Managing Task Loading - a matter of priorities

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Diver0001

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This is something that's been on my mind. I'd just like to get a discussion going about strategies people use to manage task loading. To kick it off I'll share my own thoughts.

let's take this scenario for a common starting point:

You're diving on a large wreck in 100ft of water. The visibility is relatively poor and there is a slight current. You're down to 80 bar and within 3 minutes of the NDL when you suddenly come to the realization that you the upline isn't where you thought it was. You're disoriented, getting a little low on air and you need to leave the bottom. You have to collect your buddy, launch at least one DSMB and upon looking at your buddy he's looking stressed. Amidst the confusion the current is slowly pushing you and your buddy a little over the top of the wreck and you begin to drift a little deeper.

(at this point some of you are thinking "that's not task loading, where's the freeflow, the shark attacks and the failed bungee wings"? If that's you just wait a bit before responding).

In these kinds of situations you can use priority setting to keep tasks organized and do the right things first.

In my case (note: there are 1000 ways to skin this cat). I would apply what I call my A-B-C-D rule. PADI has something called "stop, breathe, think, do" but I think it misses an important step so I use what i think is a slight improvement.

A - Air.

Just stop and breathe in and out while you assess your situation. In this scenario, I would also sign to my buddy to stop and breathe in and out slowly. I may even pat him on the shoulder and give him a big OK sign to put him at ease. Take time for this and make sure everyone is calm before going further. Not controlling your breathing is the biggest hindrance to clear thinking and correct action in task loading and if you let your breathing get faster and shallower in such situations it can even lead to panic. Panic is never good and not necessary in our scenario. You have air. You have your buddy and all your gear is working correctly. Remind yourself of that as you breathe in and breathe out.

B - Buoyancy control.

Just dive. Check your gauges, Check your depth, your NDL, your air and make sure you are neutral. In this scenario I think I would sign to my buddy to follow me and I would look for a good place to launch the DSMB where it would have a clear run to the surface and I wasn't going to get pushed around too much by the current. Sometimes swimming away from the wreck and doing it near the bottom on the leeward side of the wreck is handy but that's another discussion. The point here is to just dive and think about where you want to be. (This is the part that gets missed in "stop-breathe-think-do".

C - Communicate. (in PADI = think)

Strangely, communicating isn't my highest priority. It comes after controlling breathing and controlling buoyancy. At this point I would tell my buddy I want to launch a DSMB. He may also want to launch his but I would communicate to do them one at a time or maybe for him to wait until we've reached our first stop to do it while we're not pushing the NDL's anymore. At this point you're planning and communicating. You could also decide to search again for the up line but I personally would reject ideas that would put us in time pressure if it didn't work. For the rest it doesn't really matter what your plan is but the important thing is that the plan is clear.

D - Do it.

Once you have a plan then just do it. In this scenario, we spent maybe 1/3 of our time breathing and diving, 1/3 planning and communicating and 1/3 doing it. So to finish we launch one DSMB from the bottom and then ascend to 10 metres. Stop at 10 metres just long enough to launch the second DSMB and then proceed slowly to stop depth. Stops are done using the DSMB for stability. In the do it phase you need to go slow move slowly and deliberately. Trying to execute the plan too quickly will actually slow you down. Go slow, avoid mistakes and you will be done faster.

So, that's that. We started with a scenario that may have looked a intimidating. I mean we had a lot to do. We had to process the shock of realizing we were lost, we had to calm down our buddy, deal with the current and avoid slipping deeper, find a spot to launch a DSMB, launch it, get the ascent going and all the while keep an eye on gauges as we communicated the plan to our buddy.

That's lots of tasks but by structuring the approach with A-B-C-D (or stop breathe think do) we organized the highest priority tasks to the top of the list and got it structured so we could move through them in an effective manner.

Having said that, this is my way of doing things. This thread is intended to get the idea across on the one hand but also to see what other people do to organize tasks. So let's hear your solution to the scenario. The stage is yours.

R..
 
For this scenario:

1. Stop, breathe, remain calm.
2. Signal buddy "where is upline?" If response is a shrug, signal buddy to stay close and get oriented so you know what compass direction the current is moving you off the wreck.
3. Ascend to a shallower depth before launching DSMB, say, 50 feet. This will conserve air and give you a valuable "deep stop" while you manage the task of launching your DSMB.
3.a. Remain aware of gas supply for you and your buddy.
4. If current is not too stiff, swim against it to minimize drift and possibly locate the upline as you are ascending. Check against the compass heading you took at depth in case the current has shifted.
5. Depending on location and conditions, consider skipping the 15 foot safety stop. You can drift a long way in 3 minutes. It's good to find the boat when you ascend. :)

theskull
 
Diver0001,
I've been thinking about your post for 24 hours and found it useful but I have 1 question for you. If one buddy has already (successfully) launched a DSMB why would the second diver need to do it (unless ordained by the boat skipper)?
 
dbulmer:
Diver0001,
I've been thinking about your post for 24 hours and found it useful but I have 1 question for you. If one buddy has already (successfully) launched a DSMB why would the second diver need to do it (unless ordained by the boat skipper)?

Depending on conditions the second diver may want to launch DSMB to accurately control stop depths. It can be done with one but it's less work if everyone has their own.

Having said that, the scenario is just an aid to gathering task loading strategies. What were your thoughts about how to manage the tasks?

R..
 
artw:
I agree with regard to Air being the most important thing, obviously
if you are in a cave, the Line, and getting on it, is the second most important thing


Found myself in a situation like this a couple of weeks ago. Diving a wreck at 30 mtrs. Pretty big wreck, really well broken up. Missed the line on the way back, retraced steps to get on to it with the current running. No joy, last couple of mins of NDL and time to get the hell out of dodge.

Keep breathing, keep neutral, keep buddy. Sent up smb asap as drifting of wreck and chilled out with an easy ascent knowing the boat would be tracking us. Good safety stop, surface and signal to the boat. Went well, but a definite sense of pressure at the time but also one of accomplishment, took control of a situation that could have went the other direction and came out safe.
 
Diver0001,
Part of the reason it took me 24 hours to digest is that for the life of me I could not think of anything better than what you wrote. An excellent post :)
 
A great, thought-provoking post, Diver0001. The only thing I'll add is the observation that I am overly reluctant (both in diving and other activites) to abandon the original plan and to move into a bailout/emergency response. Or to use your term, my biggest task loading is the initial decision to bail out. There is always that tempation to look for the upline for "just another minute".

Setting some limits ahead of time as part of the plan helps to reduce this tendency to stay on the original plan too long. A simple example is that while on a wreck, I'll have a turnpoint that is what I think is needed to be back at the upline. There is also a desired minimum PSI for starting the ascent up the upline. And then there's the rock hard rock bottom where it is now an emergency free ascent and/or air share. Now.
 
Good post again Diver0001, as a basic set up your ABCD beats stop, breathe, think, act hands down. Now to continue in a similar vein, given a range of tasks to still complete what would you do them in? The Skull gave some examples of additional steps to get you out of there in the Do phase as did others mentioning stuff. The only cases i would think that are worse than a simple OW, low on air, drifting with no upline might be inside a wreck or cave. Say a worst case could be low air or valve/reg issues (OOA would be worse), off line and silted out (possibly with light failure), maybe even mask gone adrift in a siphoning system. I think i would A - air deal with the reg/valve issue. B - buoyancy and find some part of the cave wall to achieve a reference point as well as stopping you drifting further in. C - think about it for second where the flow is, which way do i think out/line is. D - Do, replace mask, put on back up light, complete a lost line search, arrow up, quick check for buddy and then out in darkness if all lights gone or under back up. If you are OOA and off the line, no buddy in sight, i would say my prayers and do all i could, but i hope not to be in that situation!!! :wink: We could also tried entanglement in there to spice everything up. When it comes to issues of overstaying NDL, i would rather that and get the more pressing tasks sorted out than not have them sorted out - it would probably only be a minor infraction that could be dealt with on the way up and with a stop or two.

I guess what i was getting at is what priority you would put on doing a range of tasks, like you said in the first post regarding failed wings, sharks whilst having a cut from impact with the wreck, etc. The first 3 steps ABC are all good, D is normally where people try to solve too many problems at once ie launch DSMB whilst playing with something else that needs fixing, not maintaining buoyancy as they ascend etc, hopefully they used the C - communication part to organise the order in which they are going to deal with the tasks at hand.
 
Diver0001:
Depending on conditions the second diver may want to launch DSMB to accurately control stop depths. It can be done with one but it's less work if everyone has their own.

Having said that, the scenario is just an aid to gathering task loading strategies. What were your thoughts about how to manage the tasks?

R..

IMO, one marker per team is enough and more can just make a mess out of things. you don't need a line in your hand to control stop depths although a visual reference is nice.

PADI has it wrong again. LOL The "stop, think and act" needs to be "stop, BREATH, think and act". Controling your breathing is key and if that gets away from you the rest goes to pieces in a hurry.

The first priority is always having something to breath and controling position...like pilots say...aviate, navigate and then communicate. Getting back to the line is great but it won't help if you don't have the gas to get back to the surface. When you hit gas limits you head up even if it means landing in cuba or someplace.
 
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