Character floating when switching states/changing size?

i am trying to make a splatoon-ey kind of swimming effect, and i am mostly satisfied with what im coming up with -except- that for some reason, when the swim state is triggered, the player hovers in place until a keyboard input is pressed?
the size change is done with an animation & only the scale keyframes are changed, i made sure no loc/rot frames are present, could it be an issue with the state change or the collision?
i want the player to continue smoothly whatever motion they were doing before changing to swim state
i am using UPBGE
thank you!

(edit: oops forgot to attach video or blend file!)

video wont upload for some reason, ill try sharing blend.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/a8n2miy007x3g5zfs7vnf/swimtest-copy.blend?rlkey=2uolz78t6v1ko67qkxuye4vri&st=rl8l0kq4&dl=0