shake that body

I'm sorting through old files tonight, in preparation for a meeting on Friday. this is a still from an film project I worked on last year. It's a 3D animated character with watercolour painted textures - one of my most successful merges of the two mediums so far. I can't wait to experiment more with this process in future collaborations and films.

The ocean temperature dropped significantly over the last two days. I don't know if it'll come back up this year. In northern lakes, there's a cold layer of water that kinda "flips over" in the fall, and the lakes suddenly get cold until next spring. I think it would be different in oceans, because of the huge volume and the constant current. I'm hoping the temperature rises again so I can do some swim-challenges I've planned before it's too late.

Tonight, after about 15 minutes of swimming, it was cold enough that my arms started to tingle. My legs were okay, probably because they're thicker, more blood flows through them, and they're hairier. It took me about 20 minutes to cross the cove, and I was cold enough that I got out of the water on the other shore to warm up for a couple minutes, then swam back.

On the way back my arms were tingling a little sooner, then they got numb in the last few minutes before shore. They weren't performing well, and it took more shoulder-work to throw them forward. I could see how people suddenly stop swimming when they get too cold. If my legs got as numb as my arms, it would have been a scary couple of minutes swimming back to shore. I don't know if I would have made it.

Thirty minutes later, I have my wool hat and two sweaters on, trying to warm up - my core temperature obviously dropped as well.

It's really fun pushing my body like this and observing how it reacts.

I'll be damned if I stop swimming this winter. I don't want to use a wetsuit - I'm hoping I can get used to it somehow. I'm definitely going to stick closer to shore for a while though.