Malay Day and Methods
A few weeks ago I read the post from Transworld Snow about Malay Day down in Beaver Creek, CO. Cruising through the photo gallery I noticed an image of Travis Young, winner of the Biggest Method category, riding a split with some Spark R&D Blaze bindings.
Travis Young, doin' work in the park on his Blaze bindings
I was able to track down Travis and congratulate him on his riding, and share my appreciation for him giving Spark some representation in the park. Here is what Travis had to say when I asked him about the event:
The event is called the Malay day. Josh Malay was a up & coming pro from this area that was injured & killed back in 2002. He was a friend of mine & a lot of people from this area had huge respect for him. There is all kinds of info on him in Transworld snowboard mag. http://snowboarding.transworld.net/1000151832/featuresobf/malay-day/?comment=true&pid=42640#ngtop
Anyways it is a big contest that we have had every year since his death to honor him & just celebrate the snowboard scene around these parts.
I decided to enter the contest & ride my split just because i love split boarding and wanted to show all the bros how far splitting has come. As well as how good the sparks R&D bindings are! I am an old semi pro from this area & know a lot of people involved with big mountain riding around the world. I ended up winning the biggest Method contest that day and second in overall destroyer award. Gags from Never summer hooked me up with a new board that i am pumped on. I actually haven’t ridden the board yet because all i ever do is skin up into the Gore Range with my buddies & ride POW, ha. This area has had the best winter in a long time & the snowpack is epic right now. It is dumping good cold snow as i write this. It has been amazing.
With out the Sparks R&D bindings i was not totally convinced on split boarding, & was actually using a pair of collapsible approach skis that i was trying to invent for the last few years. Good thing you guys revolutionized the sport, now i don’t have to carry the board on my back up the hill & don’t have any extra weight on my way down. I can honestly say that with your bindings and my new Lib Tech T.rice split, i have full confidence in any condition!
Over here at Spark we love shred events for the cause, splitboard or no. I too was fortunate enough to have ridden with Josh and know he would’ve been stoked for Travis, holding it down on a splitboard. A tip of the hat goes out to Travis Young for the riding, as well as a little box of goodies from Spark R&D.
Also, a big thank you to Matt Alberts for the photo. Keep em coming Matt!
www.mattalbertsphoto.com