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GeenaAs if the come-from-nowhere phenom needed to add another unconventional element to the story of his me- teoric rise to the top of the slalom rankings, consider this: This world-class athlete skips the gym. Doesn’t work out. He just skis — and not even that much. He acknowledges that this sets him apart from the rest of pro skiing’s elite. “I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who doesn’t do anything,” he laughs. So what does Smith attribute his success to? While gracious, he’s not afraid to state the obvious: Natural talent helps. But the winningest men’s slalom skier in 2012 thinks he has something else too: the ability to focus. “I stay calm and make sure I don’t overreact to what’s out there — choppy water or wind. A lot of times, conditions make you change the way you ski — in rough water, you’re taking hard turns [and] hard hits and changing the way you perform behind the boat. I just try to take it in stride and ski my course.”
Smith’s textbook turning style can deliver some serious power when necessary, but for the most part he’s extremely efficient and his ski cuts like a Santoku knife.
On the tour, Smith’s easygoing ways have been noticed and perhaps even caused some envy; after all, the newcomer achieves what so many have worked so hard for — with seemingly so little efort. To hear him talk about it, even his training days hardly seem like work. “I’m a normal skier. I show up, ski a set at the lake, pull a friend and go home,” he says. His go-with-the-flow attitude applies to his career too. “I never had any intentions or plans. I just went with the flow, and when it happened, it happened.”
If there’s anyone who knows Nate Smith’s skiing better than Smith does, it’s a man named Scott Tynan — the lifelong nationally ranked amateur skier (2010 Men’s 3 national slalom champion) who he trains with at Sawmill Lake. “I’ve known Nate since he was in diapers. I competed with his dad,” Tynan says. “His dad was a smart man. He said, ‘You can only teach your own kid so much, and then they stop listening to you.’ So Nate started coming down here and training with me around the time he turned 16. When he came to ski with me, he could get 2 buoys at 38 of. But what amazed me was that he was riding such a long ski — he only weighs 160 pounds soaking wet! The second year we started skiing, he went from 2 at 38 to 2 at 39. The year after that, he was running a buoy or two at 41. The year after that, a buoy at 43 of. Every year, Nate gained a pass, and that’s unheard of in this sport,” Tynan says. “The first time he ran 41 of, he was in drysuit — as in the big Kokatat plastic bag — like a flying squirrel! He keeps joking he’s going to show up on the starting dock for a pro event in a drysuit. I’m still waiting!”
Every practice day, Smith shows up and they ski. He doesn’t get overly technical, just runs right down the rope. He doesn’t run back-to-back passes at any line length. He just goes out and acts like it’s a tournament every time he’s on the water. “We’ll each ski a set. I’ll ski a second, while he usually skips the second one,” Tynan says. “But he skis a set every day.” When Tynan started skiing with Smith, he had no idea that the kid would one day rise to the top of the men’s slalom rankings. But even at age 17, Smith’s dedication to skiing shone through — he’d come down in the middle of winter and crack ice of the lake to get out on the water. “That’s dedication,” Tynan says. “In hindsight, even though I had no idea at the time, and perhaps he didn’t either, it was a very clear path to success.”
