Date: Fri 26-Sep-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

swimmer-Bayles-Hudson

Full Text:

Swimmer Completes A 22-Mile Journey For Charity

(with photo)

BY STEVE BIGHAM

At 7:40 last Thursday morning, Jim Bayles, 45, jumped into the Hudson River

near the Tappan Zee Bridge for his 22-mile charity swim into Manhattan.

The Newtown resident, whose passion for swimming has helped him raise over

$40,000 for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation over the past four years, got off

to a smooth start, covering two miles in the first hour. But then he ran into

some trouble around Dobbs Ferry as the strong tides prevented him from gaining

any ground.

"I hit a brick wall. The tide was still coming up and I didn't move more than

a few feet for an hour and a half," he recalled. "It was frustrating."

However, with his wife, Trina, and three daughters giving him support from a

nearby boat, the Iron Man waited patiently for the tide to subside. It finally

turned at about noon and that's when he started picking up the pace.

He made it to the George Washington Bridge by 1 pm and he covered the final 8

miles of the swim in two hours.

"I was flying. Well, the tide was moving me," Jim said from his home on

Butterfield Road a day after the swim, which is believed to be the first ever.

The employee of Chase Manhattan Bank in New York City finally reached Chelsea

Pier (18th Street and 12th Avenue) around 4 pm, well ahead of schedule, even

beating the welcoming committee by about 20 minutes.

The event helped Jim raise more than $10,000 to help cure juvenile diabetes, a

disease his father battled with for much of his life.

"This is great for me because I love swimming, but it also enables me to give

something back. That's what gives me the greatest pleasure," he said.

As for the condition of the Hudson River, Jim, in tip-top shape, said it was

very clean with the only debris being natural.

He did all four swimming strokes, including the butterfly, which he vividly

recalls doing as he went under the George Washington Bridge.

"That was fun. It was really spectacular," he said.

Besides being a bit sore in the shoulders and puffy-eyed from wearing goggles

for eight hours, Jim said he felt great at the finish.

The swimmer said he was originally going to swim across Long Island Sound. He

found this to be much harder.

Believe it or not, Jim's plan for next year is to swim around the island of

Manhattan.