Jim Richardson (aka Lake Superior Aquaman)
Freediving the Harbor Buoy (Slomo version)
This slomo version is a composite of already released raw footage. I made three 30-second dives at the buoy. I am bad at estimating depth and I don’t have a depth gauge. I just wanted to reach a confirmed 30 feet, and diving the buoy was a way to do that since its depth is known. Maybe next year I will hang out down there a little longer since I can stay under a minute. But I was freaked out; although small potatoes in proper freediving circles, it represented a personal best and I wasn’t sure how difficult it would be. I also wasn’t sure what I’d find down there or what the visibility would be, so I approached it with trepidation. Visibility was decent but not great, so I remained wary of a small fear of being startled by fish emerging from the gloom. There had also recently been a prominent death in the freediving world. So to get psyched, that morning I read the comic-book version of H.P. Lovecraft’s horror story “The Shadow Over Innsmouth,” about a man who (spoiler alert) discovers he is part of a lineage of half-human, half-fish monsters (found in “The Lovecraft Anthology vol. 1” edited by Dan Lockwood, published 2012 by SelfMadeHero.) As usual if I die, my brother is instructed to recover the camera and post the footage to PDD immediately.
Underwater Dog Footage
Jasmine the dog, walked by lifetime Duluthian Jerry.
Remnants of Retaining Wall off Lakewalk
Swimming the shallows can be my favorite.
We Need Nice
Follow Mr. nice on Twitter @mrnicerules and like Mr. Nice on Facebook here.
Crushing the Outer Harbor with Canoe Support Crew
Contains excerpts of the recent buoy-diving and swimming the hole at Uncle’s Harvey’s videos. Here you see them in context of the epic day crushing the best dive sites of the outer harbor. Canoe support crew was Jeff Greensmith and Sean MacManus. Dove the buoy and looked at railyard artifacts, ruins of the old breakwater wall, swam the hole at Uncle Harvey’s, and goofed around at its collapsed pillar. All the ruins are around 125 years old I believe. Topped it off with brews at Endion Station.
Diving the Buoy
Depth: 30 feet. This is the red buoy in the outer harbor within sight of the Vietnam Memorial and Uncle Harvey’s Mausoleum. Thanks to my canoe-based support team, Jeff Greensmith and Sean MacManus, who towed me out there on my floaty raft. At the 1:18 mark you can see the concrete block the buoy is tethered to but the shot is brief as I didn’t want to dally.
Best Underwater Footage of Duluth’s Atlantean Ruins
Underwater footage of Uncle Harvey’s Mausoleum off the Duluth Lakewalk in relatively clear conditions. First I videoed the collapsed column in 9 feet of water, Then because visibility was so good, I swam around the base of the building structure too. That is 16 feet deep according to a depth chart I saw once.
Exploring Ruins of Column at Uncle Harvey’s Mausoleum
Ruins of the column that collapsed this winter at “Uncle Harvey’s Mausoleum” off the Duluth Lakewalk. Water is really murky as its proximity to the shipping lanes stirs up a lot of silt this time of year. I intend to keep trying to get clearer shots but this is all I could manage during this initial foray. Water depth: 9 feet. Basically what you’re seeing here is a base of concrete sprouting metal bars and telephone-pole-like wooden posts that in some cases are splintered or splayed. The tops of some posts were sheared off and smoothed by ice sheet movement and lie just below the surface. The concrete top of the column lies on its side at the bottom, along with eroded steel jacketing that sheathed the base.
I was very cautious during these dives as the danger of getting snagged or nicked in the gloom was fearful to contemplate. I heard nearby swimmers claim a member of their party had scraped himself on the posts while swimming. Not to be a bringdown but this area has to be considered a hazard to swimmers and boaters alike. It is also the most interesting thing to look at in Lake Superior right now.
Found Lake Paraphernalia
I was freediving Duluth’s amazing rock beach one afternoon, and started finding pot-smoking paraphernalia in a few feet of water just off shore. I realized I was reassembling some poor stoner’s fully stocked stash tray which he/she must have set too close to the waves. Within a relatively small radius I found pieces of two glass pipes (one largely intact), pokie tool, rolling tray, grinder, cigarette roller, and a broken glass jar. Archeological evidence of a beach culture of leisure.
Northern Pike Swims By
A brief encounter with a Northern Pike in several feet of water. It looks injured as if by a propeller across its back.
Tischer Creek Whirlpool Revisited
Went back the next day when the sun was higher in the sky and got this additional footage, which I set to music.
Duluth Got Me Like
I have released a rap track about Duluth.
Music by Tdack.
Carved Stone Project Placement Experiment
Stoneworker Sean MacManus and I hatched a plan to use his Celtic stonework pieces to fashion an underwater stone garden, geocache, and/or orienteering course. This video is footage of my experiment to test the feasibility of lashing the stones around the base of a boulder. I had two of the stones, each identical with backing mounts affixed with mortar, and I had two ropes. I found this project much more difficult than I imagined, and it failed as a proof of concept as the mortar weakened and would not hold the ropes. This was in addition to simply being deucedly difficult to accomplish even in just a few feet of water. The shot of the stones towards the end by the green leaf is after the mortar failure when I decided to abandon the attempt. I was beat and so left one the stones overnight. The final shot is me retrieving it. After this, I experimented with trying to wedge the stones in place but that didn’t work either. The entire project (still evolving towards this summer) generated a lot of footage of me swimming around enigmatically with these stones, which has already been released here.
Diving with the Triquetra Stone
Summer 2014 placement experiment with MacManus Stoneworks’ triquetra stone, towards an eventual permanent placement in an underwater orienteering course or geocache concept. More deets in summer 2015.
Underwater Carved Stone Portraits
Collaborating with Sean MacManus of MacManus Stoneworks, our plan was to create an underwater geocache or orienteering course of his carved stones in Lake Superior. The summer of 2014 saw me performing initial placement experiments. This failed to yield any permanent way to affix the stones underwater, but it did generate several video portraits of the stones in situ. A follow-up video will detail the work I did to try and place these stones underwater. Summer of 2015 will see more progress and additional ideas. Meanwhile, enjoy~