Black Crows Navis Freebird Review

**Huskier** · 02-17-2019, 08:55 PM

Given that advice received here resulted directly in their purchase, I thought it fitting to give 0.02.

Me: 6'2, 190 and getting fat. Will ski anything but my garbage form tends to jive with chargey loose/surfy.
Skis enjoyed: Protest, Billy goat, Lhasas, Praxis BC
Skis not enjoyed: pre-backland series atomics (too soft, turny) K2 powabunga (too soft), line sick day tourist (fine flex, just meh at everything)

Conditions skied: Warm Cascade concrete, inches of good pow, dust on crust, unsupportable funky chicken crust, and polished boiler plate

So, I got these in anticipation of a bad Northwest El nino year: something that would handle and hold an edge inbounds but then transition to my spring touring workhorse. So far, exactly as billed.

Weight: around ***/pair, 100g lighter than the BD Route, heavier than the zeroG by about twice that.
I will say their swing weight is noticably low, and the result is that they are quite maneuverable/eager in jump turns.

Flex: moderate, easily driven. Supportive tails. I do wish the tips had more beef to their flex: they do deflect a little in chop (as one might expect a lighter touring rig to do) but don't flap too bad.

Profile: adequate rocker upfront to float as needed, but still modest enough to maximize effective edge and useful surface when skins are on. Tails are flat, and I was warned about them locking up in a turn, but really as you're not in the backseat 24/7 they're fine. The only time I was slightly annoyed was in unsupportable crust, when I did feel that the flat tails became a bit of a liability. I did feel that my old BC's with their slightly upturned tail did allow for more maneuverability on demand, which can be useful in dicier coulairs, etc. Sidecut is on the smaller side: eager to fall into ~ their stated radius but also fine breaking out into something bigger/slarvy-er.

Edge hold: you do have to drive them to get them to bite well but they will hold an edge well, sort of as expected for their width.

Durability: obviously, I've not subjected them to intentional thrashing, but wear seems about average. I will comment that the base material isn't nearly as robust as my Praxi or the Goats, maybe a weight saving move who knows, but plenty of scratches from incidentals, etc.

That's what I got so far. Buddies w my boot size picked up ZeroG95 and BD Route this year, so perhaps an updated comparo when spring rolls around...

**galibier_numero_un** · 02-03-2020, 05:26 PM

Updates, anyone?

This 100-ish category has been driving me nuts.

Specifically, I'm after a Springtime (or low tide Winter) Colorado ski that'll take me through a range of terrain and snow - from crusty couloirs to sloppy, mushy end of day crap.

Maybe I should just ski better ;-)

Am I looking at something like Z-G 105s?

A Yeti? I keep thinking it may be too close to my EXPs.

... Thom

**Samski360** · 02-26-2020, 04:22 PM

Can anyone confirm the mount point on these? Looking at the geo charts (that black crows doesn’t seem to publish anymore) it looks like the mountain point is -12.5 from true center. That seems insanely far back considering the camox Is -8.5 and Corvus FB is -10.5.

**NWFlow** · 02-26-2020, 05:01 PM

Like em don't love em. They are good as long as the snow is a bit soft, but I haven't clicked with them in hard snow. Fairly predictable and like to be skied actively. I mounted mine +1,5 just because recommended was so far back