Practice in things like finning and buoyancy control are part of every single dive, no matter who you dive with. If you are circling a wreck, you are controlling buoyancy to move up and down to look at things, or to stop and inspect them. You are practicing your kicks as you move throughout the entire dive. As you ascend, you are practicing stability (assuming you aren't hanging onto a line).
It doesn't sound as much as though you need to find specific buddies for practice, as that you need to find buddies whose vision of how the dive goes is the same as yours. I found photographers to be great to dive with, when I was working on my stable platform, because they gave me a lot of time to work on just hovering. If you ask the person to take a couple of pictures or some video of YOU, you get incredibly useful feedback, too.
I don't know where you are doing most of your diving, but I do know some people in the Ottawa area who would be quite receptive to a new diver wanting to improve his skills . . .
It doesn't sound as much as though you need to find specific buddies for practice, as that you need to find buddies whose vision of how the dive goes is the same as yours. I found photographers to be great to dive with, when I was working on my stable platform, because they gave me a lot of time to work on just hovering. If you ask the person to take a couple of pictures or some video of YOU, you get incredibly useful feedback, too.
I don't know where you are doing most of your diving, but I do know some people in the Ottawa area who would be quite receptive to a new diver wanting to improve his skills . . .