Lake Superior
PDD Headshot Backstory
When joining Perfect Duluth Day’s “Saturday Essay” roster, I was asked for a headshot and I submitted this which accompanies my essays. It is a video still from an old GoPro on a stick. The camera has broken through the water, and my face is about to break the surface. Water depth @ 20-30 feet, off the sand beaches of Park Point. It was late summer and I wanted one more batch of diving photos in my Aquaman colors. (more…)
Lake Superior Eats Lesser Bodies of Water for Breakfast
Lake Superior is the biggest lake on Earth. And it’s the best. Want to fight about it?
If you’re like me, sometimes you mention Lake Superior in conversation, and you find yourself saying, “Lake Superior is the biggest lake in the world — by surface area! But if you’re judging by volume, the biggest lake is Lake Baikal!” But screw that. It’s time to take a stand. Now I say, “Lake Superior is the biggest lake in the world and those other janky lakes can suck it.”
What is a Lake?
The issue is nuanced, which triggers me. The definitions we use for lakes are arbitrary. I looked it up on Wikipedia and it just made me angry: “Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean.” Is it not obvious that oceans also lie on land? What is an ocean on, if not land? The ocean is not bottomless. The bottom of the ocean is land — they checked. Another irritating part of the definition is that lakes are “surrounded by land.” Now, don’t tell me oceans are not surrounded by land. There is no difference between oceans and lakes. The definition of a lake as “laying on/surrounded by the land” means oceans are, in fact, lakes. (more…)
“Shrinking Winter” — Great Lakes Now episode
Great Lakes Now is a production of Detroit Public Television. Footage of Duluth @11:44-12:00.
Lake Superior Waves
Lake Superior photographer Christian Dalbec shot the scenes in this video on Jan. 5. The waves hitting the cliff are at Tettegouche State Park on Crystal Bay. The surfing shots are from Stoney Point. The surfers are Jake Boyce and Ben Gravy.
Duluth sailboat crash in ship fail video compilation
The sailboat that crashed into the Aerial Lift Bridge on May 16, 2018 has made it into this recent “Ship Crash Compilation” on the YouTube channel “Crashing Zone” (@ the 1-minute mark).
Mystery Photo: Drag Racing on Lake Superior
Allouez Bay in Superior was recently the scene of a stock-car racing event called NASCAR on Ice, which might have seemed like a newish idea, but … the undated photo above has a handwritten message on the back that reads: “Taken on Lake Superior. Duluth in distance. Thousands on ice at time of races. A new sport. 24 in. of ice at time.” (more…)
Seletive Focus: Sea Smoke
Instagram
159 likes, 9 comments - drone_grown_photography on January 2, 2022: "Sea Smoke 💨 #destinationduluth #captureduluth #visitduluth #exploreminnesota #lakesuperior #greatlakesshipping #canalpark #duluth #minnesota #minnesota365 #aerialliftbridge #northshore #lakesuperiormagazine #dji #drone #dronephotography #dronestagram #picoftheday #picture #seasmoke #sunrise #instagood #instagram #travel #cold #winter".
instagram.com
Lake Superior sea smoke is all the rage on Instagram. (more…)
Great Lakes Now: Resilient Duluth
“Great Lakes Now checks in with Duluth mayor Emily Larson in an update on the improvements being made to the Lake Superior city’s waterfront, which resiliency efforts were featured in a ‘Resilient Duluth’ segment in June. “
Lake Superior Aquaman Fashion Week
(On the ‘gram @lakesuperioraquaman)
Lake Superior video from Duluth included in Ukraine exhibit
Three of my Lake Superior videos are included in this exhibit of “video dress sculptures” with “looped video playing in three places on each dress”: The Invisible Woman: Videodresses. All dresses and skirts by Genevieve Davis of Wisconsin. Videos of Lake Michigan by Genevieve Davis, except the above: #1 The Politician, #2 the Mother, and #6 the Composer, which incorporate three of my Lake Superior videos from here. This digital exhibit will be at the Gender Museum in Karkhiv the Ukraine from January – March 2022.
Selective Focus: November Gales 2021
Instagram
209 likes, 3 comments - tonecoughlin on November 11, 2021: "One of the neat images from today.
Gales of November 11, 2021.
#galesofnovember #galeforce #lakesuperior #lakesuperiormagazine #destinationduluth #befromduluth #waves #lakesuperior #greatlakes #greatlakesmn #storm".
instagram.com
Whether it’s Ten November, Eleven November or Any-day November, it’s no surprise when the gales roll in, yet it’s always eye opening. Waves crashed along the shores of Lake Superior today causing flooding in downtown Grand Marais. Collected here are select photos from Instagram showing the raw power of the big lake they call gitche gumee. (more…)
Things I saw on Park Point
I woke up this morning and said to myself, “I’m going to Park Point to take pictures of mushrooms in sunbeams,” and indeed I did (some sunbeams not included). Along the way I saw many strange and wondrous things, it was like The Odyssey. Pics below the fold: (more…)
On patrol: Boat propeller blades
While on patrol I found these two big iron flower petal things not too far offshore, wedged among the rocks. They were about 50 feet from each other in around ten feet of water. I think they may be blades from a large boat propeller. Yes I wore a shark fin for this patrol — a couple years ago I encountered a three-foot muskie in this area, and felt it best I should shark up. (more…)
Sunday Afternoon at Brighton Beach
Sunday, August 8, Duluth
I take my grandkids to Brighton Beach once or twice a summer. It’s one of the beaches we visit every year. Today I take them because it’s the last day Brighton Beach will be open to the public for a year, maybe two. The Lakewalk will be extended, Brighton Beach Road will be relocated, and the shoreline will be restored. I wonder how much it will change. I hope “restoring the shoreline” doesn’t mean depositing wide swaths of immense jagged rocks on the beach that become a barrier which hinders kids from pitching stones in the water and from gamboling on the ancient lava formations along the shore. (more…)
Lake Superior Aquaman on patrol
Duluth MN circa 15 feet deep: All clear
Postcard from the Hiawatha in 1961
Another postcard bearing this image was previously posted on Perfect Duluth Day, but this one bears a postmark from 60 years ago today — Aug. 15, 1961. (more…)
Lake Superior Sea Monster: Three Fatal Encounters
Mouth of the Presque Isle River, Sept. 9, 1987
The cute falls and river here empty into Lake Superior like so many sites along the South Shore: sandy beach, smooth stones, jumbles of fallen half-drowned trees. Depth off shore reaches thirty feet with a sand floor, on the edge of a rock shelf plunging 200 feet.
Statement of first responder on presumed drowning death of Matthew Bruin, 19: “This is not the first drowning victim of the Presque Isle River. It’s important to remember while splashing around in this shallow area by the mouth, that the seabed quickly descends to a couple hundred feet. The warm river water flows over top of the colder lake water, but it’s a conveyor belt to the deep. As the river water cools it sinks, pulling people down. Sadly I think the victim’s body will never be recovered. People say, ‘It’s the Presque Isle monster’ or ‘it’s a sea serpent’, but it is the lake itself, a force of nature that does not care if we live or die.”
Victim’s friend and witness, J.R. Sandvik: “I’m telling you he was pulled under by a large animal… I miss him… I miss you buddy.” (more…)
SubSuperior: Day 1
Beta-test/proof of concept/first annual; video to come. Making music underwater and projecting it on land with hydrophones.
Lake Superior Aquaman: I just went to Wisconsin for a second
The other day was so warm I didn’t wear a wetsuit, just my Golden Age costume. Didn’t even wear my flippers because I felt natural. I was at the Duluth rock beach called The Ledges — you can see Richardson Island from there. Standing at a sheer drop, in one-foot-deep water, within a step you plunge in @7-8 feet deep. From there, a casual swim to 12-15? I vaguely fear the sight of large fish. Happens sometimes/nothing there this time but the boulders. Loons and mergansers hunt here though. When I came up after a minute my friend Stephen Bockbock said, “I was getting worried about you,” and I said, “I just went to Wisconsin for a second.” Someone said, “Rock.”
I stopped saying I wanted to learn to paddleboard and just did it
After a Saturday fling with a paddle board on Superior Bay, I was smitten. Within an hour of finishing my lesson, I wanted one. I experienced this same love-at-first-try feeling forty years ago when I cross-country skied for the first time and rushed out to buy skis. I used those skis for years. (more…)
Algae blooms on Lake Superior continue
The first confirmed sighting of blue-green algae on Lake Superior was in 2012. Since then, scientists have been trying to determine what’s causing it and if it’s linked to climate change.
Seagulls dive bombing my shit
Lake Superior Aquaman pink flamingo seagull dive bomb attack, Duluth, Minnesota.
