[Gareth J]

Excellent posts by Gloc & Matt

Step

As has been stated here, I would strongly recommend you get the proper training.

Diving is not a cheap sport, if additional cost is an issue, then settle where you are, reinforce your current skill base until you can afford to progress.

You will find that we worry more about those that throw money at the sport & go from nothing to hero in a year or two.

As has been stated by others, YD is a community (as is 'diving' as a whole), we don't want to see anyone hurt or killed. On a purely selfish note the publicity doesn't help any of us & just results in insurance premiums going up & mortgage companys & life insurance companys putting us down as high risk.

If you look at the profiles of a lot of those giving advice, they have been diving for a considerable time, they have built up knowledge & experience over this period, this is what keeps them safe.
They will all have done something stupid at some point, & survived due to the training & experience they have invested in.
You can bet they have all seen 'the accident waiting to happen', sometimes having to intervene to ensure that they got out of the water in one piece.

Diving is very easy - when all is going well, any idiot can do it. The majority of what we teach & learn especially on the more advanced courses, is seldom related to purely a diving skill (descent, swim on the bottom, & ascent), but to the emergency & rescue skills. The majority of the planning that we do relates to the what if's, & how to survive a major equipment / buddy failure.
Which is why we tend to look for instructors doing the type of diving we are aiming at rather than the agency the instructor teaches for. We want real world experience, rather than accademic informations from books. A good instructor will tell us of their past mistakes (and the solutions), in the hope that we won't repeat them!

The information given here is in good faith, as are the recommendations. We can but hope you get the right training & apply it!

Dive safe

Gareth