The Black Crows Camox is a new ski in Black Crows’ All-Terrain collection. It has a 97 mm waist width, a 20 m turn radius, uses tip and tail rocker with medium-height camber underfoot. Black Crows describes the flex profile as comfortable and friendly. At the ski’s core is poplar wood, a material that’s both relatively dense and reasonably lightweight. Black Crows mentions that its DNA is “derived from freestyle,” which is likely where its “tolerant and playful” attitude is coming from. Despite that freestyle-influence, Black Crows also claims it to be stable on edge thanks to the fact it doesn’t use much early taper, which provides long edge contact. As a new ski for Black Crows, and considering Black Crows is a new brand for SkiEssentials.com, we were extremely excited to test this ski.
Dave Carter tested the 174.2 cm length and he found it to be a versatile, fun ski. Relatively high scores from Dave, too, with stability, quickness/maneuverability, forgiveness, torsional stiffness/edge grip, and overall impression all earning a solid 4 out of 5. Dave thought it was a “good overall ski,” which we could’ve guessed based off those good scores. He described it as “stable at speeds and versatile enough for bumps.” That’s the idea behind the Camox. It’s intended to be able to ski at speed, drive some carving turns, but perhaps most-importantly, play and maneuver.
Kelsey Boleski tested the 174.2 cm length in the Camox, which happens to be the longest length available in the women’s Camox Birdie line, but Kelsey mentioned she would’ve liked to go longer in length, which would’ve bumped her up to the 180.4 cm men’s ski. Kelsey actually found high levels of stability out of the Camox, with stability and torsional stiffness/edge grip emerging as her highest scores, both earning 4.5 out of 5. No particularly low scores from Kelsey. Flotation and forgiveness, both at 3 out of 5, mark the low point for her scores. She described it as “wanting to stay glued to the tail and rail every turn.” The Camox seems to be the type of ski that will adapt to how you want to ski it and your own personality as a skier, which is supported by the feedback of our next tester.
Unlike Kelsey, Josh Wolfgang found a preference for playfulness and maneuverability in the Camox. All 4’s out of 5 from Josh for scores, with the exception of torsional stiffness/edge hold, which dropped all the way down to 2 out of 5. “This was overall a really fun ski that wants to play. Not great at carving on-piste, but that’s not what they are made for.” Josh certainly isn’t wrong. Carving performance is not the dedicated goal of the Camox. On the other hand, it excels as a versatile ski based on the feedback from all our testers. Josh, specifically, had the most fun “slashing on the side of the trail and hitting small jumps.” He did mention that he “didn’t get to try to ski on soft snow, but can tell it would be fun.”
The Camox is just a fun, versatile, mid-fat, kinda-wide all-mountain ski. This is the type of ski you can buy and know that you’ll have a ski that you can take anywhere, anytime, and in any snow conditions. It has the edge grip you need to have fun on groomers and firm snow, it has the maneuverability and fun-factor to satisfy playful skiers, and it’s a high-performance ski that’s accessible and approachable for intermediate level skiers. Considering it can be all those things, we can recommend it to a lot of different skiers. No matter how you like to ski, there’s a good chance you’ll have fun on the Camox.
