Task Loading

[sambolino44]

I finally got back in the water last weekend, and since the second dive was probably the most stressful dive I've ever had, I thought I'd post what happened and see what you all think.

I've heard plenty about how you shouldn't combine too many new things on the same dive, but I thought they were all "small" enough that I could handle it. Well, I handled it, but there was a moment when I realized, "Man, I'm barely hanging on here; one more thing goes haywire, and this could turn into a bad dive!"

Some of you may be familiar with this dive: drifting from the pilings to the jetty at Keystone (Whidbey Island, WA). I've done drift dives before, but from a boat that was following us, so wherever we ended up, there's the boat. This time we were drifting along the shore, and had to make sure we didn't miss the end of the jetty, or else we'd be heading for Canada.

I tried shooting my new SMB for the first time, and was a little surprised at how horizontal the line went, and how much it pulled. And several times I hooked it on myself as it trailed behind me. Seems like a simple thing, but it got more complicated than I anticipated.

Then, while dinking around with the SMB, I got too far from my buddy. Actually, he got completely out of sight for a few seconds. Vis was only about 10' - 15' at that point, but still that's way too far.

I've been trying to fine tune my weight, but this dive had a rental cylinder and even though I put a 2-pounder in my BC pocket, when I decided to plant myself so I could reel in the SMB I couldn't get as negative as I wanted so I was sliding across the bottom.

At any rate, I was only out of reach of my buddy for a few breaths, I got the SMB back under control, and we ended up right where we planned to go, with about 500 PSI.

But if one more thing had gone wrong...

 

[spectrum]

I agree that task loading is something not to be taken lightly.

Just adding something like a dive flag is sure to draw attention away from some essential function. We try to level the tasks when we plan a dive. If I have the flag then someone else is the lead navigator. If I need to do something mid water a buddy will hold the depth so I have a visual reference. Having your buddy fill the bag while you held it would have been helpful while you eased back into it. Signaling your buddy to stop for the deployment should have kept him handy.

A good dive in my book is when nobody is hurt, all of the gear comes back and you learn something. You had a good dive.

Pete

 

[1_T_Submariner]

Sounds like a good learning experience. Also a pretty cool dive.

 

[sambolino44]

Thanks for not blasting me, guys. It was a great learning experience, because I didn't get hurt, and it certainly caught my attention! And it was a very cool dive!

 

[3-Ring Octopus]

I'm certainly not going to blast you..but Whidbey is one heck of a site for trying multiple things at once!

Congrats on making it back in one piece...

Cheers,
Austin

 

[SteveAD]

Had one drill sergeant in basic, what everyone else called a fustercluck he referred to as a "training opportunity" you could tell he meant the same thing, but still it's true. we learn the most when things go wrong. (just so long as no one gets hurt.