Black Crows has fat figured out. Despite being 122mm across at its narrowest point, the Nocta feels light enough to toss around all day. It’s torsionally fairly soft, which helps a ski this wide be more manageable. If you want to do a short turn, you’ll have to swivel the Nocta rather than carve it, as it’s gradual, long-radius sidecut isn’t cut out for short-turn duty. To compensate, the Nocta responds with a little pop off the edge when its glass laminates are compressed.

What a 122mm ski won’t do is readily rise to a high edge angle. Kept at the relatively low edge angles preferred by Finesse skiers, the Nocta’s natural trajectory will be a fairly shallow arc, but speed is easily maintained by throwing in a smear here and there. With its combination of light weight, high surface area and playful response, the Nocta is particularly adept at setting a rhythmic pace that allows its pilot to exert close to zero energy to extract maximum fun.