Great post, Mike. You make a lot of great points. I think the OP is a diver that wants to take the opportunity to dive more before the big expensive trips. I started something similar to NW Grateful Diver here in Arizona a couple of months ago. We had a get-together at a local lake with about 10 divers showing up, both experienced and noobs and all seemed to have a great time. Since then, there's been a lot more activity in the AZ Scuba forum and the AZ lakes. And we have another big get-together scheduled for the end of this month. I agree, if I'm paying a lot for a dive/trip, I'm diving with my wife. But if all it's going to cost me is a tank of air at a local lake, I'm there. I think the problem is a lot of experienced divers don't want to dive the local lakes because they've been there done that and would prefer holding off for the exotic dives. Most of the divers I see at the lakes are "noobs", so maybe I'm still a noob myself since I'm still diving the lakes myself.