Succession plans are always tough – whether someone is stepping down as a corporate CEO or someone is taking over the reins of an established open water swim.

The successor needs expertise, experience, and passion.

Which is precisely what Patrick Reyes [shown swimming on right below] has as he followed in the footsteps of Around Beavertail Swim founder and race director Michael Garr [shown below on left] who pioneered the 11.1 km route in 2017 and successfully organized the race through 2023.

Patrick Reyes

Reyes, a former water polo player from Fordham University and a 7-day, 7-stage 177 km 8 Bridges Swim veteran, now oversees Beavertail Open Water, a 501c3 non-profit created to host the event and promote initiatives of marine conservation of Narragansett Bay.

Michael Garr

In 1997, Garr took up masters swimming, and began regularly swimming in the pool and in the ocean. He eventually began to swim without a wetsuit in the ocean, tackling longer distances. He did four relay swims in the Boston Light Swim between 2012 and 2017. In 2017 he completed the first Around Beavertail Swim in 5 hours 30 minutes and has since organized or helped organize the swim each year – eventually handing over the organization to Reyes.

Around Beavertail Swim Course

The course is an 11.1 km around Beavertail Island in Jamestown, Rhode Island on the East Coast of the United States. Beavertail is connected by a small isthmus to Conanicut Island, so the route is a point-to-point, near-circumnavigation swim of the island.

Registration and Grants

For more information, visit www.beavertailopenwater.org (MSF data here).

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