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A UTA student, who was the first man to swim across the Atlantic Ocean, plans to take on the Pacific.

Benoit Lecomte, a 43-year-old architecture graduate student, prepares to swim across the Pacific Ocean next spring. Lecomte will start the 5,419-mile swim in Choshi, Japan, and finish in Los Angeles, which is about eight times the width of Texas. He plans to follow the Kuroshio current, a 75-degree Fahrenheit current, to stay in warmer waters.

Lecomte’s father died of colon cancer in 1991, which inspired him to raise funds for cancer research through long-distance swimming. He hasn’t selected any foundations, but wants to involve several organizations for donors to choose from.

He cross trains three to four times a week, including bicycling, swimming and running. He said age will slow him down, but his endurance has increased with time and training.

With more than a year before the big swim, he’s making good progress in his training, said Gurtej Singh Bains, who helps Lecomte with marketing and business relations.

“He’s been in rhythm for the last several months,” he said. “He sounds confident.”

Dr. Edward Coyle, UT-Austin Human Performance Laboratory director, worked with professional bicycler Lance Armstrong and provided Lecomte with medical advice. He said Lecomte needs to prepare himself for the intense swim and tedious task of swimming day after day.

“The most important thing is that he gets comfortable with all of his equipment on and swimming long distances,” Coyle said. “It’s a matter of how he paces himself.”

As a teenager in France, Lecomte discovered he had a pinched disk in his back and that he couldn’t participate in his school’s ski program. He searched for a new hobby and found swimming. His love for the outdoors led him to open-water swimming.

“It’s at my core,” he said. “It gives me a sense of meaning.”

Finding a financial sponsor is the biggest issue, said Giri Prasad, who will work on technology and networking needs for Lecomte.

The team will name themselves after the sponsor.

Lecomte’s team expects the swim to cost between $500,000 and $1 million, compared to the nearly $100,000 price tag of his Atlantic swim. A catamaran sailboat, medical equipment and team compensation are among costs.

The team plans to provide live coverage of the swim online, including video feed through a website, Prasad said. Part of the website will track Lecomte’s physical condition as he progresses, which will come from a chip implanted in his body.

The team will use a SharkPOD, a device that wards off sharks by creating an electromagnetic field to ensure his safety, Lecomte said.

There are approximately 36 known shark species in the Pacific Ocean.

In 1998, he swam across the Atlantic Ocean using money he inherited after his father’s death to raise money for the Association for International Cancer Research, a Scottish-based foundation. He swam 3,176 miles in two months using the “stage swim” method by resting in a boat when he became tired and beginning again from the same spot where he stopped. He plans to use the same technique in the Pacific, Lecomte said.

After arriving in France, Lecomte proposed to his girlfriend and she accepted. “Never again” he said when he reached land. However, after he recovered, he decided he would take on his biggest challenge yet.

A challenge he has yet to reveal to his wife because he doesn’t want to worry her or cloud his focus.

“When you finish something big like that, you can feel the pain and strain,” he said. “But when you look at it with a more objective view, it makes you want to do something bigger.”