Is CCR the right route for me?

[sea_ledford]

I got into my chop for ~60% of that.

It certainly can be done, especially if you live in the right part of the world, and have a bunch of stuff already. Live in North Florida, and already cave dive in sidemount? $5-8K is completely doable. Live in Iowa and only have single tank backmount? $15K

But even $8k is not really considered "minimal cost investment" for most of us.

 

[lostsheep]

I live in the CCR Mecca of NorCal .

Joking aside, CMs go onto existing gear (single tank BM included), I bought it at the intro price, and I trained locally. I don’t understand what cave diving has to do with it.

Why would anyone except James Kirk live in Iowa?

 

[broncobowsher]

I got into my chop for ~60% of that.

New, with all the training?

 

[lostsheep]

New, with all the training?

It better have been new, I was a relatively early adopter. Yes training, boat, and an o2 cylinder.

 

[sea_ledford]

Joking aside, CMs go onto existing gear (single tank BM included), I bought it at the intro price, and I trained locally. I don’t understand what cave diving has to do with it.

Sounds awesome! I mentioned cave diving because there would be a lot of CCR instructors in North Florida, so no travel costs for training, sidemount so you would already have multiple tanks, regulators, lights, appropriate computer, etc. You know, all the stuff that most people don't factor in to the cost of a CCR. Dive Rite in particular seems to be doing a good job of spreading the CCR instructor pool out to a larger area, so it's easier for more people to find local instructors.

Cm CCRs with exclusively backmount dilout are certainly less expensive as a starting point, but getting into deco probably equalizes pretty quickly. But it definitely makes it less daunting to spread that cost out over time!

 

[lostsheep]

Cm CCRs with exclusively backmount dilout are certainly less expensive as a starting point, but getting into deco probably equalizes pretty quickly. But it definitely makes it less daunting to spread that cost out over time!

I am a firm believer in doing OC deco diving before CCR, as such I had an/DP completed first which allows you to go straight to helitrox and deco using existing gear.

 

[andrespp]

Look at the Kiss Spirit and Sidewinder.