After attending the AAW's symposium a couple years ago (it was only a few miles from home), I decided there are so many different techniques for turning bowls because each "celebrity" turner is hawking their own brand/style/sponsor.
All of them seem to produce reasonable bowls with reasonable effort. Some do a better job of explaining it than others.
Many of the videos are useless for teaching because the camera angles don't show what matters…they're busy showing the celeb's face or simply pulled too far out, etc. A live demo is better if it's in an environment where you can ask the demonstrator to clarify what/how/why they're doing whatever it is they're doing….many really don't explain well.
Richard Raffan has done a decent job of simplifying the process and has plenty of videos and books (his books have some decent drawings that show his planned cuts to get from full blank to final bowl so you understand his process at the lathe better).
I love the Wolverine and varigrind - makes it pretty easy to create and maintain fingernail grinds. That grind allows a single tool to have several different behaviors depending on which part of the grind you have in contact with your bowl…
Many of the AAW presenters are turning green wood so they can complete their demonstration quickly and still have time for Q&A. Green wood rocks though it can be a tad messy.
If you're turning dried wood, expect to have to work slower and take lighter cuts (though it's amazing how big of a cut a good bowl gouge can take even in dry wood!).
Please, do NOT use a roughing gouge on your bowl blanks!!! The AAW is trying to get turners to refer to it as a "Spindle Roughing Gouge" instead of just "roughing gouge"…that's to highlight the need to ONLY use them on spindles.
If you look at one, it looks like a really beefy tool so what's the problem? Look closely where the spindle roughing gouge meets the handle and you'll see it suddenly things down to a comparatively small tang…which can snap if you have a catch while working with much of the business end handing out past the end of the tool rest (which is common when turning bowls).
Some nasty accidents have happened when a spindle roughing gouge and a bowl blank got into a disagreement…
Bowl gouges have a lot more meat where they enter the handle and they work much better for roughing in bowls (even in dry wood).