Adventurer Washed-Up Floodwaters Pound Rider, Water Scooter

Greer Hemphill pit his top-of-the-line, 110-horsepower Sea-Doo XP-800 water scooter against the raging Coeur d’Alene River. And lost.

Hemphill’s consolation prize: A slightly damaged $7,500 toy and a Idaho National Guard helicopter trip to Kootenai Medical Center. He was checked for signs of hypothermia and released shaken, but uninjured.

“It was quite a day,” Hemphill said. “I got an adventure and nobody got hurt.

Sunday, the water scooter fanatic and a buddy rose early, donned body-length dry suits and hit the muddy waters of the river’s swollen North Fork. Atop his new machine - a rough water behemoth capable of speeds of 65 mph - he jumped waves and raced cars as they drove along the roads and highways near Prichard.

“We go jet-skiing every month,” he said. “I was even out breaking through ice to go the day before Christmas.”

About 10 a.m., he saw a Washington Water Power crew along the bank.

“They said ‘Hey, would you run this rope over to the other side?’ I said sure,” Hemphill said.

The crew was trying to fix a conduit to restore electricity to that side of the river, a WWP spokeswoman said. But roads were washed out.

Hemphill tied the rope to his Sea-Doo and took off. He made it across, even skied onto dry land, when a wave crashed into the taught rope and yanked him back to the center of the river.

With the swirling river crashing around him, Hemphill - a water-scooter veteran - could not right the machine’s course.

“It was spinning around like a lure,” Hemphill said.

Then it went under, tossing Hemphill aside.

The icy river water carried him away and began to stream into his dry suit.

“It went up my arm and around my neck,” he said. “I thought I was dead. I don’t know how I made it to shore.”

Near Enaville, he collapsed. The temperature outside was below freezing, and he fell into shock.

That’s when National Guard Staff Sgt. Donald Cobb happened by. In a helicopter. He airlifted Hemphill to the hospital.

A day later, Hemphill said he was fine and had returned to work. A friend returned his mud-caked Sea-Doo, slightly bruised, but no worse for wear.

Hemphill said he would consider hitting flooded rivers again.

“It’s great,” he said. “The rapids are higher, it’s twisty and curvy. I’d go tomorrow if the damn thing (his Sea-Doo) still works.”

, DataTimes