What makes us think we can trust any of them

[TSandM]

What are the most efficient feeback mechanisms you use in daily (non-diving) life that allow you to multitask... even taking care of critical situations under stress? How are you oriented?

I've actually been thinking about this a LOT, ever since I got the surprise slapdown in Fundies that my situational awareness sucked.

Frankly, above water, most situations where you have to take care of critical situations reward intense FOCUS, not multi-tasking. In the ER, I do best if I can shut out all the extraneous material and focus on the critical patient. I do it well. That particular skill is NOT what I need underwater.

On the other hand, I can drink coffee, talk on the cell phone, shift gears and change lanes . . . and I've been analyzing what I do as I do it, trying to figure out how I've learned to do all these things at one time without compromising any of them significantly. And one insight is that each individual component has to be able to be accomplished virtually without thought -- which is where the drills come in. Do S-drills until you can do them in your sleep (I try, but even in my sleep I lose buoyancy); get buoyancy under such control that it's no longer a conscious process at all; get keeping track of your buddies to be so natural that you don't have to think about it, and you have a much better chance of combining the three without losing significant quality on any of them. Combine three processes that have to be managed at the conscious level, and performance is going to suffer seriously, probably in all three.

Getting the physical cues of position in the water, and rate of change of position, down to where they are second nature, will free up tremendous processing to deal with other issues. Not NEEDING to keep a moment-to-moment eye on your machine that tells you ascent rate will allow you to look around, check your buddies, check current influences, maintain visual reference on the upline, whatever. My husband slapped my hand during one of our ascents the other day, because as I got focused on my computer to monitor my depth, I forgot where my light was shining, and I was blinding him. If I'd felt more confident about my ability to know I was stable in water WITHOUT a visual reference, I'd have been able to pay more attention to my light, and to my buddy, and to where we were and what was happening. Instead, I needed the one input and discarded the others.

I personally think the discussion of these things is incredibly valuable . . . giving me ideas and tips to try to optimize my performance of skills I need for every single dive. I don't mind drills. I've done many, many years of them in different disciplines. It takes determination and practice to achieve competence -- I don't care what kind of activity you are discussing, that will be true.

 

[DivesWithTurtles]

Lynn (TSandM) wrote...
extremely fine and thought-worthy comments

Senses are not to be trusted solely in a non-Terra firma, non-normal weight/gravity environment. (See flying-on-instruments.) Gauges are a necessary reference. Don't trust a pilot flying in a cloud visually, even a very experienced pilot. And gauges that do calculations for you (e.g., an ascent gauge) are certainly the most efficient. Just don't stare at your gauges. You have other things to consider as well.

Driving down the highway (with cell-phone and coffee) you look down the road, you look at the car in front of you, you look in the mirrors, and you look at the gauges, all in sequence. You feel the road and you feel the wheel. Situational awareness.

You don't throw out the speedometer just because a watch, an odometer, and road feel can allow you to determine your speed without it, and the speedometer may fail someday. The speedometer is a most efficient tool.

Have you ever driven down the road, looked down at the speedometer, and suddenly saw that you were going way faster (or slower) than you thought you were, even though you were focused on the driving, not daydreaming? Senses are variable.

(Why am I starting to feel like I'm writing like SeaJay? Not a good feeling.)

 

[Charlie99]

As with many things, there's a nice zone in the middle that works nicely, while the extremes to either side have problems.

Staring at an ascent rate indicator on a dive computer is less than optimal. Using only your senses and not bringing a depth gauge/bottom timer/computer because they can fail is also less than optimal. What works for me it to use my senses (ear, motion of water, visual tracking of gunk and bubbles, visual estimates of distance to the surface) for relative distances and to control short term ascent/descent rates. The computer/depth gauge/bottom timer provides longer term feedback, and better accuracy. The computer will work where my senses won't, or where they can be fooled (downcurrents, judging absolute depth midwater with no visual references). The computer or bottom timer or depth gauge+watch combo are also what I use to control the overall ascent and shape of ascent over a period of several minutes --- simply by choosing when starting the ascent a few depth/time points through which I will pass.

Just like in driving down the road, it was hard and took 100% concentration to do the basic skills when first driving a car. Then the skills became more automatic and situational awareness improves. Lots of similarities --- I mostly use engine and road sounds as feedback to keep a constant speed, but do periodically check to see what that speedometer says.

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In much the same way, when talking about decompression, there are advantages to using the senses, to using mental tracking of time and depth profiles, and to using the electronic tracking of computers. An intelligent diver uses the different methods in a complementary way.

 

[Snowbear]

Frankly, above water, most situations where you have to take care of critical situations reward intense FOCUS, not multi-tasking. In the ER, I do best if I can shut out all the extraneous material and focus on the critical patient. I do it well. That particular skill is NOT what I need underwater.

To continue your analogy, I would bet you dinner that you are more situationally aware than you think you are. As a paramedic taking care of that same critical patient in the field, I may *look* like I'm focused on the patient, but I had also better be aware of thinkgs like what everyone is doing, what they've already done, what the monitors are telling me and do they jive with what the patient looks like. Most importantly, I had also better be situationally aware enough to notice the handgun on the nightstand and the agitated bystander pacing in the background :11:

It's like Charlie said - once you have done something long enough and practiced the various parts and tasks to achieve a high level of competence and comfort, you won't even notice you are paying attention to stuff that once took focus. Then if something isn't right, it will grab your attention... Like the above analogy of looking at the speedomer and realizing you are going faster than you thought you were. Why did you look? probably 'cause something didn't "feel" right so you checked.... and confirmed what you already knew to be wrong. Same thing with diving. If you're holding a stop without staring at your guage, you will realize that you should not be feeling pressure changes in your ears, so you look at the guage to verify what you already knew.

 

[Uncle Pug]

I got the surprise slapdown in Fundies that my situational awareness sucked.

Most folks are surprised. Even very experienced divers are surprised to find out that they aren't as proficient as they thought they were. Many need a post fundies encouragement dive to keep them from spiralling into depression and ultimately, golf.

Frankly, above water, most situations where you have to take care of critical situations reward intense FOCUS, not multi-tasking. In the ER, I do best if I can shut out all the extraneous material and focus on the critical patient. I do it well. That particular skill is NOT what I need underwater.

I'll bet that as a an experienced ER Doc you don't get target fixation... assessing the situation has become so automatic for you that you are overlooking it in your explanation here. (Did the patient break their leg when they fell from the ladder? Or did they break their leg when they had a TIA and fell from the ladder?)

On the other hand, I can drink coffee, talk on the cell phone, shift gears and change lanes . . .

Something need to be pared from that list for the safety of the rest of us on the road.

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

. . .


Something need to be pared from that list for the safety of the rest of us on the road.

Does that open up a new DIR opportunity - Driving It Right fundies?