consequences.

[tbrenchley]

I guess anybody that can run 41 off better than Nate can give him some pointers on how to negotiate the gates better. So he's had a few pulled, that's the game but how many attempts at 43 has he scored 0 on because of gates? I haven't heard of one

[ToddL]

@tbrenchley - yep. I really hesistated posting this thread. It kind of hit me when I saw @Drago's comment right after reading @Sethski's comment. That made me think back to Regina's 41 off gates that I witnessed. She's maybe 5'7" tall and got around 4-ball at -41 with a gate shot which looked to me to be dead center of the gates... (see linked text above) Put all that together and does make ya go hmm..

[gregy]

Maybe if Regina had gotten closer to the right buoy she would have run 41.

[BraceMaker]

Anyone done the math in terms of the difference between 34 and 36 in terms of the number of the "window of opportunity" for the gate? Considering gates are perpendicular to boat path, it would seem like the potential to dead center the gates would be lesser at higher speeds.

[ForrestGump]

@tbrenchley Pretty sure Nate got a zero @ 43 at Diablo in September.

[TylerR]

@shaneh I do believe you are correct

[bmiller3536]

@ToddL during the winter months I ski 34 mph just for kicks and things are different @ 36 Timing, Speed control, etc. For me, the closer I get to the right hand gates usually translates to a better 1 ball and when trying to run my hardest pass I try to run the gate ball over or even miss by a foot to get a good start at 1 ball. On the other hand when skiing 34 I felt the later through the gates the better, probably because it felt like I had enough time to make a sandwich and eat it before I got to 1 ball