I'll make one other comment- I see you do a fair amount of travelling but live in California- how many California dives do you have, and how much diving do you plan on doing here? Life is much different in 54* water and surf than in Coz. If your plan is to do much CA diving, I'd get very comfortable here first. Otherwise that first beach rescue scenario could be a lot of fun (to watch ).
The comment to get the class material from where you want to take the class is a good one- it will let you know what the class is like.
The comment to get the class material from where you want to take the class is a good one- it will let you know what the class is like.