LOCALadk Magazine

LOCALadk | People 20 LOCALadk Magazine Spring 2014 How Do You Measure Passion? Photos and Story By Matt Young M easuring passion can be difficult. Attaching a number to activities like skiing, hiking, or paddling that provide limitless joy and fulfillment to our lives, cannot adequately describe the intense feelings we have for the ways we spend our free time. That is, unless you are photographer, whitewater kayaker, and native Adirondacker James Swedberg. Known by his community as Jim, at the end of the 2013 whitewater season, Swedberg had completed over 1,174 journeys through the Hudson River Gorge. Jim is out on the water almost every day there is a commercial rafting trip. He offers a thumbs up, a smile, and captures lasting memories for rafting guests through the lens of his digital camera. To some, it might come as a surprise that for Jim, it is not about the size of the rapid, the speed of the water, or the excitement of the raging rapids. It's about the people and lasting relationships the river cultivates, day after day, that keeps him coming back year after year. Jim has lived in Long Lake his entire life. "Actually, I was born in Tupper," he exclaimed during one of our floats through the Hudson Gorge together. He began to tell me his story, indicating that he first developed a passion for paddling when he came across a budding business just outside of Warrensburg known as Wildwaters Outdoor Center. This six- foot tall, gentle soul with some really interesting facial hair learned the basics and honed his skills on the more mellow stretches of the Hudson River. He admits to being nervous on his first trip through "The Gorge," and recalls being bundled up in wool layers underneath a thick neoprene wetsuit, completely inadequate cold weather paddling gear by today's standard. Gear aside, he slid into the water and recalls feeling an instant connection to the river. Raft guides prepare their crew for Jim's "office" above the Narrows, the deepest part of the gorge, well before Jim actually snaps the photo. As guides navigate their rubber rafts through the rapid in an attempt to offer the best photo-op for Jim, they are greeted with a giant smile and contagious enthusiasm. One veteran guide confesses, "Even when you completely mess up the line and potentially ruin Jim's photo, you get the same excited reaction. He's just so happy to be out there." When you ask Jim how he has kept his passion alive through his 1,170th trip and beyond, he says it's the relationships that he's built through the common bond of the river. He views the rafting community as his family, and like many others who are on the water every day, the river is where he truly feels at home., Jim Swedberg

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