Josh Malay passed away on feb 28th around 6:30 pm. Josh was a pro snowboarder and very talented artist. His artwork may have been best known on the k2 seth pistol. RIP josh we'll miss you bro.
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Josh Malay passed away on feb 28th around 6:30 pm. Josh was a pro snowboarder and very talented artist. His artwork may have been best known on the k2 seth pistol. RIP josh we'll miss you bro.
so those injuries proved fatal? Crap, he was so talented too. RIP.
RIP
Apparently smashed his head into a rock in spain or something, fractured his skull severely. Go to www.k2factoryteam.com boards for more info, seth had a post up on it.
"Well I am sorry to report that Josh Malay has sustained a head injury on his first day on a film trip with Trans World in Spain. For those of you that don't know, Josh has hand drawn the graphics for this year and last years Pistols. Last week we received some graphics for next seasons skis from him. He is a sponsored snowboarder that is making a name for himself in the snowboard community as a jibber.
From what I was told he landed on a rock head first. Broke his skull, he was talking before the doctors put him into an induced coma. Hopefully he will come out of this alright, but sounds like one out of three doctors there said that he may not make it.
He is currently in a hospital in Barcelona, Spain where he will under go some neuro surgery.
Please send out some good thoughts for Josh. I hope all the best for him. He was not wearing a helmet, so if you are raising your bar on the slopes please consider wearing a helmet, it may help you someday, when you least expect it.
I will let you all know the progress of the situation."
-Sid aka Seth M.
Was he the one that was interviewed on the Helly Hansen DVD? He seemed like a really cool guy.
God Bless. :(
World-class snowboarder Josh Malay, a 23-year-old Prior Lake native, has died from a head injury suffered while riding in the Spanish Pyrenees.
Malay moved to the Vail Valley in Colorado to pursue snowboarding more than four years ago after graduating from an alternative high school in Chaska. He was described by his brother Sean Malay, 18, as a free-spirited risk-taker both on and off his snowboard, but also as a generous, kind friend who loved teaching young kids the sport.
“He couldn’t wake up without breaking the law or doing something dangerous for the day,” said Sean Malay, who lives with their mother, Patricia Malay, in Burnsville. But, he added, “You could come to him with any problem. He would leave you walking away with a smile.”
Malay hit his head Friday while riding in the Pyrenees. He was transported to a hospital in Barcelona and taken off life support Saturday after his mother arrived from Minnesota.
As Sean Malay recalled, his brother had skied from the time he was 8 years old. Then when a neighbor boy got a snowboard, Josh pleaded with his parents until he got one, too. He took to it immediately and rarely missed an opportunity to ride.
Before long, Josh Malay was an after-school fixture on the hills at Hyland Park in Bloomington and was beating kids much older in the competitions at Buck Hill in Burnsville.
“It was so natural; it was so easy for him,” Sean Malay said.
Josh Malay’s profile was rising in the months before his death, according to reports in the Vail Daily News.
Last fall he was featured on the cover of Snowboarder magazine doing a backside boardslide down a fire escape in the abandoned mining town of Gilman.
The shot gave give him street credibility and high-profile opportunities, including the final trip, the newspaper said.
The trip, sponsored by Transworld Snowboarding Magazine, was for an upcoming story. Malay and fellow boarders were being followed by photographers on the ride.
In February, Malay told a Vail Daily reporter that his mother and his father, Tom Malay of Bloomington, weren’t initially thrilled with his decision to not go to college.
“I’ve learned more from this than I think I would have sitting in a classroom,” he said. “I’ve been traveling, I’ve met so many people. There’s always time for school.”
Malay was acquainted with the dangers of his sport. “I’ve walked myself to the emergency room so many times,” Malay said to the Vail Daily. “They know me by my first name. They’re like, ‘Hey, what’s up?’ ”
Sean Malay said he didn’t know the details of the fatal accident, but he understood why Josh did what he did. “He loved it. That’s all,” he said.
Patricia Malay was to travel to Denver from Spain today. His teammates were expected to return shortly thereafter with his remains. Service arrangements are pending.
There's a story on it here- www.summitdaily.com
RIP, that really blows ass.
I hate hearing about shit like this. MC, Aaron Martin, Jeff Anderson, Tristan Picot and now Josh Malay. The snow community has lost a lot in the last couple years and it bums me out every single time. RIP boys.
Really, really sad. RIP.
Here's some info about him:
Interview on K2 Site.
http://www.scskate.com/snow/images/t...lay_stairs.jpg
RIP.
People - if you're leaping about over rocks, wear a freakin' helmet! I'm afraid it may only be a matter of time before we're reading a similar post about someone like Jamie Pierre.
Condolences to the family.
From today's Denver Post:
Snowboarding community mourns loss of 'nice guy'
By Scott Willoughby
Special to The Denver Post
It was Josh Malay's time.
By all accounts, the 23-year-old Vail Team rider was blowing up, his name and images showing up in snowboarding magazines and videos his talents coming into focus like the evening star at twilight. Malay's six-year pursuit of the dream to become a professional snowboarder had been confirmed with a photo showcasing his abilities on a dicey blindsided rail slide in an abandoned Colorado mining town that ran on the cover of Snowboarder Magazine last fall, one of several impressive achievements that earned him a sponsorship contract with Santa Cruz snowboards this winter.
His undeniable skills, work ethic and infectious good nature had led to another photo shoot for a story in TransWorld Snowboarding last week, when Malay took an awkward fall and hit his head hard on a rock in the Pyrenees Mountains of Spain. The crash left him in a coma for two days before he was declared dead early Sunday morning. Friends, family and admirers were left wondering why.
"He was really just being introduced to the whole world, and everybody loved him," said Jeff Potto, the Summit County-based photographer who captured the image of Malay's now-famous rail slide. "It had to be some kind of divine intervention. He was a kid you couldn't pay to fall."
According to reports, Malay wasn't doing anything spectacular when the freak accident occurred between shoots last Friday. Friends say he rode over a relatively small cliff (5 to 10 feet) and lost his balance before hitting the rock, an unfathomable accident for a rider renowned for sticking 40-foot cliff drops and high-wire rail slides. As an ambassador for Beaver Creek Resort's "Parkology" program, Malay was considered extremely safety-conscious and was prone to wearing a helmet whenever he wasn't comfortable with a stunt. "Ego" is not a word used to describe his approach to snowboarding, or to life.
Growing up in Prior Lake, Minn., Malay moved to the Vail Valley at age 17, skipping college after graduating from high school a semester early and pursuing a career in snowboarding. Riding since age 10, he was considered a natural talent who "impressed everybody."
But beyond his skills on a snowboard, Malay likely will be remembered most for his zest for life and talents as a mixed-media artist. Malay designed the graphics for the popular Seth Morrison pro model ski, the K2 Seth Pistol.
Potto recalls a punk-rock rider who showed up on the mountain six years ago in pink jackets and florescent yellow pants with a spray-painted board reflective of his artistic nature. Malay's flamboyant style was accented by what he liked to call the "hot garbage," including thrift store beanies and sweat bands, tacky stickers strategically placed over baseball cap logos and a female friend's scarf that he wore in a belt loop of his snowboard pants for more than a year.
"He was on his own program, certainly not a conformist," Potto said. "As funny as it is, he was more interested in other things in life. He had an old soul, a different understanding of what's important in the world. He was just proving to his family that his decision to leave at such a young age was the right decision."
Malay made his mark on the snowboard community through a contagious enthusiasm that seemed to spread to everyone he encountered, on or off the slopes. He was considered the consummate perfectionist, not satisfied with merely hitting a jump, but working for hours to add an extra element to the trick. Yet he was more likely to grow excited by the success of others.
When a young rider was escorted into The Other Side snowboard shop (another sponsor) at Beaver Creek, Malay would try to convince his grandfather to take up the sport too. The only life goal listed on his Santa Cruz team rider bio is "to stay happy." A week before his death, the Vail Daily newspaper ran a feature story titled simply, "Josh Malay is a nice guy."
"He was an incredibly positive, happy guy with a crazy laugh and a constant smile. His sincerity stood out the most," Vail snowboard coordinator and team manager Liz Weiss said. "He did not take anything for granted and was extremely appreciative of everything. He lived his life to the fullest. I will miss him dearly."
Many will mourn the loss of Malay, consoled ever so slightly by the notion that the young rider was living his dream and died doing what he loved most on an adventure of a lifetime.
"The people who knew Josh within the microcosm of the snowboard world, they all knew what was coming from him," Potto said. "The stuff he's been doing recently, the photos and videos, that was all speaking for itself. He was on the short list on the way to superstardom. That's the tragedy, that he won't realize that. He was just getting started."
If anyone is in the Vail area this Saturday the 6th, there will a wake for Josh at the top of the Centenial Chair at Beaver Creek at 8:30am. They will be letting people up the chair at 8:00am. hopefully some of you will go.