'It all happened so fast': Tiki boat captain saves boy in Allegheny River

All it took was a second.

On a sunny summer afternoon, Shaler native Jason Ruhle was halfway through a two-hour cruise around the confluence of Pittsburgh’s three rivers, captaining 12 passengers on two tiki boats down the Allegheny River.

He docked about 4:30 p.m. July 8 at Point State Park.

The dozen women celebrating Pam Gdovic’s 50th birthday walked off the tiki boats to snap some selfies at the park’s signature foundation.

Ruhle stayed behind. Five or 10 minutes passed.

“Then, I heard a splash right next to me,” said Ruhle, 44, co-owner of Cruisin’ Tikis Pittsburgh. “Next thing I knew, someone was in the river.”

A young boy — Ruhle estimated he was about 5 years old — fell into the Allegheny River, which Ruhle said is about 12 feet deep near the lip of Point State Park.

The boy started to panic. His blue backpack began to fill with water. The water was pulling him downward.

Ruhle, fully clothed, jumped in, grabbed the boy and pushed him onto the park’s riverbank.

“It all happened so fast — the whole thing probably lasted 30 seconds,” he said. “He was under. I’m not sure how he ended up in there. But, he was shaken up. He was pretty scared.”

The boy and his family quickly scurried out of the park before first responders were called. Pittsburgh Public Safety spokesperson Cara Cruz told the Trib this week she had no record of the incident.

Some call Ruhle a hero.

“Jason was fun on the trip, laid back — but when he went in to save that boy, it was intense,” said Gdovic, a Jefferson Hills resident who turns 50 this week . “Without hesitation, he jumped into the water and pulled up that kid. The boy probably would’ve drowned if it weren’t for Jason.”

Ruhle, now soaked, got back on the tiki boat and continued the tour.

“And he had two more tours after our boat!” Gdovic said, while laughing. “He was soaking wet but he just kept going.”

Ruhle said the whole ordeal was really no big deal.

“It was nothing fancy for me,” Ruhle told the Trib. “I just consider it an everyday thing. Someone needed help. And I helped.”

Ruhle still lives near where he grew up in Shaler and has always gravitated to the water. He got his captain’s license about 15 years ago after training with a Beaver County company.

Ruhle and two partners — Dale McCue and Joa Campise — started Cruisin’ Tikis Pittsburgh in 2018, he said.

For five years, Ruhle said he and his baker’s dozen of captains have been taking Pittsburghers and tourists alike up and down the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers on octagon-shaped tiki boats, each one equipped with a bar.

They run their two-hour charter cruises seven days a week from May through October.

Saturday was not the first time Ruhle has jumped into the river to save someone.

Around the time Cruisin’ Tikis Pittsburgh started, Ruhle saved a North Shore office worker from drowning, he said. The man, on his lunch break in Point State Park, walked unknowingly right into the Allegheny River. He simply didn’t see it; he was busy checking email on his cellphone.

“That is just Jason,” said McCue, 52, of Eighty-Four, Washington County.

Before tiki boats, McCue worked as a police officer in various South Hills forces and retired in 2017. In addition to the pleasure cruises, McCue advises screenwriters on Pittsburgh-shot TV shows who are trying to get police jargon right. He also helps transform actors into reliable cops.

“I make sure the stars who’ve never held a gun or seen a pair of handcuffs can look like they’re 20-year department veterans,” he said.

McCue knows what makes people tick. He calls Ruhle “a great person.”

“To be honest, most of our captains would’ve done the same thing,” McCue said. “But Jason’s hands-on. When he sees a problem, he works to solve it.

“Thank God he was there — in the right place, at the right time.”