Love for the Lake

When Nate Smith was eight years old, he was the typical Indiana child. Baseball and basketball filled his sporting world and cartoons helped him pass the time. Then his family moved to a private lake near McCordsville. "That changed my life," said Smith, who will be a senior at Mount Vernon High School this fall. "I was hooked the minute I saw the water." Smith is now one of the nation's top-ranked slalom skiers. He is currently ranked second in his age group by USA Water Skiing and is the defending national champion in his age group. Once his family moved to McCordsville, Smith instantly took to the water. He has spent countless hours behind his dad's boat and he has followed his father's advice to become one of the nation's top skiers. "My dad has basically been my only coach," Smith said. "He liked to ski and that's why we moved here. He's pretty much taught me everything I know." And that includes how to compete in tournaments. "I remember when he was about 10, we had to start on our tournament at our lake just so he would know what competition is like," said Kevin Smith, Nate's dad. "I knew he was good on skis, but skiing in competition is a lot different so we had to create our own." Since then, Nate has helped his family travel around the country attending ski tournaments. Nate is a two-time national champion and has spent several summers in Alabama at a specialized water skiing camp. As with most sports, it's the time spent practicing that leads to success. Nate couldn't even begin calculating how many hours he has spent being towed by a boat, but he figures it has to be more than 1,000. "In this sport, you have to be patient," he said. "Learning how to ski doesn't all come at once and then learning new tricks doesn't all come at once either. You have to be willing to get into the water and spend hours falling down and getting up. That's the only way you can get better." At first, though, Nate wasn't thrilled with the grind of practice. "The thing that drew me to this sport was just being near water," he said. "It's fun just to be in the water. My dad knew a lot of people who liked to ski and that got me interested in the sport. Once we moved out here to the lake, I pretty much spent all my time on the water." After he won his first tournament, he was hooked. It didn't even matter to him that it was a self-planned, self-promoted tournament that involved mostly neighborhood friends. "I guess because I won that first tournament I just wanted to stay with it," he said. "Once I had some success and I knew I was pretty good, it was easy to stay with it." Smith won his first state tournament when he was 12 and his first national title when he was 15. Both times he won nationals, the tournament was in Houston. This year's nationals are in mid-August in West Palm Beach, Florida. "We've been all over the country for tournaments," Smith said. "That just adds to the fun of this sport." Smith hopes to someday ski professionally and he would love to compete at the World Championships in Chili, but for now he's content with preparing for a shot at another national title and then his senior year of high school. "I just want to keep skiing and getting better at this sport," he said. "Being able to do this professionally is my ultimate goal. I'll just have to keep practicing to make that happen."