Like so many others, it seems, my principal problem is lack of available regular (or even insta-) buddies. Three of my co-workers are all divers, and would make great buddies, but none are available. One is a DM who gave up diving to raise a family, one ONLY dives with his wife down south on vacations, and the third abandoned the sport since her new boyfriend can't swim. No other family members or friends are interested in taking up diving and neither is my wife. I recently approached my LDS to see if I could get some pool time to try out a new warm-water configuration for my BP/W when they do their monthly OW confined-water sessions . The instructor said "absolutely, great idea, no problem, love to have ya'. You DO have a buddy, right?" I said no, and they couldn't find one for me, so even diving in 10 ft of warm, gentle pool was off limits.
My LDS are a great bunch of people and I love working with them, but business is business and their charters aren't very newby-friendly. They are very active, and run regular charters two or three times every weekend during the season, but the majority are wreck dives in St Lawrence currents, most marked as "AOW Certification Required". Some of those dives, even with an AOW card, are challenging for a new diver like me. Many are also boat dives, so $$$s add up fast. Also, just about every charter dive they make is at least two hours drive away. IOW they cater to more advanced divers interested in quality over quantity. As a newby, I just want to dive, no matter where, to rack up dives and work on the basics, so I'll feel more comfortable when I do start to make those serious charters. I know from personal experience, having dove semi-regularly up here many decades ago before stopping (and restarting last winter), that there's tons of cold-water lake and river diving up here, very close to me, but my LDS, the only one practically available to me, doesn't do those kind of dives. They and their customers prefer the warm waters of the summertime St Lawrence, and the challenges of wreck, current and drift diving. I dive dry and was very used to 40 degree water, so I am much more open to tougher conditions.
In order to get some diving in this past season, I've resorted to taking PADI specialty courses to stay wet. I'm not taking them JUST to dive, I would have taken them anyway, but right now, it's the only way for me to stay active. A major problem for me is doing the PADI multi-day courses (AOW, Deep, etc) on consecutive days, thereby taking up an entire (and very physically demanding for an old guy like me) weekend in one shot. I realize that does seem to be the standard for most PADI operations, but coupled with a total of 8+ hours driving there and back over two days, or a night in a hotel on Saturday night, it gets pricey and very onerous for those of us with tough work schedules.
Sorry for the whiney rant, I know I'm obviously the only one responsible for my personal situation, but it does get frustrating not to be able to dive as much as I would like. I'll be doing a few dives over the coming months (next month in St Thomas off a cruise as well as the LDS's Ice Diver course), so I'll be semi-active over the winter. Early retirement is also on the horizon within the next few years, so that should free me up to dive more as well. Great thread, whoever started it. It's comforting, though sad, to hear I'm not alone in my inability to dive more often.