Black Crows

Nocta Ski

Think about the last ski dream you had. Chances are good it involved you surfing effortlessly through powder on boards that refused to sink, and you probably were also the best skier on the mountain. While that last bit is probably going to stay relegated to your dreams for now, having a set of planks that float like a water ski in the deep and steep is actually possible on this side of consciousness. Want to see for yourself? Take a look the Black Crows Nocta Air Ski. Brought to life in the shadows of Mont Blanc and les Alpes, the Nocta Air comes with big-mountain pedigree, and its Titanic proportions making it damn-near impossible to sink.

When you consider that the Nocta features a huge 146mm shovel that barely tapers into a 122mm waist, it begins to get a little easier to imagine that this ski lives for cold smoke and bottomless pow. Unlike the big boat that history also claimed was unsinkable, the Nocta will dance, rather than chug, down the mountain. You can thank Black Crows' wise addition of a lightweight paulownia-poplar wood core for that. It shaves more than a full two pounds from previous versions of the Nocta.

Like any self-respecting pair of powder skis, the Nocta naturally want to slash, scrub, and slarve turns through the trees with a heavily rockered tip and tail. Mild camber underfoot offers enough edge-hold for when you're forced to ski groomers to get back to the lift. A semi-cap construction adds to the Nocta's overall stability, which puts full-length ABS sidewalls above the ski's lightweight edges for effective power transmission, resulting in a solid and stable feel whether you're straightlining pillow lines in Hokkaido or blasting down the frontside to get back to a bowl. Carbon-infused triaxial and biaxial fiberglass laminates above and below its energetic wood core keep the ski light, while adding to its torsional ridgidity.