task loading and i lost controll

[gcg]

new drysuit new doubles, familar dive site-sink hole. made my decent. flew down(normal for me) got tunnel vision focused on the air in the drysuit, then added bouyancy to the mix as i saw the bottom. then added trying to get bouyant and have good trim, oh yea where's my dive buddy, the mind starts going a mile a minute. trying to saolve all my problems at once. then i see a log. swam to log stared at log and thought," stop breath... think, breath..... act breath" thanks god for taking the cavern class... took a few breaths relaxed a bit and proceeded to acend to look for buddy or his bubbles. once on surface found my buddy, he never went down, i indicated i would like to call the dive....he agreed.
once on land. i stoped and analysed what happened i decided that i will learn to dive with the doubles then add the drysuit to the mix.
i should mention the reason i was diving was to get water exsperiance with doubles and drysuit before my intro class.
ive now decided its off to the pool for more pratice with doubles. then im going to give the drysuit a dace angain with my intro inst to teach me before tha into class.
again man am i glad i wasnt in a hole i coulda killed me and my dive buddy.
DEfinatly learned a valuable lesson and humbled my self right back down.

 

[divingbuddy]

Might I suggest learning how to properly use a dry suit - either a formal course or private instruction/assistance before introducing the doubles. Unless your wing has a double bladder for redundant buoyancy, I wouldn't recommend learning to dive doubles in a wetsuit.

I went through the same learning curve as you are a few short years ago - I appreciated the comfort and familiarity I had with my dry suit before introducing all the tasks/gear associated with proper instruction on doubles and technical diving. You will want excellent buoyancy control with your dry suit before attempting shut down drills, etc.

Just my 2 cents. Good luck with your future training goals, and I am glad you recognized the dangers of task loading and called the dive. Cheers!

 

[Mark Vlahos]

Good points, glad you made it out OK.

One major thing to learning new gear. ONE NEW THING AT A TIME. New drysuit on an otherwise familiar rig. Learn it and get it down, then add doubles.

Small things like a new backup light usually don't count, but I would still try to limit adding multiple small things to a dive with no new major gear changes.

You were pretty lucky, that you were able to fall back on your training. Stop and breathe, if you have air almost everything else is just a convienience. Control your bouyancy and gather yourself, then solve the problem.

Mark Vlahos

 

[gcg]

you know life would be do much nicer if i had like a 20ft deep pool in my back yard instead of having to drive to the nearest sinkhole.

 

[PaulChristenson]

you know life would be do much nicer if i had like a 20ft deep pool in my back yard instead of having to drive to the nearest sinkhole.

What you mean everyone else doesn't have a 20 foot deep pool in their yard??


I love your enthusiam...but like the others said...one new task at a time...

That way you get more dives in....

 

[Codyjp]

I am a Flight instructor and one of the things i do with my students is give them a scenario with emergency procedures, diversions to unfaiar airports, radio failures, fires, bad weather... well you see where this is going. I add each new item slowly and saturate there task management until the can't take it and their brain crashes (not the plane of course). It is a fairly unrelistic scenario but i do it more to show them that they DO have a breaking point and to teach them task management. Delegate thing that need to be done, and do them one at a time. slow, smooth and soon enough.