FILM: Swimming To Sobriety

ONE MILE AT A TIME –

May 4, 2023 – Tuff, 42, despite spending his summers on a 10-square-mile island, never really learned how to swim until he quit drinking at 32 years old when his sponsor suggested he try competing in a triathlon to add “challenge, discipline, structure and accountability into his routine.” Day by day, Ben learned how to swim and how to incorporate the fundamental principles of character that would define his sober life. He began excelling in triathlons while teaching middle school in Connecticut, but discovered the swimming part was his true passion. It also was a way for him to protect the body of water he had known all his life.

As “Swim Tuff” recounts, Tuff first decided to raise money for Clean Ocean Access by swimming around Jamestown, a 23-mile effort that raised $54,094 in 2019. The following summer, Ben braved the open shark-infested waters of the Atlantic Ocean by making the 19-mile crossing from Block Island to Jamestown in nine hours, 19 minutes, raising $104,136 for Clean Ocean Access.

Tuff’s 2022 swim, from Providence to Jamestown, is the setting of “Swim Tuff,” which was filmed by Matthew Corliss (“The Social Dilemma,” “Chasing Coral,” “Chasing Ice”).