Brent Sweet (Left), 21 years old, from New Mexico. He is a student at the University of Montana. Son of Martin and Tina Sweet of Vienna Austria, the youngest of three.
Mr. and Mrs. Sweet contacted me this morning and I am posting this with their permission. According to Mrs. Sweet Brent was traveling around this summer meeting people, helping people and trying to make a difference. He was loved by everyone he has met.
Brent is pictured right.
Michael Hobbs was swimming with Brent Thursday night and was pulled from the water by the Paddleboarder. As of this morning Brent has not been found though reportedly the search was taken up again Friday morning and continued all day yesterday. The Sweet family would very much like any additional information that anyone has about Brent or the incident Thursday night. On the off-chance Brent might have made it to shore, or that someone might have any knowledge about him, the Coast Guard said it is taking information at 206-217-6001. If you have additional information please come forward.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the Sweet family in hopes that Brent will be found soon.
The identity of the Paddleboader is still unknown to me. A paddleboarding message board was discussing this story and linked to my blog so I asked about the proper name for the sport. When I was in Hawaii I was told that it was called “Paddle Surfing” but apparently it goes by multiple names. This is what I was told by the paddleboarding community “While the sport is ancient Hawaiian; it’s resurgence is called by several names Stand-up paddleboarding is probably most common. Paddlesurfing is used in Hawaii where the main purpose is to catch waves. ”
I submitted my photos of the incident to KIRO 7 TV and yesterday they called and asked if they cold interview me. This surprised me but I said yes anyway and then spent the entire next hour frantically cleaning so that my house looked presentable on TV only to have them interview me outside in front of my wilting petunias. They ran the story last night at 4 and 7 pm and I didn’t appear nearly as dorky as I feared. My neighbor Hayven TVoed the interview for me but we have no idea how to get it from the TV to the computer so we are holding out hope that KIRO will just post it on their web site.
I am not used to so much attention on this blog, mainly my readers are my clients and friends and family. Thank you to all the new visitors for all the kind comments and emails, but I don’t think that I did anything that anyone else would not have done if they were in the same situation. The true hero in this story is the paddleboarder.
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Hello. I just wanted to let you know that my husband and I, though extremely upset by your story, appreciate hearing from someone who was an eye witness to this. Brent is our nephew. We love him very much and are grateful to you for your updates on this situation.
Nicole and Chris Kofoed
Thank you. I am Brent’s Aunt an we are all greatful to everyone for making an effort to locate Brent. I urge anyone with any news to contact the local officials. This is a nightmare his family is hoping is not real. Brent is our entertainer. Our cat with 9 lives. A beautiful young man with such energy and life.
Aunt Bia
to the Sweet family – in God’s gracious arms may your boy rest – know that many of us are thinking about him, and you.
I’ve known Brent for a very long time, he is so loved by everyone who has ever had the pleasure to know him. My heart and prayers go out to the Sweet family, I am thinking of you all.
Thanks for updating your web-site.
Gina Koehler
I am Brents older sister. I am in Seattle now along with my other brother and Brents girlfriend. We would love to speak to anyone who was there and might be able to answer some of the many questions we have about what happened. I can be reached through my e-mail sweet_girl352@hotmail.com we really appreciate any help.
Kristen