Diving Handy is a small reference site for people who are thinking about learning to scuba dive, or who just finished a course and want the paperwork and jargon explained without a sales pitch.
The questions we cover are the practical ones: what an open-water certification actually costs once gear rental, materials, and checkout dives are added up; what the medical questionnaire in your enrollment packet is for and who signs it; how a recreational certification card differs from the credentials a working commercial diver holds; and how to make sense of a no-decompression table when your instructor first puts one in front of you.
Start with the certification cost estimator: pick a course format, a gear approach, and where your checkout dives will happen, and it gives you a defensible ballpark to compare against real quotes from local dive shops. It is a planning number, not a price.
Everything here is reference material. We link to the primary sources — NOAA's published dive tables, OSHA's commercial-diving regulations, the CDC's travel-health chapters, and the medical screening system maintained by the Undersea & Hyperbaric Medical Society — so you can read what the actual authorities say. For training, use a certified instructor; for medical clearance, use a physician. This site helps you show up to both with better questions.