Swimming

Is there anyway of making an swim animation so that my avatar will stay on the surface of the water no matter how much the depth changes for example in the ocean?
I know I can custom make one for a particular depth but Im wandering if theres a way for SL to recognise that im inwater and therefore make me float etc?

offhand the only way I can think to do this is to sit on something that is setup as a vehicle, set it as floats on water, and it'll accomplish this. Have it have walk/run/fly/swim anims and it'll look normal, though you'll need to get off of it to sit on other things

soembody wanted to sell me a script that they said I can use with a hud to achieve what Im wanting to do. Is it possible? surely someone out there must know.

Yes, it's possible, but it must be scripted (ie. scripted HUD plus various swim animations). Go to the Waterworks sim and check out The Swimmer. It is one amazing piece of scriptery and very, very popular.

You can swim on the surface, select from a selection of strokes (front crawl, back stroke, breast stroke, etc.). If you don't move at all your avatar will tread water. If you use page down, you swim underwater. Let go, and you'll slowly float up to the surface - as your RL self would under the same circumstances.