You should do at least deco procedures, and maybe even normoxic, on OC before moving to the CCR. As others have said, if you have to bail out, you're now on OC.
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I'm wondering if it's too early for me to switch to a rebreather? From my reading it seems that most people progress as far as OC can take them and then make the switch.
I definitely don't get the attitude I've seen numerous places that suggests that a CCR deco course somehow could not teach OC skills that are needed for a BO ascent.
Why make a student who is going CCR do an OC-specific course to learn OC ascent, instead of just teaching them the OC skills they need as part of their CCR course?
And, especially, would anyone seriously say that a CCR student needs to first learn how to dive doubles, with all the skills for S drills and valve drills, in order to be able to safely and competently do a BO ascent? Do they seriously have to learn how to tech dive in sidemount, with all the sidemount-specific skills before they can learn to do a safe BO ascent on CCR?
Students can, apparently, take a 4 day AN/DP course and be turned loose to go do deco dives. Why can't a student take a CCR course (of some length) and learn how to do a BO deco ascent as part of that, with no prior OC Tech experience?
You should do at least deco procedures, and maybe even normoxic, on OC before moving to the CCR. As others have said, if you have to bail out, you're now on OC.
I've done a lot of OC trimix diving in the past month. The costs aren't that crazy. Roughly $30-40 a top-up, my last one was a bit more pricey though.