As a fan of quick-turning twin tips, you could say I am pretty enthralled by a ski like the Black Crows Captis. This was my first impression after getting on it a few years ago, and that feeling carries forward into 2023. With a new mold and less taper than the previous version, the Captis doesn’t quite undergo a wholesale change, but it’s enough to make moderate and appropriate improvements to an already-wonderful ski. While most Black Crows skis can stand on their own, especially not being part of a “line” of skis within the Crows’ brand, the Captis, at 90 mm underfoot, is basically a narrower Atris but with more freestyle rather than freeride influence. The simplicity of the ski is one of its strengths, as it makes the Captis incredibly friendly and accessible to a huge range of skiers.

The construction of the ski is fairly straight-forward, as it relies on a full poplar core with two sheets of fiberglass, and that’s about it. There’s not a whole lot else to discuss when it comes to build—there's a great blend of lighter weight and fantastic energy. The 178 cm length tips the scale at 1878 grams, so it’s right in the sweet spot for having enough mass to carry it through adverse conditions while keeping it light enough for maneuverability, agility, and freestyle prowess. The flex of the ski is fairly consistent, as most twin-tipped skis should be, with equal stiffness in the tips, forebody, rear section, and tail—it's a very smooth and progressive flex that lends to the playful and fun-loving nature of the ski. This is the kind of performance and character skiers can expect from a fairly simplistic and consistent construction.

---

When we get to shape and profile, the Captis starts to get a bit more interesting. First and foremost, this is a twin-tipped ski that falls on the all-mountain side of the spectrum rather than a true twin that belongs exclusively in the park. The twin tip is there to increase playfulness, add freestyle to the regimen, and create a fun-loving release from turns in softer snow. It’s certainly enough of a twin, especially when combined with the even flex, to make it a great switch-skiing ski, as evidenced by Jeff’s comfort with high-speed backwards performance. One of the features of the new Captis for 2023 is a new mold that allows for less taper and a longer effective edge. This seems to makes sense for a twin tip of this width—leaving the increased and more dramatic taper to the wider skis like Atris for when it comes to soft snow and playful flotation. As a result for Captis, the ski gets a smooth and predictable carve that’s predictable and stable without being twitchy. Something like a DPS Pagoda 90 RP, for example, with a short radius and more taper, doesn’t feel quite as controlled as the more traditionally shaped Captis. With an 18-meter turn radius, Captis is able to make a variety of turn shapes and styles, ranging from short and quick mogul-style turns all the way to longer more GS-oriented curves. The slightly longer radius, combined with the round flex allows for consistent and constant edge contact to increase the snow feel and silky nature of the ski.

There’s not a whole lot of rocker to go along with this ski, and I think that makes sense given the longer effective edge and the freestyle character. There’s plenty of camber underfoot, and it’s fairly symmetrical, extending to the ends of the ski, allowing the skier to take full advantage of the energy stored in the ski. While this doesn’t exactly translate to drifty and smeary skiing in fresh and deep snow, it certainly comes in handy in firmer snow and carved turns. If you’re looking to get pop out of a ski without additional materials such as metal, carbon, or flax, you need to build it into the ski via a more cambered profile. Then you can access the true performance of the ski, and it works great as a result.

Like always, it all comes down to performance and feel. In this realm, Captis has a lot of special attributes that we love about the ski. At 90 mm underfoot, it’s going to be called upon to do a whole lot of things, and for us here in Vermont, it mostly starts on groomers. The cambered profile, long effective edge, and smooth flex pattern allows Captis to roll from edge to edge with ease. The most fun part about carving on this ski is that you can vary your pressure through the turn to make it behave differently at multiple points during the turn. This makes the Captis very accessible for a wide range of abilities. If you’re a heavier expert, you can really bend this ski to your will, and while that will become a bit of a limitation at higher speeds for this skier, at low to mid-range speeds and shapes, the Captis turns beautifully. The camber delivers exceptional edge grip for a simple build, and it’s a sheer joy to ski at its intended radius. When you shorten it up, and make quick turns, the Captis is happy to oblige, but you do start feeling the width at this point. It’s not quite as snappy or poppy as more directional skis like Elan’s Ripstick 88, but it certainly holds its own in this realm.

In a non-groomer situation, the Captis really starts to come alive, especially in terms of versatility and playfulness—two areas in which Captis excels. Starting the woods, the twin tip shape allows for easy transitions between turns, especially when it gets tight. At 90 mm underfoot, it’s not the best floater for when the snow is deep, but there’s a lot of times here in Vermont when we’re skiing in mostly packed snow in the trees, and in this sense, the Captis is super-useful and a whole lot of fun. I’m a huge fan of the twin tip in the trees as well, since you can back out of tricky spots without digging in, allowing you to continue your run with less interruptions and increased flow. In deeper snow and trees, the Captis is a bit narrow and slightly more cambered than you’d want, and it’s at these points that the wider and more freeride-oriented Atris would come in handy. But for the most part, the type of tree skiing that we see here in New England is ideally suited to a ski more of Captis’ ilk. For bumps, there aren’t many skis I’d rather be on than Captis. The flex and pop makes it an ideal choice for zipper lines, wider moguls, spring bumps, and even icy and firm challenges. It’s not quite as agile as the older Captis, and that’s a bit of a nit-picky thing since overall. It’s still quite quick, but it is a slight change that at least for moguls, isn’t an improvement. The same can be said about powder and softer snow. It does fine, and for most ~90 mm underfoot skis, it’s on the upper side of the performance spectrum, but with less taper, it just doesn’t feel quite as smeary or drifty. For powder, if you’re going to be on a narrower ski like this, it’s very helpful to have that spoonier shape in the tips and tails. Overall, I’ll take this tradeoff, as the Captis of 2023 is a more complete and smoother overall ski, with just a few limitations that I feel most skiers can overlook and overcome.

Jeff’s Experience:

---

I always enjoy these twin tip reviews. It really allows me to think through the lens of a park skier again. Is the Captis a park ski? I think yes and no. With the –6 cm mount point, it’s more forward than some, but more directional than true dedicated park skis. That concept carries over to their feel on snow. There’s way more park influence here than most skis, but I think a dedicated park skier would want something with a slightly more symmetrical. With that said, it positions the Captis as a really valuable choice for a lot of skiers. I can’t tell you how many times we receive comments and questions along the lines of “I want a good all-mountain ski, but want to learn some park,” and the Captis is such a good choice for a skier like that. It’s rewarding and fun as a directional skier, and balanced enough that you’d need to have fairly specific demands as a park skier to not enjoy it. So, I’d say for 80-90% of people entering the terrain park from time to time, it’s great.

Its performance around the rest of the mountain might impress me more, however. For me, it’s a very rhythmic and rewarding ski. It definitely has its limitations as a carving ski, especially if you were to line it up against something like the Serpo, but what it lacks in strength, it makes up for in energy. You barely need to bend it at all the achieve a really fun, poppy, snappy finish to a turn. That lets you ski it in a casual, fun-loving manner, without feeling like you’re just along for the ride on a stiff, planky ski. I personally thought it felt like a shorter turn radius than stated on paper too. So easy to bend the Captis into shorter arcs, so don’t be thrown off by the 18 m turn radius thinking it’s only going to want to make bigger, sweeping turns. If anything, it prefers shorter turns, whether we’re talking carves or skidded turns.

We’ve touched on a number of well-rounded skis for 2023 so far this year, and have found that they all have fantastic ranges of skier type and character. The Captis definitely falls on the playful and freestyle end of the spectrum, especially versus a stiffer, more directional model such as the Head Kore 93. What that ski has in stiffness and power, the Captis takes the other way in terms of fun-loving and maneuverable behavior. Intermediates who are progressing, experts who want something quick and agile, and park skiers looking to blend the freestyle and the all-mountain will all find a home on Captis. It’s a sturdy ski that has a predictable flex, fantastic energy, and an accessible personality that is loved by a wide range of skiers.

---

Written by Bob St.Pierre & Jeff Neagle on 1/5/23