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As to your question on buddies, I find them with my friends, family, facebook groups, the dive sites themselves, etc. I routinely dive with new people at the local quarry (3 different buddies this weekend alone for instance).

Sometimes the buddies are very experienced. Sometimes they only have their certification dives so far. Sometimes they're really good buddies. Sometimes they need to be rescued. Sometimes I decide quickly that I can't safely dive with them.

This weekend two of the buddies I had were inexperienced, one with just his certification dives to date (and that was finished last October), the other with 15 dives and none this year either, and the third buddy was doing his first quarry dive but had over 130 dives in total. The one with 15 dives did great (other than silting the place up with flutter kicks), in fact you wouldn't have been able to tell much difference between him and the guy with 130+ dives.

The other needed help getting his gear together/on, then I decided we'd start our dive at a shallow training platform since I was concerned how he was going to do (and I learned from my experience with another insta-buddy that I really need to observe my dive buddy very closely until I'm confident in their abilities). That turned out to be a really good idea as he had no control underwater at all. Literally falling in every direction (including backward) and flailing all over. At one point he was trying to use his snorkel to control his BCD (grabbed the end of his snorkel and thought he was holding the inflator). It was quickly apparent that he was not safe to dive and we surfaced, discussed how he was doing (politely, with his input) and suggested he take a refresher course. He wanted to see if he could "remember how everything goes" so we went back to the platform again for a few minutes before going up and calling that dive. He later went with two more experienced divers, as the next refresher class wasn't until next month. I later found out that he ended up panicking and bolting. Fortunately not from too deep, but he'll be doing the refresher course before diving again I believe.

So what's my point with that story? It's simple. Number of dives doesn't equate to what your skill level is or whether you're ready to progress your training. That's based on each individual's aptitude in picking up diving. If you're "a natural" and figuring out buoyancy and trim and being able to do all the basics is just something you have no problem with, then by all means progress in your training so you learn more and grow as a diver. If you're still struggling with any of those things, get some more practice before expanding your diving education.
 
And, if I can add, your AOW class should be fun also. Its purpose is to introduce you to "what divers do and how they do it", not necessarily to make you an "advanced" diver. But if you have fun with your AOW class, you'll be more inclined to further explore what diving has available to you... and that experience will make you a better diver.

I agree completely. I didn’t dive a ton after my initial certification in college and then I didn’t dive at all for about 14 years. I got the bug again early this spring and took a refresher. I only had NAUI Scuba Diver certification, and knew if I was going to stay with diving that I was going to want to do some more advanced certs. Since that refresher, which brought back my skills very quickly, I went diving a half dozen times with new buddies I met through here and a couple local dive shops and further increased my confidence. This weekend I completed PADI AOW and had an absolute blast! I felt comfortable with everything from the beginning but from about halfway through the course everything really clicked and I started feeling much more proficient. I was able to drop a few more pounds and became much better able to control my buoyancy with just my lungs and hardly touched my BC on the last 2 dives. I honestly think I wouldn’t have progressed as easily through AOW this weekend if it wasn’t for the fact that class was fun!
 
Ask your local dive shop, mine has a group of people who organize dives frequently and getting in touch with them was pretty easy once you asked for it.
I decided I wanted to go the GUE route pretty early and by chance came into contact with a GUE diver I wanted to buy some gear off, also got into contact with more by asking the instructor I'll be doing my course for.
It can be rough to begin with, and you might feel like you don't have anyone to dive with which is a horrible feeling when you've spent all that time and money.
But if you meet one you'll soon meet many, most divers who have been diving for a while know a lot of other divers, and you might even have a local club without even knowing about it.
Ask around, and you shall find! :)
 
Find the conversation about what dive shops and boat captains think of AOW cert cards. For me it is someone who can go deeper without a DM. Most pros know the second they see you set up your gear who they are dealing with. Most DMs I know just carry basic cards. We bring Nitrox and nothing else. The card does not make the diver, but the more effort put into improving skill sets does.
 
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