Born to a Turkish immigrant father and American-born mother, Giray grew up in Bristol, New York, where “there wasn’t much to do but ski.” Thanks to a natural aptitude and strong parental support, he and his brother Ahmet went pro at young ages and spent the early 2000s making names for themselves on the freeskiing scene at events like the Freeskier Jibfest and the Vermont Open, as well as appearing in Meathead Films (now Ski the East) productions including “Wanderland” and “Snow Gods.” The brothers also made their own movies, including “IHNY” (2003) and “Bogart” (2004).

In 2013, Giray overshot a landing during a competition in Big Bear, breaking his back and pelvis. With a serious commitment to rehab and the support of Tahoe’s High Fives Foundation, he returned to snow the following winter, but competing in park skiing on hardpack was no longer a safe option. “That was a major shift,” he says. “Everything became about, how can I keep skiing another day? How can I keep skiing the main focus of my life?”

In his competition days, one of Giray’s main sponsors was LINE Skis. And when Line’s founder, Jason Levinthal, later launched J Skis, Giray asked to join him, with the understanding that he could no longer seriously compete. Levinthal welcomed him anyway. “Jason’s expectations were that I take care of myself and do whatever I wanted with my skiing.” 

Giray pivoted into backcountry skiing so that his body wouldn’t have to endure the hard landings that come with competing in park and pipe. He also completed a degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Utah and started his own company, Daymaker Touring, where he created an adapter that converts standard alpine bindings into an alpine touring system for accessing the backcountry. 

Balancing this entrepreneurialism with a strong sense of sponsor loyalty, Giray also took over engineering at J Skis. “Jason knew I could handle my own deadlines and take some pressure off of him,” he explains. “He also recognized that I knew the brand far better than anyone he could bring on.”

That said, Giray doesn’t consider himself an engineer as much as a shaper. “When you’re shaping, you’re thinking about what can be done on the ski and how you’re supposed to turn and what tricks you can do. When you’re shaping skis, you’re shaping the buyer, you’re shaping the culture of the sport.”

Apparently, balancing pro skiing, shaping, and running a business doesn’t quite fill Giray’s plate, so today he’s also a filmmaker. His latest project, with the director Hennie van Jaarsveld, is “Of the Black Sea.” 

In the film, Giray travels to his father’s homeland Türkiye, where he introduces his Turkish family to his American wife Alexa and searches for camaraderie amongst the backcountry skiers of Ovit Mountain. Not only is “Of the Black Sea” a professional achievement, it’s had personal ramifications. “A major struggle of my life is of being lost between cultures ,” he says. “Making this film and the adventure we went on has helped me own my heritage more. It’s helped me find out what it means to be Turkish.”

“As an engineer, I have a knack for problem solving. Combing that with my passions is what gets me excited,” says Giray who uses this knack to give guidance to others in the ski industry, especially when it comes to business and product development. “Quite a few people reach out to me with ideas for a ski product. I help them see if there’s a market, research competitive gear, and gauge if their idea could be successful.”

“Of the Black Sea” opened Giray’s eyes to the positive impact he can have on skiing culture in Türkiye. “My skiing there is not done,” he says. “There’s a ton of potential. The community needs to grow.” He plans to focus his filmmaking efforts there, whether that means creating vlogs in which he hikes different peaks or introducing the world to Turkish freeskiers. “That’s going be a part of the next decade to come in my life.”

This cultural influence has bled into his work at J skis, where he’s named his latest ski shape—due out mid-November—the “Petran,” in honor of a prototypical snowboard people in Türkiye’s Black Sea region have used for centuries. 

True to form, Giray took a unique approach to creating the Petran. The staff at J skis built him 10 pairs of skis with side cuts and a rocker profile to his specifications—but they left the tips and tails uncut. He used a hand jigsaw and sander to shape the tips and tails in various ways until he found the perfect shape for “optimal performance in deep snow.” 

Giray then asked Turkish painter Pinar Birim to create artwork for the skis. “It’s a unique ski, shaped in a way to have fun and enjoy powder—and the graphic comes from an artist we met when we were in Türkiye,” Giray enthuses. “The Petran ties everything together.”