I’m a filmmaker. On set or on location I can put in 18-hour days disciplined and dialed in. But in the rest of my life I am weak-willed and lazy. Always loved the endorphins of cold water but always struggled to overcome that little resistance as well. The science behind cold showers is settled, but not the will to turn the faucet to cold when hot water is half a turn away.
It’s actually the short invigorating ‘cold shock’ that bestows the benefits. Not the temp of the water, exactly. So long as I felt that instant, invigorating gasp, it worked. The cold water coming out of your shower at 73 degrees will still make you yelp and dance. And you still feel amazing stepping out of it. Yet I lacked the discipline to consistently turn the dial to C.
On a lark I bought one of those inflatable spas. Lousy as a hot tub (no insulation) but the form factor was a revelation. Deep enough to sit in up to my neck, or slip all the way under. Incredibly sturdy, but comfy sidewalls I could rest my head on, sit on, watch the kids jump from (their little spring board). All with a footprint of six feet. Only problem was the hot tub stuff—plastic plumbing, motor, heater, etc. I just wanted the cold pool.
So I simplified it. Stripped it down to a near perfect plunge pool (the hard plastic pipes remained, unfortunately). Over the next 5 years it became my morning cup of coffee, my afternoon refresh, a mood reset, the 5-minute work reward (most of a filmmaker’s job is actually at a desk: writing, pre-pro, post-production, zoom calls) so I’d plunge 5 times a day throughout.
No more extension cord, motor, noise—just a spoonful of chlorine to keep it clean. Easy to setup as an air-mattress, yet rock solid. And when ready to empty and refill, I’d water the lawn. That slightly cloudy water at the end of two weeks? My lawn and garden loved it. (Always drop a test strip in first to make sure the chlorine is gone.)
After about five years it started leaking air from around the plastic plumbing. I searched everywhere for a replacement: just the cold pool, just that form factor. But it didn’t exist. I reached out to the spa manufacturers and said I’d pay for the hot tub stuff if they could just send the cold pool alone, but that’s not how manufacturing works. The factory would need to be retooled.
And so that’s what I set out to do.