Digging blind in deep water is not easy. Once you loose sight of the bucket ram ( if you could even see it before hand ) then it is solely by feel.
If you watch carefully the dipper arm, although long is not pulled in to the machine much and is not pulled up the working face as he completes his cycle. This could be for a couple of reasons, 1, he is bloody useless, ( big machine to be let loose on if your not competent ) or I suspect, it is hard digging and he is working the bucket back and forth ( chewing ) the bottom at maximum reach before moving back a bit for another bite and does not want to undermine the face and have a cave in. The problem when blind is you only know 2 positions of your bucket, completely open or completely closed :Banghead
I would suspect he is not the regular op and has not got a vast amount of time in that seat.
Looking to his left I would say was where he was last digging, but its all only a guess