Ogasaka ET-8.5 Skis 2027

The OGASAKA ET-8.5 is an all-mountain ski, 85 mm at the waist, and the narrowest and lightest model in OGASAKA's E-TURN line. OGASAKA is unusually blunt about where it belongs: its published terrain score is Powder 3, Ski slope 8, under the label "For use on the slopes."

It is a sandwich build, made in Japan, on an NF wood core of the ultra-lightweight grade, with special F.R.P. There is no metal in it. OGASAKA's construction diagram gives that reinforcement layer as special F.R.P plus an aluminum sheet, or special F.R.P alone, and this ski takes the second reading, and the U-PE takes the first. And note what OGASAKA leaves out: it does not say what fiber the F.R.P uses. The weight follows the subtraction — 851 g/m, against 933 for the ET-9.8 and 958 for the U-PE, a ski 4 mm narrower than this one. One structure mark sits on the row, FLF (Front Lead Function); no E-TURN carries the Front Float System. The published profile is a single phrase: TOP ROCKER.

Four lengths run 158 to 182 cm, with the radius stretching 12.3 m to 17.3 m — the shortest arcs in the line. This is a ski for the intermediate-to-advanced piste skier whose soft snow is the powder beside the trail, the trees, the terrain off the side. It is the wrong ski for deep snow: OGASAKA's own score is Powder 3 out of 10, and it builds four wider E-TURNs above this one. It is the wrong ski for anyone chasing hard-snow grip at speed, because there is no aluminum in it and the U-PE, 4 mm narrower, carries an A7178 sheet. Short-radius carvers should be on a carving ski.

The ET-8.5 ships flat, so it needs a binding and a mount, and the brake has to clear 85 mm. We do both. The review below covers the on-snow record, the ET-9.8 decision at the identical $1,085, and length.

Technical Specs