josh

Colin Payne, Daily News reporter
As friends and family prepare to say a final goodbye to Josh Evin, those who knew him are taking time to reflect on his life.

Evin, a professional skateboarding star and Kootenay native, died in the early morning hours of last Sunday after he and his friend, Rob Sigaty were thrown from the motorcycle they were riding down Blewett Road into the Kootenay Canal.

Sigaty, a Nelson-raised professional BMX rider who worked his way up through the ranks of his own sport alongside Evin, managed to scramble from the swift-flowing canal and escaped the accident with three broken vertebrae in his back.

What exactly happened to Evin, who was piloting the bike, is not yet known. But his body was found in the canal by an RCMP dive team late Monday afternoon.

With the sudden passing of a friend and a hero of the local skateboarding community, people like Rob Levesque have been forced to reflect on a life that ended too soon.

“Sure he was an amazing skateboarder and friend to everyone,” noted Levesque, a skateboarder and head of the Kootenay Lake Outdoor Skate Park Society. “But Josh was also full of love. Living in the Kootenays, we kind of have a hippie vibe going on, and Josh embodied that in his own way. He was full of Kootenay love.

“He loved life. He loved skateboarding. And that’s why the guy had so many friends and so many people loved him – because what he gave, everybody gave back.”

Levesque added the Evin was a champion of the planned Kootenay Lake Outdoor Skatepark, which is now moving on its way to becoming a reality.

“He donated skateboards as prizes and his time to help the cause,” Levesque noted. “When we get this park it’s going to be sad because Josh won’t be here to enjoy it.”

Other friends of Evin were contacted, but they felt the grief was still too much to be able to voice their thoughts about him.

While he was known for his skateboarding around the world, Evin lived at home in the Kootenays, near Castlegar where his family has lived for several generations.

Ceremonies are being held for Evin tonight at the Brilliant Cultural Centre in Castlegar, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and he will be buried at the Brilliant Cemetery on Friday morning from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. The public is invited to attend the ceremonies.

A website, www.joshevin.com has been started in his honour and is collecting donations for ‘Skate Shoes for Kids.’

colin@nelsondailynews.com

POLICE STILL INVESTIGATING CRASH

The Nelson Police Department and the BC Coroner Service are still investigating the motorcycle accident that killed Josh Evin last weekend.

Inspector Henry Paivarinta of the NPD said the coroner is conducting an autopsy and a toxicology study, while mechanics will inspect the motorbike Evin was piloting for mechanical failure.

“Standard procedure is to determine the cause of death,” Parivarinta said. “Potentially he could have broken his neck before he hit the water. Was he conscious when he hit the water? Did he drown?

“They’ll also do toxicology too to see if he was under the influence of anything before the accident occurred.”

Paivarinta said the early indications are that speed was a factor in the accident, but a mechanical failure in the bike could have also contributed.

“Those all have to be investigated and brought together before we can complete our investigation,” he noted. “You can’t miss or disregard any single one of the factors because. . . you want to have an accurate picture of what happened and the events leading up to it.”

The investigation fell to the NPD because the area around the Kootenay Canal is technically within the boundaries of the City of Nelson.