People Of The Palouse

by gayle anderson

Doug Riddle

Who knew taking over a family business and applying innovation coupled with the love of speed and racing would be the recipe for adventures that most of us only see in the movies? And to my delight and surprise was getting to interview a man straight out of my family’s 1970’s recreational forays from our moto-cross days. And with that, let me introduce you to Doug Riddle. Sitting in Doug’s conference room that overlooks the Snake River was the perfect setting to visualize his life for the past 40ish years. After catching up a bit, I asked Doug to tell me about his leap from moto-cross racing and being a motorcycle mechanic in Hilton’s Honda (a Moscow business in the 1970’s) to being the owner of a specialty jet boat company that built boats for not one, but two James Bond movies. If you have the privilege of knowing Doug, his soft-spoken manner on the outside doesn’t really reveal his talent in handling high speeds wherein he’s usually in the winner’s circle. Doug begins and says back in 1978, his dad, who was a boat builder in Lewiston, persuaded him to leave his mechanic career and step into the world of manufacturing jet boats.

As Doug tells it, he didn’t know the first thing about boats, but took on the challenge. The company was small and back then, their utilitarian boats were mainly used by the Forest Service or other government agencies. In noticing a new trend of recreationalists interested in jet boating, Doug started upgrading the interior of the boats and adding some pizazz to the outside. His hunch was right on target and manufacturing orders went from making 10 boats a year to 50 boats a year. He later sold that business and in 1991 started a different boat manufacturing company that focused on building small jet sprint boats. It was there that his business caught the eye of the movie industry. Doug says one day he gets a call that two guys in the movie industry from London are coming and they want to see first-hand what his sprint boats can do. Once on the Snake River, the men remove their fleece jackets, and are sporting shirts that have the James Bond 007 logo on it and that is when Doug realizes what movie the boats are for. The men then promptly order 3 boats for the movie titled “The World is not Enough” with Pierce Bronson. Then they advise they need the boats in 6 weeks and air shipped to London! As Doug tells it, it took 2 weeks to get the parts and materials, and he and his crew burned the midnight oil to make the deadline. After the first 3 boats had arrived in London, the movie guys ordered 3 more boats. Today, one of those boats is on display in Doug’s showroom. When the movie production began, Doug was flown to London to provide technical advice and show the crew how to operate the boats. He ended up staying 5 ½ months and during that time got to be good friends with the movie crew. It was during his stay that the stunt crew invited him to go with them to a gocart track about 40 miles away from where they were on location. In England this is a serious pastime and their go-cart tracks are unlike the benign ones in the USA. These tracks are set up to test skills and the cars go about 50 miles per hour. There were enough crew that they had to travel in two cars, so enroute the stunt drivers decide to race each other to the track. And being a passenger at high speeds in those tiny cars was a frightening experience to Doug, even though he loves the thrill of going fast. But everyone has their limits and as Doug said, he’s never had grass and dirt flying up as they are passing each other in the round-a-bouts. Once at the track, he realized this is serious business and the stunt crew had rented the entire track just for them. They were suited up in uniforms, helmets and have a transponder strapped to their leg for the screen board. The track itself has hills and tight corners and isn’t for the faint of heart. After watching the first crew duking it out for first place, it’s Doug and his competitors turn to have a go. Little did the stunt crew know that Doug has been a semi-professional moto-cross racer as well as sprint boat racer. They just thought he was “some boat dude from America” and they guys had brought him along to have a bit of fun at his expense on the track. Well as soon as the cars take off, Doug finds himself about car number 3 and then passes the other two and wins by quite a bit of length. Doug laughs and says then the entire rest of the racing sets, the stunt crew are determined to not let him win anymore, but says he ended up about 5th in the standing. Still a respectable outcome given that he was up against the best of the best drivers. In 2003 he again provided sprint boats for the “Quantum of Solace” 007 movie with Daniel Craig and the location was the Panama Canal. As before, he provided technical assistance and spent his days in the special effects department, which was pretty much like a kid in a candy store. For this particular movie, there was going to be a scene wherein Agent 007 has to quit driving the boat in order to fight off the bad guy. That meant Doug’s boat design had a hidden second steering control in the bottom half of-

The New 2022 Subaru Forester®

New design. Legendary safety.

-the boat which is not visible to anyone. The movie was filmed at the mouth of the Panama Canal and each day they had to bring people and equipment from one side to the other. Well one day Doug was driving the boat from below and the Port Master could only see a boat without a driver speeding across the canal. He issued orders to have personnel intercept the boat and get control of it. Doug chuckles and says that when it was discovered that he was actually driving the boat from below and it was not out-of-control, it was then “mandated that someone had to be visible on the boat” as to not alarm the Port Master anymore. In between building boats for the movie sets, Doug was recruited to do “Junk Yard Wars”, a 2001 reality show on the Discovery channel where teams compete against each other to build something out of junk yard parts. Doug and team built a jet boat and you guessed it… won the competition.

Today, in his shop Doug and his elite crew build high performance small sprint jet boats to a niche market that appreciates custom design and quality. They manufacture about 20 per year, with most boats going East of the Mississippi as customers have found these small powerful boats can navigate the smaller rivers with speed and ease. But it is not uncommon for boats to be shipped worldwide. As I think back to when we were all young dreamers in our 20 something years of life trying to make our own way in the world, it all comes down to having faith and courage to pursue your passions. In the end, success shouldn’t be measured by your bank account or social standing, rather by the wealth of a welllived life on your own terms and from my perspective, Doug has done just that. Doug is married and has 3 daughters and 1 son. Currently, daughter, Kelly and son, Patrick along with nephew, Sean are poised to take over operations once he fully retires. And as Doug says, he loves this business and will still stay somewhat involved. In my mind’s eye I can imagine Doug showing up to test drive the finished project in his 90’s to get his need for speed satisfied while day to day operations is handled by the next generation. When I asked Doug if all of his family love “all things that go fast”… he grins and says, yup. Doug and his wife, Mary Lou enjoy 11 grandchildren, so lots of future water lovers in the making. As with all my interviews, I am fascinated by people’s lives. Everyone’s life is a story they are living and they are the author. We set our own stage and script. If anything, it is my hope that stories from the hearts and souls of others portrayed in this series of People on the Palouse not only entertain you but that they also personally inspire you from their rich experiences in life and that you go for the gold.

“We set our own stage and script.”