SOUTH KINGSTOWN — Ultra-marathon swimmer Pat Reyes is preparing for his biggest challenge yet: a 43-mile swim across the Rhode Island coastline this August.
The Ocean State Swim will stretch from Watch Hill in Westerly to Little Compton near the Massachusetts coast – an attempt that could take close to 20 hours out in the open water.
Training for long-distance swimming requires safety preparations for the physical, as well as a mental investment.
“There’s a lot of different things to think about,” Reyes said. “Sleep deprivation, hydration, nutrition. At 20 hours into a swim, there is a very good chance I could hallucinate.”
In previous swims, Reyes has endured water as low as 60 degrees Fahrenheit. In temperatures that cold, he had to hold his mouth while chewing energy gels because he couldn’t trust his lips to stay closed.
“How do you deal with hallucinations when you’re 18, 19, hours in?,” Reyes said. “I don’t know yet. I’m gonna have to try and figure that out.”
Despite the emotional intensity, Reyes’ goal isn’t just to push his body’s limits. It’s to bring people into the global open-water swimming community and keep waters clean.
With lingering environmental concerns of pollution from stormwater runoff and septic system waste summarized by the RI Environmental Monitoring Collaborative, Reyes said his self-funded swim is possible because of conservation efforts.
“It’s the participation of our grants into that world to keep the waters swimmable,” Reyes said. “The one thing swimmers don’t want to lose is access to the water.”
Reyes founded Beavertail Open Swim, a nonprofit organization that hosts Around Beavertail, an annual small-group 11.1 km swim around Beavertail Island in Jamestown. Michael Garr started the swim in 2017 and handed over the ropes to Reyes in 2023, who turned the swim into a public charity.
As the host entity for the annual swim, Beavertail Open Swim functions to garner fundraising and donors to give out grants to local marine science conservation projects, with the ultimate objective of protecting the waters participants swim in – and beyond.
The goal is to make Around Beavertail swimmers, volunteers and donors feel connected to the organization’s mission, according to Reyes. He thinks grants to researchers, scientists, teachers and smaller organizations are one way to accomplish that.
Reyes had a front-row seat as his girlfriend applied for grant funding during her marine science Ph.D. program at the University of Rhode Island.
“The impact of a couple thousand [dollars] is huge for a Ph.D. student,” Reyes said. “That can be literally life or death of them getting through their Ph.D. program altogether, getting grant funding so they can do some projects, getting themselves published and [having] pieces of their dissertation come together.”
The nonprofit’s first grant went to Taylor Lindsay, a URI Ph.D. candidate studying coral in Narragansett Bay. Her article ““Back to basics: Seasonal and interspecific ecology of Rhode Island’s State Coral” is in the publishing process.
For event swimmers, the connection is tangible as they stroke and breathe through the same waters being studied.
Reyes hopes his 43-mile swim will bring attention to the nonprofit and drive eyes toward the world of open water swimming.
“There’s this huge reckoning of under 30 year olds getting into endurance sports, going toward marathon running and whatnot, and we’re just getting left behind in open water swimming,” Reyes said.
Swimming in outdoor water bodies like oceans and lakes can feel inaccessible, especially for younger athletes, according to Reyes. Many former swimmers drift into other sports after college without realizing endurance swimming holds a place for them.
Through Beavertail Open Water, Reyes is trying to “tear down those barriers” and create entry points for people in their 20s to get involved. This year, Around Beavertail signup numbers for the swim on August 6 showed a large portion of participants under 30.
View grant application guidelines and swim registration information on the Beavertail Open Water website.
Reyes is a United States Masters Swimming All-American and won five Open Water National Championships in 2025. However, the majority of his training revolves around swimming ultra-marathon distances, or swims over 12 miles. The Ocean State Swim, of 43 miles, is “new territory” for him.
Watch a video of Reyes practicing. CLICK HERE.
