Joseph Clarence Torkelson died on Friday, July 22, one day after being recovered from Bend’s Whitewater Park, officials said.
Torkelson started the float upstream with a roommate on July 21, according to the Bend Police Department. From the footbridge adjacent to Colorado Avenue, passersby spotted the 56-year-old unresponsive in the park’s middle passage, upstream from the surf wave. They asked a nearby kayaker to pull him out and by 2:20 pm he was out of the water and was given CPR before the police and fire department arrived, who then continued conducting CPR. The area Torkelson was found is off-limits for floaters.
“Instead of staying to the left to ride through the gentle rapids at Colorado Avenue, Torkelson somehow ended up on the wrong side of the buoys and was sucked under and through the dam. Shortly thereafter, Torkelson was found and pulled from the river,” the Bend Police Department wrote in a press release.
The Whitewater Park remained open throughout the incident, though the Colorado Avenue Bridge was briefly closed. Torkelson is the second person to die at Bend’s Whitewater Park since April. In April, 17-year-old surfer Ben Murphy drowned after his foot became stuck on an underwater gate that controls the park’s surf wave.
This article appears in Jul 27, 2022 – Aug 2, 2023.
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“Floater” is a poor choice of terms, don’t’cha think?
Turds in a pool and dead bodies in lakes are floaters.
Boater, tuber, rafter, or even organic, non-native water creature are better terms than floater.