Harri Kytömaa loves to turn his swimming into Strava art. Here’s how he does it.
In the pandemic lockdown summer of 2020, Harri Kytömaa took up swimming in Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts (made famous by Henry David Thoreau and his experiment in simple living) and Gull Pond in Wellfleet. He describes both as “crystal clear kettle ponds”, formed by historic melting of glacial ice.
Years earlier, Harri had become a Strava user for biking, so tracking his swims was an obvious extension. At first, they weren’t planned, but they evolved, and he had the idea of doing a bat for Halloween.
“That actually failed miserably,” he says. Creating recognisable images would take a little more effort.
After fixing a GPS tracker issue, Harri went on to “swim a turkey” for Thanksgiving.
Time to plan
The pandemic gave Harri a little extra time each day (he works full-time), which allowed him to plan each swim in detail. His process goes something like this:
- Pick a subject
- Draw it on a map
- Break it down into segments.
- Memorise the entire swim – meaning the segment lengths and way points.
He then jumps in for a “thoroughly enjoyable swim with the singular focus of keeping my heading, counting my strokes and taking out hard corners for curves.”
His designs are constrained by the pond’s shape, but creating his designs and executing them has helped him get to know his swimming spot in great detail. “I have become familiar with every nook and cranny of Walden Pond and how they look in different lighting conditions, weather and time of day,” he says, adding that it’s a beautiful spot.
He only finds out if he’s accomplished his vision after he’s finished and removed the tracker from his tow float.
“It’s my end-of-swim surprise!” he says.
Harri started his swimming Strava art as a personal challenge, but was pleasantly and positively surprised by how his turkey turned out after only his second attempt. So far, he has only shared his GPS tracks with a small private group on Strava and with a few work colleagues. They have greeted his Strava art with a range of responses from applause to disbelief. That was in part what motivated him to reach out to us.
“I want to know if there is anyone else out there doing anything similar,” he says.
His most recent piece of swimming Strava art is a splendid animated shark, which he wanted to do for a while but struggled to find time now that the pandemic has receded.
“I was tied up abroad for work until mid-August this summer, so I only had 2 to 3 months to do it before the water got too cold. I swam many of the sharks in duplicate as they were not easy! I also had to recalibrate my stroke count when I switched to my wetsuit.”
Asked for his own assessment of the shark, Harri says: “It came together well enough but it could always be better.”
Which leaves us wondering what he might do next, as we think the shark is wonderful.
Have you created anything with GPS tracks? Let us know and share your images. Or if you want to share your images with Harri directly, email him at harrikytomaa@gmail.com
Harri plots his next swim
