About Diving Handy

Diving Handy exists because the first questions new divers ask — what does certification cost, what is this medical form, what do the numbers on a dive table mean — are usually answered either by a dive shop with something to sell or by dense primary documents written for professionals.

We sit in between. The site is written for U.S. readers who are considering a scuba course, comparing quotes, or trying to understand the paperwork and terminology that come with training. Where a claim rests on an authority, we link the authority directly: NOAA, OSHA, the CDC, the Divers Alert Network, and the Undersea & Hyperbaric Medical Society.

An honest note on what this site is not: the pages here are reviewed reference material, not professional advice. Nothing on Diving Handy is medical guidance, dive training, or a substitute for either. Decisions about your fitness to dive belong with a physician; decisions about how to plan and conduct a dive belong with your training agency and instructor. Our cost estimator produces rough planning figures, not quotes.

If a page here helps you ask a dive shop or a doctor a sharper question, it has done its job.