Wow. This Misty Lake is lots of trouble. Must be annoying to live in it, especially if you have to swim a way back.
The mechanic is just really fun once you understand it. Which didn't occur to me until I got past the first obstacle. And huh... I did get stuck for a few minutes there. Like, the speed boost provided by these sparkles? I didn't notice them. I just picked them up, took my sweet time into the riptide and couldn't figure out why I got halfway there the first time.
But when you figure out the sparkles are subtle speed boosters? I gets super fun, it could become a speedrunner's game!