There was plenty of rain, but no tornadoes, to greet Ricky Forbes on his appearance in the Battlefords on Saturday.
Forbes was on hand at the Territorial Place Mall for a meet and greet event in conjunction with Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Battlefords, who are also planning a wall mural at Territorial Place Mall later in the year. Local kids involved with Big Brothers and Big Sisters will be putting it together.
The organization is close to Forbes’ heart as he is himself has been a “Big Brother” for just over a year now.
In explaining why he joined, Forbes said he felt “very fortunate” growing up to have great parents and great mentors, and wanted to give back. He pointed to a quote from Muhammad Ali, that “giving back is just rent for being here on Earth.”
“I’m a big believer in the program,” said Forbes. “Any chance I get to give back, I believe it’s our duty to do so.”
Local program director Renee Sperling said Forbes was an obvious choice to come to the Battlefords and help get their message out that they welcome more people to come forward to be Big Brothers and Big Sisters themselves.
Sperling pointed not only to Forbes’ tornado-chasing but also his activities as an active adventurer and his work with Blue Moose Media.
“He’s always putting himself out there,” said Sperling. “That’s what we’re asking the community to do is to put themselves out there and be a part of the community with our youth.”
Forbes is one of three “Tornado Hunters” along with photographer Greg Johnson and videographer Chris Chittick. Together they travel across the great plains of North America on the lookout for storms, with Forbes’ role being as driver of the vehicle and with Johnson and Chittick taking photos and capturing video of the twisters as they touch down.
The team has chronicled their storm-chase efforts online and on their reality show “Tornado Hunters” seen on CMT.
While Saskatchewan has been an obvious focus, it is mainly in the heart of Tornado Alley in the United States, states like Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and others where most of the action happens, Forbes said.
Forbes’ visit comes on the heels of Johnson’s own visit to the Battlefords for photo seminars as well as a presentation at the Chapel Gallery just weeks ago. At the time, Johnson predicted that conditions were ripe for an active tornado season in North America.
“Greg, every year, will tell you that conditions are ripe for tornadoes,” said Forbes.
It’s part of Johnson keeping everyone in a positive frame of mind, he said. Still, Forbes believes an active season is already upon us.
“There’s already massive storms happening down south,” he said. “It just means that kind of energy is going to keep up in the environment for the season that comes.”
Forbes expects he and the rest of the team will be winding down their personal appearances about now and start heading out to chase tornadoes over the coming weeks.
For this latest visit to the Battlefords, Forbes brought along his black Tornado Hunters truck. It was parked outside as it was too big to enter the mall.
Forbes explained it is one of three Tornado Hunters vehicles the team uses, allowing the team members to access multiple vehicles so they can go off on their own different engagements.
When Forbes visited the Battlefords for school presentations and other events in 2016, he had brought along the bright orange “Flash” vehicle for that occasion.
He showed it off to students and pointed out how indestructible the vehicle was, noting it was bulletproof and had a Line-x coating. Forbes then invited students to go outside and try and kick and punch the vehicle.
That prompted the excited kids to do exactly that and see for themselves how much adversity the vehicle could withstand. It seemed “Flash” was no worse for wear after that experience.
It turns out “Flash” isn’t so indestructible after all. Forbes said that at a different school visit a few weeks later, the kids went after the vehicle again and a tail light ended up popping off.
They “had a very hard time getting it back on,” Forbes recalled. Since then he’s stopped inviting kids trying to damage the vehicle.
“I’ve learned my lesson,” Forbes said.
