PORT ANGELES — Severe weather cancelled the 5K Tampa Bay Frogman Swim on Sunday, but Port Angeles participant Howie Ruddell still plans to make his own swim to land nearly $14,000 in donations he has raised.
A practice swim went well Saturday, but gale force winds Sunday closed a major Tampa bridge and organizers determined the conditions were too dangerous to both swimmers and the escort kayakers, Ruddell said Monday.
“It is meant to be a challenging swim, but it’s not meant to kill people,” he said.
Ruddell said the 5K (3.1-mile) swim has so far raised nearly $1 million for the Navy SEAL Foundation, a charity that helps the families of SEALS — members of the United States Navy’s Sea, Air and Land teams — who were wounded or killed in action.
Swimmers raise money through donations. Ruddell said he has raised nearly $14,000 for the foundation, and donations were still coming in Monday.
While there will be no official make-up date for the swim, some Tampa Bay locals are expected to make the swim on their own this coming weekend, Ruddell said.
Ruddell, who is the owner and president of Ruddell Auto Mall, said he has plans to complete his own 3.1-mile swim in Lake Crescent, but did not yet know when.
The water temperatures in Tampa Bay, where the swim was supposed be held, were around 62 degrees.
“It felt really nice for those of us who swim in colder waters,” Ruddell said of Saturday’s practice swim.
The reception meant to be held after the swim continued as scheduled.
“There were a lot of Gold Star families there,” Ruddell said.
In a tradition that began during World War I, a family with an active military member during time of war may display a red and white service flag with a blue star, and families whose military member died may display the flag with a gold star.
Ruddell, 43, has taken part in other distance swims, including the 2015 Frogman Swim, and in 2013 he joined a group to swim the entire 8.9-mile length of Lake Crescent to raise money for the Captain Joseph House.
The Captain Joseph House, a former bed and breakfast under conversion to become a respite house for Gold Star families, was named for Army Capt. Joseph Schultz, a U.S. Army Green Beret who was killed in Afghanistan on May 29, 2011.
Ruddell had intended to dedicate his 2016 Frogman swim to a retired Navy SEAL who died while serving his country in a civilian position.
Tyrone Snowden Woods Sr., 41, a retired SEAL senior chief petty officer, perished while defending staff at the U.S. diplomatic outpost and CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012.
Along with teammate Glen Doherty, also a former SEAL, Woods saved the lives of 30 staff members when they took up arms in an effort to protect the facilities as they were attacked by insurgents, according to his memorial page. Both were killed by mortar fire.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
