Review: Black Crows Navis 186

[LittleWoodsie]

I have had these skis for about a month now and thought I would contribute my thoughts on them as there is not a lot of info on TGR, with the skis not being easily available in the States.

Me.
Height: 190cm (6'3")
Weight: 100kg (220lbs)
Age: 41
Ability: 12+ years of sking. Strong advanced skier on a good day. Ski like a fat chick on her rags on a bad day, as one of my mates so nicely put it infront of a croud of people.
Freeride skis I have owned: Bandit XX & Bandit B3 (Yeah, I know, not that freeride by this forum's standards)
Freeride skis I have tried: Hendrix Rhino Chargers, the old ones with that wierd ass 16m radius that ski like shit, K2 Obseths, K2 Coombas, Whitedot Preachers and Volkl Gotamas.

The skis Black Crows Navis 186
For those not familiar with them, Black Crows is a small ski company run by a couple of French guys based in Chamonix. You see a lot of them around Chamonix but not much outside of the immediate area. The skis where designed specifically with Chamonix conditions in mind, which can vary from steep, icey coloirs to wide open, untracked powder to skied out melt/refreeze crud - all in a single run.

The Navis are a positive camber twintip with an almost traditional sidecut 23m 133-103-124. I say almost, as the first 20-30cm of the tip has a very slight reverse sidecut to them. The noses of the skis are quite soft with the rest of the ski back to the tails being very stiff.

I have mine mounted with Dukes in the standard position.

Impressions
I love these skis for everything except icey pistes. But they are a freeride ski, so I don't expect much from them in those conditions. Of the other skis I have tried, I think these are most like the Gotamas, but better at most things. So I will make comparisons with the Gotamas as people are probably more familiar with these.

I first tried these skis in trees in thigh deep powder and have since skied them a few more times in boot deep powder in the trees. These skis just absolutely love these conditions. They are solid enough underfoot to allow you to straightline it through the trees knowing that when you need to you can turn them on a dime. Compress the skis into the powder and they just pop straight back out letting you spin them almost on the spot.

Due to the weather conditions this month and a knee injury I have not been able to really push them at speed on open powder fields yet. But if you want to do warp speed, Black Crows have the Corvus which a mate of mine absolutely loves at speed. But from what I have done in the powder, these are a great ski which just seem to get better as I push them faster. This is where the tip design really seems to work, floating well (not as well as a dedicated powder ski of course) and the faster you go the more the tips stay ontop of the snow. They also don't show the tendancy to hook up that I found with the Gotamas if you get lazy.

I hate wind crust or melt/refreeze crust. I really just can't ski that shit. So my first few tentative attempts with the Navis did not go so well. But as I my confidence has grown, and I have been more willing to let the skis have their head and pick up a bit more speed the better they have felt. Snow has been good the last couple of weeks. But I am sure that when spring comes around these skis are going to make me wonder what my problem was with skiing crust.

The stiffness of the main section of the skis also makes these skis really fun on boilerplate too, and carve nicely on the piste. Not as good in these conditions as the Gotamas. But they hold a strong, predictable edge and easily absorb and bumps and ridges at any speed. They get a bit sketchy if the piste gets too icey. But keep your weight centred (The soft nose doesn't like you getting your weight too far forward like you would on a race carver) and 50/50 on the skis and they side slip very controllably. They don't display that unpleasant grab-release-grab-release behaviour of some fat skis.

So, are you still reading? In summary, I love these skis more than any ski I have ever owned. They are unfailing in putting a smile on my face. They are constantly making me want to get "one more run in" even when I am so sore and tired I should have gone for a beer ages ago.

[LittleWoodsie]

Oh, a quick thing to add. An earlier thread complained about the base strength and preparation on a set of Navis. I have had no problems with my bases, so this has been fixed or that was a bad copy. Mine run smooth and fast. I have also kissed a few rocks with minimal damage to the bases and edges.

[philippeR]

Interesting, thanks.
At your height and weight, why not a Corvus ?

[LittleWoodsie]

Interesting, thanks.
At your height and weight, why not a Corvus ?

Partly because of the extra €100 for the Corvus. Mainly because my mate who has the Corvus is stronger and ballsier then me and finds the Corvus a bit of a handfull in anything but big mountain powder fields. On the Kitzsteinhorn and Zell am See it is mainly gulleys and trees. So I swallowed my ego, was honest about my ability in those conditions and decided that a 186 would be plenty enough ski for me. If, one day I decide I want something for the big days I will probably go for something fatter with a rocker like a Lhasa 196, Megawatt 188 or Praxis Big Mountain 120. But will have to feel that I am really outskiing the Navis to justify that, which I am not at the moment.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, my favourite thing about these skis. In the trees in powder I feel like the pros look in the movies. I am absolutely sure I don't look anything like pros. But it feels that good, and that is enough to put a smile on my face. At the end of the day, that is what it is all about, right?

[LittleWoodsie]

The weather cleared today, fresh snow and the dodgy knee was strong. So I got a chance to open up the speed on these. I don't know how the "pro" riders would feel about it, but they where still stable at speeds that scared me. Didn't notice anybody overtaking me either. Still handled the speed well when things got tracked out, soaking up the bumps real nice.

[Howie]

See a bunch of these on the local hill. Really nice skis. Graphics are sick. Great review

[verbier61]

plenty of black crows in verb, and - apart from some scandi TGR tourists (heh...) - I've only heard good things about them from people who still likes old-style positive camber skis..... being sold to rocker, though, I've never tried them by myself yet...

[wrightn]

Thanks for the great review.

What are these skis like for freestyle (ie, skiing switch, jumping, spinning)?

Thanks.

[sf]

I wouldn't buy these for what you call freestyle. You can huck and you can do basic tricks BC, but especially skiing switch is not what these skis are made for. The design of the ski, long taper in the tips and a mountingpoint pretty far back doesn't make for a good freestyleski.
Great ski for what it's made for though

[Poop~Ghost]

Holy fuck... the french are fucking weirder than the beyond department of bed, bath and beyond.

[skibum93]

It's a cool topsheet though.

[seanray]

Love the black crows, I have the corvus, great ski. Anybody have anything to say about the newer model the "sevun"?

[JRiph]

Tried it just for one run on polished hardpack. So all usual disclaimers apply.
Not my cup of tea. quite stiff and planky and wide feeling even though I ski on much wider skies myself.. (but i'm very light 65kg)
Multi radius sidecut a bit odd feeling

But on powder/chop it might be really good, and sometimes you have to adjust a bit to a different design.

Did like Navis 186 and the Corvus 196,5 (but too big and heavy for me for practical purposes) but I do like the bulldozer feel. roll it on edge, point and destroy