Kind of agree with ianr33, this is a loaded subject.
Well, since I said call me for an Oriskany trip if you need a buddy in your BP/W thread yesterday, I'll give a personal response.
Great responses above. You realize you need some training to move to the next level, 1st hurdle out of the way.
Don't sweat the cost too much. I look at it as " I can make 8 insta buddy charter trips @ $150 each charter cost or go do some serious training instead" sounds like you are leaning toward the latter, although either one is fun. Once you get past the recreational stuff, the training actually gets enjoyable, because if you are not into it you probably won't want to do it. Approach it with a good attitude and your instructors will treat you more like a grad student, your over the hump so to speak, the key is attitude.
I like training and enjoy training trips and dives more than insta buddy charter dives personally (but I love charter dives with a good bud or solo), so don't be scared to train, it is rewarding, does cost but you walk away knowing how to handle yourself and you just made some dives with the best buddies you can have, technical instructors (well most of them). But, I wouldn't discount what one can learn the hard way about survival while diving with insta buddies.
Don't pick an agency, pic an instructor. Once you do they will tell you the course of action for the particular agency. Then get the course materials and start reading. Once you get a few chapters in you will see how big the jump is when you pass 130 no deco as far as planning, redundancy, equipment, what can go wrong and how fast, etc.
The old cleche, Life if a journey not a destination totally applies here.
One of the BEST classes I took after OW, ADV OW, Nitro, Rescue was to skip master diver or equivalent rec cert and head to cave country for a cavern course. Was an eye opener and a good prep for proceeding to tech since new gear configs, swim technique, trim and gas management are topics. An eye opener (or was it eye closer with no mask and silt outs while buddy breathing while trying to find my way out following a kite string thru my line traps... something like that)
Anyway, PM when you want to go dive the "O" (the tower
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