I'm flattered to be analogized to the race car driver, but I'm no badass when it comes to diving.
Here's what I would say to the original poster, if he asked me (which he didn't, directly):
If you want to go diving... Go diving. That's it. Learn how to do it safely, then don't exceed your training. If you find yourself wanting to, then go get more training.
Then do lots and lots and lots of diving.
Forget the gear - rent it.
Forget the DM - you don't need it.
Forget the computer - it's a luxury (and arguably unnecessary).
If you want to have fun diving, grab a buddy that you like spending time with, rent some gear, and go to your local pond and get wet. A lot.
Subscribe to
Scuba Diving.
Read the DIR Fundamentals book.
Further your education with AOW or Rescue.
Dive some more.
Chat with us and tell us about your dives.
And then dive some more.
Man, if I had waited around for a DM or to buy my gear or to have the LDS run a charter, I'd have never learned anything.
Heck, when I'm out of gas, I freedive. Know what happens when you take Jeff Gordon's race car away? He races bicycles. It's just who he is... He
races. In his old age, he'll be racing his wheelchair.
...And I'll be diving my bathtub.
If you want to dive, just go do it.