Learn More About James Murdock

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 in 2015. 

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.

The first summer of the pandemic Murdock was obliged to spend a good deal of time at home where he has a traditional backyard pool.  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 34 pounds. You can drop it in or take it out in seconds. Affordable meant less than half the price of competing products. Attractive meant attractive taking up very little space in the pool and nothing on the deck. It was important to maintain the highest quality swim along with completely adjustable speed.

The other thing brought home to him that summer was just how much work it was to keep a traditional pool clean. The need to vacuum was constant. Debris would settle to the bottom and the pool filter system wouldn’t pick it up. As he developed his new machine he decided to harness the fact that Slipstream moves thousands of gallons of water a minute. That moving water stirs up everything and pulls debris to the cylindrical inlet grill where he invented a novel way to screen it out. Slipstream is as much a pool cleaner as it is a swimming machine! 

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™ not only transforms America’s backyard pools it helps promote swimming generally and serves as an indispensable tool to those teaching swimming.