"Mama Duck" Returns (Spiritually) Home

We visited the Tall Ship Festival in Duluth, Minnesota yesterday. Watched the Worlds Largest Duck be inflated. This got us curious as to the history around this duck, affectionately called "Mama Duck." She spiritually is returning home as her creator, Craig Samborski is from Duluth. We say spiritually because she was actually created elsewhere.

Mama Duck being inflated

Craig Samborski was living in Duluth at the time of Mama's inception He was an event producer and wanted something big, eye catching and whimsical to bring attention to maritime events, more specifically Tall Ship Festivals.

“We needed something fun, photogenic, and absurd enough to make people stop, smile, and show up.” said Samborski.

One eye peeking out

While living in Duluth, Sambroski attended a Los Angeles Tall Ship planning meeting in 2014, when, over drinks, a colleague challenged him: “Go big or go home.” . Inspired by artist, Florentijn Hofman’s giant rubber ducks, Sambroski took the challenge and started the process to build the worlds largest inflatable duck. A mere short nine months later, Mama Duck made her debut in August of 2014 at the LA festival.

Over those months, her fabric shell was built in Cleveland, Ohio while her steel base was made in Irvine, California.

There comes the tail

 Mama Duck was transported to Los Angeles and including the inflatable shell, fan blowers, rigging equipment, and support gear, it fit into one truck. Mama is 61 feet tall and 15,000 pounds (inflated) and was designed to be portable. To this day, she is transferred basically the same way.

Fully (or almost) inflated

Back to today, we saw Mama duck inflated and as soon as she was, she was deflated. In the canal park area the winds picked up and Mama was whipping back and forth and before long spectators could see signs of deflation. Even though she is anchored to concrete blocks, if organizers didn't deflate her, there could have been serious issues. She was placed in a somewhat confined area so strong winds could pose a threat to people who were near by. Another issue - high winds can cause damage to Mama which would entail costly repairs.

The deflation process

Mama Duck was eventually inflated again and stands proudly at her temporary home in Canal Park for the next few days.

Courtesy of Visit Duluth