All I have to say is Manitou has the most blown, and broken forks of all. Fox 40 would have fixed this problem. Props on the balance he seems to be keeping with no front end. lol Riding it into the ground was an expression right?
Make sure you tighten the bolts that hold your lowers on..... My guess is that the bolts had not been checked in a while and that the rocky terrain undid them for him. Not necessarily the forks fault here.