Suppose I want to go to Bikini Atoll

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I was actually reading about them last night, as I saw this post advertising a full kit for $3500, but then I started looking at reviews and apparently it requires proprietary sorb canisters which you can't refill? That'd be a complete deal-breaker for traveling to remote locations.
Nope, those canisters aren't manufactured by Molecular Products anymore. Poseidon sells a repackable cartridge but for years most of us were using the one Martin from Tecme.de made.

That link you posted looks to be a good deal, depending on shipping. You would need one of these in order to be tech compliant (allows feathering of O2 etc) and a battery in order to access the full range of diving you want to do.
 
As far as training progression goes, if I had a student in your position, what I would do is:
  1. Do a 40m limited deco course with them. I would increase the number of dives on the course and alternate OC and CCR so that they had the requisite skills on both configs (and bailed out).
  2. They would then go and do the requisite hours on the unit (50-100 depending on agency) and then come back to do Mod2, normoxic or whatever the agency calls it. Again, the dives would alternate OC and CCR in order to build the skills in both setups. I wouldn't bother with BM Doubles though, since valve drills etc are a waste of time if CCR is going to be your primary dive config. Side mounting the bailout tanks means that a SM course would slot in without a lot of issues. I usually take my SM wing with on a CCR trip, so if the unit goes sideways I dont need to cancel the dive necessarily (important if you are in Bikini and the CCR gets flooded the day before or whatever)
  3. They would HAVE to do training on the experience dives while they are building hours. This means doing actual bailouts every couple of dives, drilling skills etc etc, so that the hours are meaningful vs just swimming around on the loop.
Something to remember, you don't need to be on a trimix dive to practice trimix skills. Bimbling along on an air dive at 25m on a reef? Take 2 stages of (simulated) deco gas with and when you ascend, do switches and such. Its a faff, sure, but its a way cheaper and more accessible way to get your skills improved than trying to do a trimix dive once a month. Note, you still do need to do actual dives to those depths but they dont need to be your only source of practice and training.
 
On sidemount, most view hybrid (handling backmount and sidemount) systems to be less optimal, and more frustrating. If you go sidemount as your entry to tech, pre-CCR, I'd just plan on a dedicated sidemount rig. Like say the XDeep. Not a hybrid! It can be dove sidemount with one or two tanks, or 3-4. With a CCR in the picture, the cost of that rig is lost in the noise. (They can come in colors, SumpUK has nice hardware to pimp it out)

Backmount tech involves dealing with stages, which are a lot like bailouts. The differences between sidemount tank rigging and stage tank rigging are not that complex.

I would not expect to travel with manifold doubles, but rather for the boat to provide them, assuming it is a tech oriented boat. In particular, the site you mentioned says "We provide dual steel 12 litre 300 bar cylinders", I'm sure they happily provide singles as well. Now diving manifold doubles on a rec. oriented boat and having them provide them would likely be harder. Independent backmount doubles is a way to use singles that a boat has. Or just dive a single to practice backmount tech skills, sans valve drills.

Obviously sidemount allows you to use whatever single tanks they have, but depends on the boat being happy with sidemount, and you doing it smoothly. I went sidemount partly for the travel redundancy it offered.

I echo the view that you need to dive locally, even if it is a weekend trip for just 3 dives. And/Or find some pool that has some scuba club practicing. You need the water time. You can learn/practice a lot in the pool. DSMB - Pool. Buoyancy/Trim/Propulsion - Pool. Sidemount tank handling - Pool. Or small 30' rec dive. Having a DM at a shop with a pool give you a 'refresher' in their pool every other week may be cheaper than travel. And involve less gear cleanup.

I think you need more experience of tech, side or back. It seems you could do that locally on weekends. Then you'll have a better idea.

RainPilot's plan is a good one. And jgttrey's notion to get to rec-trimix first, which is essentially half of RainPilot's step one. (I'm just a BP/W diver new to sidemount that wandered into this conversation because I can spell deep dive and CCR.)
 
Huh, I didn't realize that single-tank sidemount was a thing. Learn something new every day. Still, I don't quite get the dislike towards hybrid sidemount rigs - if you're traveling, and you want to be flexible about diving one or two tanks, it just seems way more elegant than a lopsided configuration with one tank on the side. I suppose I'll have to experience it for myself to make an informed decision.

By the way, Truk Master appears to be running a 50% off flash sale on a June 2021 Bikini trip, and another in July 2021 - valid for another 19 hours as of this posting. Certainly not for me at this stage, but one hell of a discount for those qualified.
 
While I have friends that have gone on OC, I think it's fairly reckless to do so given the depths, remoteness, and desire to go into overhead environments. Being constrained by a set of AL80s on air in 55M of water is also not much bottom time given the time and expense necessary to get to Bikini in the first place.
The last time I dived Bikini Atoll, one of our guys had his CCR fail on him and had to resort to open circuit. He used air and high O2 deco and was doing similar runtimes to the rest of us on CCR.

Edward, the local dive guide, used OC exclusively and has many thousands of dives there under his belt including some very serious penetration.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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