R.I.P. Ray Lang

Memorial services will be held at 4:00 p.m. on Monday, August 4, 2008, at the Marietta Chapel of Cawley & Peoples Funeral Home, with Pastor Steve Mahaffey officiating. The family will greet friends at a reception, at the funeral home, immediately following his services. Donations may be made to Washington County Boys and Girls Club, 136 Front St., Marietta, OH 45750. Cawley & Peoples Funeral Homes offers online condolences, by visiting their website, www.cawleyandpeoples.com

Condolences for Ray are being left here at the Funeral home and here at the newspaper.

"Ray Lang passed away this afternoon from internal injuries while competing at the AMA Amateur Nationals at Loretta Lynn's in Tennessee."

"This was his first race of the day and he got a great start a few turns in on one of the tabetops another rider colided with him mid air and Ray fell about 15-20 feet breaking most of the ribs on each side and causing massive internal bleeding that resulted in his death. "

"Today’s racing started on a somber note as a moment of silence and prayer was held for Senior 40+ rider Ray Lang, from Wheat Ridge, Colorado, who passed away late Tuesday afternoon after a mid-race collision with another rider left him with chest trauma. His passing marked the first in the 27-year history of the event. A short service was also held in his honor just before intermission. Godspeed, Ray Lang."

"Crashed on a double..got up..stood his bike up...then got landed on by another rider.... I just talked to Joe Dean, Ray's mechanic while he was there. He said Ray did not suffer from any broken bones or head injury. He took a handle bar to the chest and his lung filled up with blood befor they could figure out what was wrong with him."

"All his life Ray Lang loved things that went fast and high."

" Jackson said the other rider wasn't aware of the accident until the race was halted."

“He just loved living life and having a good time”

Ray or "Head" as we called him, was a long time Colorado Snowboard Rep. We met him way back when at Powder Tools Board Shop when he started with this little Canadian brand called Never, later to become Option. He sold us or tried to sell us Gillie Stix, Bat Waves, Test Pilot, Bamboo Curtain, Arbor, Special Blend, GMC/Defcon, Split, Fox, Business Bindings, Flow and Alpenstar thru the years. Damn, at one time the whole shop was wearing these dumb ass mittens that went up to our elbow's with Bats all over them because Ray told us they were cool in Idaho???

Head was also BMX fanatic. He's seen here on the left of the measuring stick with Matt Hoffman boosting a world record air way back in the "day."




I remember we were at this stupid ass snowboard / skateboard lifestyle show in Boulder back in 96 with Ray. They had this booty ass half pipe with dudes skating. Shit, I think Todd Richards was the star skater there. Anyway Ray grabs some ran-dumbs bike and climbs the ramp to give it a go. No helmet, the Head hangs up dropping in. 10" to flat, the Head splatted at the bottom. Memory loss, disorientation, concussion...Ray had it all but was ready to climb back up and give it another go. That is after he was discharged from the hospital.






















I last saw Ray in October when Kind Brother and I were doing the First Kiss movie tour thru Steamboat. We ran into Head at the local moto shop. He had just driven 8 hours from Southern Colorado to the Boat to get his collar bone fixed by one of the local surgeons. In typical Ray fashion of just winging it, he didn't have a ride back home. We ended up driving Ray back to Denver on my way out of town. Funny that that's my last memory of Ray but I'm stoked that we got 3 hours of quality time with the kid. Classic Ray lines for 3 hours. Lots of "man, I don't know."

Yea it sucks that Ray's gone but he's lucky in a sense that he went out doing something he loved and with how much he got broken by off, you can be assured he loved it more than life.
Rest in Peace Head, we'll miss ya.