It's fine to enquire as a solo student. They may have other OW courses scheduled at the same time and you may have the option to join one of them (if you don't want to go solo).

Mainstream OW courses don't really do much buddy skills besides pre-dive checks, surface towing, air share. All these can be done with the instructor. Sometimes a DM/DMT can stand in as a buddy but it's not required.

R4 isn't known for current like Komodo is. There will always be current in R4 but it's not ripping and you can swim against it. Dive plan will almost always be: drop in at one side of a pinnacle, swim with/against current, go to the other side and do the opposite.

When I did R4 the general consensus among the guides was they all preferred Komodo because they felt the dives were more exciting, but they also said Komodo tends to be colder. I have not been to Komodo but I loved R4. The coral is just

As for current training, hard to say... just go to Tenggol/Tioman a bunch of times and you will surely hit current at some point. Not sure if you'll be able to easily experience downcurrent in West Msia though. For that you might have to go to Sipadan.

This post has been edited by thesnugbug: Mar 27 2023, 10:26 PM