Help: Gaining experience and immersion in local dive scene

I'm now in the process of getting my Rescue cert here in Los Angeles and I'm a little intimidated because I'm among much more experienced divers. My only diving experience so far is my OW and AOW back in Feb and March.

After this cert I plan to get my own equipment and start diving much more and gaining experience. I hope to go for DM some day.

What are the best ways to gain experience; whether they are official logged dives or not.

Is my only option to get a boat ticket for a charter every weekend? One problem I have is that I have no dive buddies or friends really interested in diving, so I have no one to go with. Liveaboards? I plan on doing one in March.

Lobster diving is big here, but I'm not sure how to get into that. Are there local dive groups and communities that are an option?

Are these questions that my LDS can answer and help out with? Any thoughts and opinions from here will be appreciated.

As you have determined, there is more to diving than taking classes. It involves, wait for it.....GOING DIVING! So good for you for heading that way. There are thousands of divers in your are, and no doubt lots of clubs. Join one, make friends and set up dive outings. Start by contacting the people with whom you took your open water and advanced classes. Get next to those in your rescue class. Talk diving, listen to them, and ask to join them on their outings. In SoCal, there is no reason for you to feel isolated. Divers are everywhere!
A very important point, especially as you plan to become a Dive Master, is to LOG EVERY DIVE. You will need actual logs to demonstrate your experience level to qualify for a professional credential.

Being at the advanced open water diver level and going into a rescue diver class, I think you should already have your own equipment. You obviously love diving, and are planning to continue actively. Invest in equipment and you will be a more active diver and it will ultimately cost less (no rental fees). As you connect with other divers, some may have equipment they no longer use or are looking to "trade up." You may find some deals on used equipment, but whether you do or not, it is time to outfit yourself. As you build your diving skills you also need to become more intimate with the equipment of our sport, and that requires having some of that equipment around, reading the manuals for each item, and even hanging out at your LDS and watching some equipment maintenance and repair.
L know you will connect with others, grow in experience and competence. Take the initiative and it will happen faster! Good Luck!
DivemasterDennis

There are a lot of ways to find buddies and gain experience. One good way is to post in your local subforum right here on ScubaBoard. There are a LOT of SoCal divers here, and people who are willing to go out with relatively novice divers. Another way is to check with your LDS, and see if they organize shop dives (some of our shops up here do). Find out if there are any local dive clubs (your LDS should know). The major function of dive clubs is organizing dives!

There IS shore diving in SoCal, although it's weather and water condition-dependent. There is also a lot of boat diving, and then there's hopping the ferry over to Catalina and diving the dive park there (which I think is wonderful fun).

One group you might want to check out before you buy your gear is the Los Angeles Underwater Explorers group -- they have a Facebook page. They organize a lot of dives and are welcoming of new divers who want to learn about the way they do things. You could definitely do worse for mentors.

Good advice all around so far. I'll chime in a bit.

To find buddies join a dive club or post in the SoCal sub forum here.
SoCal <-sub-forum link

Dive boats will usually instabuddy you if you do not have a buddy and sometimes that's what it takes to find a consistent diver you can buddy up with.

An LDS would be a good choice to find a dive club. Try finding one which you like and make that your home LDS. Often if you start a relationship with one there are certain perks that come out. For instance if they know you well enough they may be more inclined to allow you to act as a Rescue/TA diver for some of their classes. If you want to be a DM you might as well start honing your TA skills.

Thanks everyone for the helpful info.

Since you are taking classes get some phone numbers from others in the class. All my dive buddies are my instructors,classes mates or former students in classes I DM for. You mentioned lobster diving go on one of the liveaboards to the Channel Islands and you will rack up dives in a short period of time and gain some great experience in different conditions. If you truly want to be a DM get as much time in the water as possible in as many different conditions and enviroments as possible to become a well rounded diver.

Los Angeles has some amazing beach dives! Malibu, Redondo, and Palos Verdes all have numerous spots to dive for free! All you have to pay for is the air fill, gas to get there and sometimes parking. As others have said, check out our socal forum. If you like you can private message me and we can buddy up and get out there and dive!

My advice would be to talk to those advanced divers. When I certified, I kept in contact with one other person from my class, whom I still dive with whenever I can. But most of my first dives were with other divers from the shop. Most very experienced. Way more than me. And at first I was intimidated a bit. But they are good people. I signed up for group trips that the shop owner set up. I asked a lot of questions and learned a lot from those divers. When we went on a trip, they never minded me tagging along. Once they saw my definite interest, they began asking me to take a dive with them. Over time, I just became "one of the guys" and we don't really think about their experience vs mine now. I still ask questions. They are happy to answer. They are very helpful when I am in a new diving environment. Overall, we just have a good time.

I'd recommend signing up for some group events with your shop. Perhaps local dives they are all going to. Or, like mentioned above, find the forums here on scubaboard for your area. The best people I dove with in Florida, I met right here.

Please don't be too intimidated by socal divers. Many are really neat people who have the same concern that you do, finding someone to dive with.
My advice:
Join an active dive club--take a look at their events. Are they just boat divers? Are they more of an eating and drinking group? Do they concentrate on dive travel? Do they do beach dives? None of these are bad or good; the question is how does it fit you and what you want to do.
Buy your own gear. Renting is fine, but it creates a barrier to going diving because it is one extra step you need to go through to get into the water. Some of my best dives happened when someone called me at 8 on a Friday asking if I wanted to go diving the next morning. Part of being asked to go diving is to be available to go diving.
Find people with similar interests. You mention lobster diving. Do you want to dive for lobster. It really isn't that hard, look under ledge, see lobster, grab for lobster, miss lobster. But, if you don't want to hunt you probably wont be asked to go.
Hang out where divers hang out. Its not just being in a dive club. Have you considered being a volunteer diver somewhere like aquarium of the pacific? working as a volunteer docent at a maritime museum. etc. get involved with local ocean issues. I met some of my best dive buddies working as part of an ad hoc group to save access to local dive spots.
Play underwater hockey and meet people who share similar interests.
If you think about what it is you want to get out of diving and what you want to do, make it work. I worked as as safety diver and divemaster. I met my best buddies through those activities.
Socal is the right spot to do it. Sorry if this is a bit of a rambling post.

Check out California Diving News. There is a listing in the back of several dive clubs grouped by region.

Talk to your instructor as well. He (or she) might be able to give you tips on local dive clubs. Your LDS is also a good place to see if there are any local dive clubs.

You can also try online buddy finder listings.

I was sort of in the same boat. My wife does not dive and until recently did not have any friends who dive either. One of my really good friends just certified with his son and my daughter just certified over the summer.

Just to keep my skills current I joined a local dive group. I may still dive with them in a pinch but it is more like cattle diving. Everyone sort of gears up, enters the water in big group but no real buddies, and invariably the group gets separated to smaller groups as divers lose contact with each other. I've heard through word of mouth from the local LDS I like about another dive club I'll eventually try in next few months. Ironically just met a few of them last week. I was gearing up for my AOW class for the night dive and started chatting with a few of the other divers turns out they from the dive club I was interestd in joining. Bunch nice guys so I'm definitely going t give them a try.

Good luck. Have fun diving.