nolatom
Contributor
I, with about 270 dives spread over 20 years, lack the amount of experience of many who've posted above. Most of those dives were in the first few years, followed by enough occasional dives to not get too rusty.
I did Advanced Open water at about 25 dives, then Rescue at about 50-60 dives, that was the suggested progression from my instructor and others in my OW class back then. AOW mostly taught me about navigation, compass, landmarks, measuring distance per how many fin kicks.
About midway between those two courses, my limiting factor was no longer air remaining, but nitrogen ticks on the computer. That transition might be what you're looking for in determining how you're doing.
Rescue I found useful even if I never find anyone to rescue, and it made me a better buddy and more observant of other divers. And at about 80 dives I finally did a share-air ascent in "real life" with a diver who signalled low-air, and contrary to all the stories I'd heard, he did *not* try to rip the reg out of my mouth, he showed me his gauge while he still had 400 psi left and was calm and cooperative in taking my alternate and ascending to 15 feet together. The lesson there was, don't wait til you're so low on air you have to give the cut-throat signal and are desperate--instead, signal for sharing while you still have a workable amount of air left, it's much less stressful for both of you than the dreaded OOA.
If as you said you still feel like you're a beginner sometimes, that might be the voice of wisdom. Better too gradual than too quick.
Best wishes
I did Advanced Open water at about 25 dives, then Rescue at about 50-60 dives, that was the suggested progression from my instructor and others in my OW class back then. AOW mostly taught me about navigation, compass, landmarks, measuring distance per how many fin kicks.
About midway between those two courses, my limiting factor was no longer air remaining, but nitrogen ticks on the computer. That transition might be what you're looking for in determining how you're doing.
Rescue I found useful even if I never find anyone to rescue, and it made me a better buddy and more observant of other divers. And at about 80 dives I finally did a share-air ascent in "real life" with a diver who signalled low-air, and contrary to all the stories I'd heard, he did *not* try to rip the reg out of my mouth, he showed me his gauge while he still had 400 psi left and was calm and cooperative in taking my alternate and ascending to 15 feet together. The lesson there was, don't wait til you're so low on air you have to give the cut-throat signal and are desperate--instead, signal for sharing while you still have a workable amount of air left, it's much less stressful for both of you than the dreaded OOA.
If as you said you still feel like you're a beginner sometimes, that might be the voice of wisdom. Better too gradual than too quick.
Best wishes