That's what I thought until I turned 40 and the mid-life crisis grabbed me by the throat and squeezed until I had hunter-eyes and couldn't focus on anything specific.
LOL (nice to see you too...)
R...
P.S. I get what you're talking about. I think it's the same message I'm trying to give to Lynne. She's signed off now and I have to go to bed so I'll lift the curtain a bit so she doesn't spend all weekend wondering what I'm on about.....
The "hunter eyes" is sort of the key. It's splitting your attention between two tasks. On the one hand, you're performing the steps of launching your blob and on the other hand you're watching your buddy.
You're going to say "yeah but the horizontal/vertical thing and watching Kirk only works during the day".....
No.
That means that you and Kirk need to talk. If you're performing a task and Kirk has the "task" of watching depth then his job is give you the visual cues you need to keep your depth. I needed to let it sink in what you meant about horizontal/vertical separation but now that I can visualize it then I realize that Kirk is watching YOU!
<raspberry>
He should be watching depth and orientation and giving you the cues you need. If *he* is anchored in the water like the unmovable object he should be emulating then all you need for visual reference is to keep an eye on the edge of his mask out of the corner of your eye.
Either you're not really *looking* at him or he's watching you and moving around when he should be showing you what "still" looks like.
For Mike that's second nature and he's calling it "hunter eyes".... watching for slight movement without focusing on anything specific. In your case, Lynne, I know that you get a little dizzy in the dark so I'd suggest looking at the contours of the mask (clear straight lines).... but you have to tell your buddy to remain *absolutely still* even if you don't.... that's the part you're missing. Maybe he even needs to shine his light on himself instead of on you while you're busy.
That's part one. Part two is that you're seeing bouancy control as a given but it isn't. In zero reference situations it's a task. Treat it like that. Spend time on it. Slow down the execution of other tasks so you have the time to look at your buddy, so you can adjust your buoyancy (A-B-C-D). You're busy with D (launch the blob) when you haven't go your B's in a line (buoyancy control). Switch back and forth. Unclip the blob....check bouancy.... unfold it....check buoyancy...get it aligned in front of you ...check buoyancy...bring it up...check buoyancy...breathe into it ...check buoyancy... and so on....
That's the A-B-C-D's.... get coordinated and don't be afraid to take a couple of minutes to launch your blob. Doing things too quickly will bite you every time....
That's a start.... does it make any sense?
R..
