South Shore residents and musicians are coming together to hold a benefit concert for an injured man held in high regard by the Kirkwood ski, snowboard and disc golf community.
Longtime local Joe Forrest was riding at Kirkwood last month when he misjudged a jump, when he came down on his leg from a height of 30 feet, witnesses say, shattering his tibia and blowing out his knee.
“When we got to him the leg was just dangling there,”said Federico Tezzon, a friend of Forrest.
Forrest has had two surgeries since the accident, and will require at least as many more. To make matters worse, his medical insurance turned out to be a fraudulent enterprise, leaving the injured snowboarder without any financial support, Tezzon said.
The South Shore community has sprung into action to help out one of their own. Tezzon and a crew of buddies including Amy Pieros, Steph Amundson, Patrick Brown, Allesandra Di Bianco and Jesse Mitchell have launched a variety of efforts to raise funds for their beleaguered bro.
“He’s a badass shredder,” Tezzon said. “He’s been living at Kirkwood for 14 years. He’s an insanely talented snowboarder. He’s won comps, but he’s also extremely humble. He’s been mentoring younger snowboarders out at Kirkwood.”
The group initially raised more than $3,000 on gofundme.com, a website similar to Kickstarter. Local businesses have generously helped out, Tezzon said.
“The response from the community has been unbelievable,” he said.
To further the proceeds, these supporters have set up a benefit concert at American Legion on Friday, April 15. South Shore rock band Strange Weather will be headlining, along with solo musician Mike Smith. Tezzon is a sound tech from the Bay Area, and will be setting up and running the sound system for the show.
The organizers are asking for a donation at the door to support Forrest’s recovery. A $10 raffle held that evening, with a wide variety of mountain hardware up for grabs, with Ride and Lib Tech snowboards, Dakine backpacks, lift tickets to area resorts, and a whole lot more.
It’s always fun to catch an excellent local act like Strange Weather on a Friday night at the Legion; all the better to do so in support of a local homie in need.
- Strange Weather with Mike Smith
When: 7 p.m. Friday, April 15
Where: American Legion, South Lake Tahoe
Donation at the door
