Slipstream LLC was founded by James Murdock during the pandemic to help folks trapped at home get more out of their backyard pool.  Murdock had retired after selling his company Endless Pools, Incto Masco, a Fortune 500 company.  Unlike Endless Pool products, the Slipstream was designed to be lightweight and portable - easy to drop into any pool.  As a pool owner himself, he recognized the endless hassle keeping a pool clean. Vacuuming debris became a key feature and benefit of Slipstream.  Manufactured in our plant outside Philadelphia, Slipstreams are shipped via Standard Ground throughout North America and abroad. Our patent pending technology transforms your pool allowing you to swim at your pace for as long as you want - without turns. Slipstream solves the problem of backyard pools too short for a good swim. Not just for swimming, Slipstream is ideal for water exercises and is great fun for the kids.

James Murdock, founder of Slipstream LLC, has been fascinated his entire career by the possibilities of swimming-in-place offered by machines able to generate a smooth, even, adjustable-speed current. He founded Endless Pools, Inc. back in 1987 in New York where he built the first Endless Pool™ on the deck at Columbia University. Endless Pools, Inc. grew and prospered manufacturing its unique, steel-panel, vinyl-lined pool in its factory outside Philadelphia. Murdock sold the business to Masco, a Fortune 500 company, back in 2015. The compact, personal Endless Pool joined a stable of products including acrylic swim spas and hot tubs offered by Watkins Wellness of California, a division of Masco. (More…)

What differentiated Endless Pools was the quality of the adjustable-speed swim current.  As an engineer, Murdock believed that to really replicate open water swimming a machine needed to move a great deal of water.  To feel natural the water needed to move at about the speed of the swimmer but in the opposite direction thus holding the swimmer in place. While the Endless Pool™ is a complete compact pool with a swim current, Murdock was also intrigued by the traditional backyard pool that was invariably too short for a good swim. Very early on, in 1991, he built what became known as the Fastlane™ installing one in the backyard pool of Dr. Bob Goldberger, his first Endless Pool customer. Endless Pools, Inc. didn’t do much with this product that fit in a backyard pool until about 2005. Today, the Fastlane Pro™ by Endless Pools is available for both new and existing pools and it provides a truly wonderful swimming experience. Endless Pools still operates out of facilities just outside Philadelphia and the company has grown and prospered. Murdock is no longer affiliated with the company but he remains their biggest fan and still owns the building where they are based.

Murdock’s five year non-compete agreement with Masco ended in March 2020 and he was obliged to spend a good deal of time in his backyard pool that summer as the country entered lockdown. The problem he had wrestled with for years remained: How to provide a good swim with a product that was easy to install, easy to remove, quiet, lightweight, affordable, attractive, and would fit in any pool. He realized what the new brushless DC motors and improved new Lithium Ion batteries could offer. Easy to install meant that it can be done entirely by the homeowner in seconds - no electrician needed, no special 220 volt circuit required, no drilling through the wall of the pool. Lightweight meant 32 pounds. Affordable meant less than half the price of the Fastlane Pro. Attractive meant attractive taking up very little space in the pool with very little on the deck. It was important to maintain the highest quality swim along with completely adjustable speed. The battery operated Slipstream™ provides an hour long swim at a one minute and twenty second hundred yard pace. An upgrade offers faster and longer swims without charging using a 110 volt power supply. The lithium ion battery system allows for solar charging and even provides a backup power supply during power outages.

Slipstream LLC was founded to bring not only this innovative new product to market but to make swimming itself easier to enjoy and easier to master. Murdock, a non-swimmer ironically until he founded Endless Pools, Inc., has also been focused on the opportunities afforded any swimmer held in place by a current. Its a great place to learn to swim or improve your swim stroke using either a bottom mirror or an underwater camera. A coach can be right there with a swimmer able to directly adjust stroke and body position. Training at a set pace or with a programmed interval workout is fun. Slipstream can not only transform America’s backyard pool it can help promote swimming generally and serve as an indispensable tool to those teaching swimming.

Pictures of Dad and me from 1990 with a caption