It was supposed to be a fun morning swim after a night of sipping beer by a campfire on Cottonwood Island. But before long Jacob Thomas Woods’ friends were scouring the shoreline and screaming his name.

Woods, 25, of Longview, disappeared in the Columbia River on Tuesday morning after slipping into the water and swimming toward a pylon not far from the shore.

“He never came back,” said Chris Meade, 26, of Longview, who was among the people camping with Woods Tuesday.

Dive teams from Cowlitz and Clark counties searched the murky waters near the island throughout the day Tuesday, but had not found Woods’ body and called off the search around 8 p.m., the Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office said. The search was expected to resume Wednesday morning.

This would be the third drowning in the area in a week. On Friday, Allen Heck, 20, of Longview, drowned while saving a 9-year-old girl who fell into a deep spot while playing in the Cowlitz River. On Sunday,  Dale Charles Marston II, 44, of Seattle also drowned in the Cowlitz River.

Woods had been camping on the northwest portion of the island with six friends Monday night. He decided to start the day with a dip in the water shortly before 6 a.m. and managed to recruit one friend to go with him, according to those who were there.

As the pair began swimming toward the wooden pylon, Woods’ companion, who has not yet been identified, breathed in a mouthful of water and decided to turn back.

“When he turned around, he was gone,” Meade said.

Woods’ swimming partner scrambled to the nearby campsite, shouting that Woods had disappeared.

“I hear him start screaming. ‘He’s gone! He’s gone! He’s gone!” said Matt Beam, 26, of Kelso, who was camping with the group.

Meade said the friends, most of whom were still in bed, leaped from their tents and looked up and down the beach. Beam said he jumped into his boat and scanned the water.

“It didn’t seem like it was real, like a bad dream, I guess,” said Meade, who has known Woods since seventh grade.

The group called 911 around 5:50 a.m. The two-hour wait for divers to arrive was hell, they said.

A small group of Woods’ closest friends kept vigil on Cottonwood Island on Tuesday afternoon as divers searched. “We feel kind of helpless,” said Melissa Higgins, who has known Woods since elementary school. “Now it’s like, OK, there might still be hope.”

But, she said, after so many hours, hope was fading. “You just kind of know,” she said.

Woods’ friends described him as an adventurous, happy-go-lucky guy. He has tried constantly to make his friends laugh, they said, and is known to walk his little brother to and from school each day. He is also known for a profound love of the New York Yankees and a seemingly encyclopedic knowledge of sports.

“When you were down, he was the type of guy to get you in a good mood,” said Chase McNally, 26, of Longview. Woods, he said, “had a great heart.”

“This guy was a definitely a character. He always had loved everybody, loved life,” said Brody Richardson, who has known Woods for 12 years.

Richardson said Woods worked sometimes for his brother-in-law’s concrete business, but mostly cruised around town on his bike and hung out with his friends.

“Work wasn’t up there for him” when it came to priorities. “His nickname was Leisure Boy,” Higgins said. “Just chill, down to earth.”

Meade said Woods was “a great swimmer,” who was always splashing in the area’s rivers. Just yesterday, he said, Woods had been swimming back and forth across the Toutle River.

Beam said he believes Woods looked over the flat, calm water and figured the distance to the pylon wasn’t too far. But the tide was going out and “there’s going to be a gnarly undertow,” he said. “Fatal mistake, I guess.”

Still, it wouldn’t matter if friends had warned him off the swim; he would have done it anyway, Higgins said. “He always liked to be adventurous,” she said.

As a boy he was always telling his friends, “I’ll do it! I’ll do it!” Higgins said. He was the one blowing things up with firecrackers or making “dry ice bombs,” she said.

“Just a guy looking for a thrill,” Beam said.

Related article:

Authorities ID man missing in Columbia River; search resumes