Welcome Kuz! I've moved this thread to a more appropriate area of the forum, forum > Buddies > USA region. You'll likely find members familiar with Virginia Beach here
I have also been watching ( an excessive number) of YouTube videos. Pretty much done all the Daniel Mann, JoePK, Rob Allen, Ryan Myers esp. Hawaii, Adreno and Canaries videos at least once but often more than once!
Watched several Spanish, NZ, Oz and Italian videos. Got bored by Greek Grouper videos, what a demanding but dull variant of our chosen activity! Hitting Florida Freedivers video currently, they have a lot. Their "Level 1" training course sounds good. Pity they haven't YouTube'd the whole 2 day class with pool sessions.
Noticed a few turn offs in some videos though:
* loading spearguns out of the water on the boat in 2 videos this week (both in the Americas), a real safety no-no.
* Messing about with live, speared fish rather than immediately dispatching them (Spanish spearos).
* Harpooning the endangered great blue fin tuna from boats, USA East coast. We used to have giant blue fin tuna visit the UK shores at Scarborough but no more, we over fished their food source until the stocks collapsed.