i live in cyprus and i am planning to go scuba diving in the summer. i wanted to know how much scuba diving costs, where can i do it from and do we need some sort of training before we can go with our friends.
i have tried to look in some websites but couldn’t find much help.

Costs can vary from dive shop to dive shop. Your best bet is to contact all your local shops to get a handle on their pricing. The average appears to be about 240 Euros. There are a few training agencies. PADI is the most popular, followed by NAUI and BSAC.You can find all the PADI shops in Cyprus by going to http://www.padi.com/scuba/locate-a-padi-dive-shop/default.aspx
For NAUI you can use their shop locator here:http://www.naui.org/
I believe BSAC is also active in Cyprus. You can use their shop locator here: http://www.bsac.com/findit.asp?section=1420

Where can you do it from? Anywhere there’s water deep enough to dive in and within your certification qualifications. Yes…you do need training before diving. When you’ve completed it, you’ll receive a card with your picture on it. You’ll need that card to rent certain types of gear ( regs, tanks) or to have your own tanks filled. No card…no air.
Your first certification level is called an Open Water. It will allow you to dive to 60 feet on normal air with a certified buddy and in an environment that has no overhead preventing you from making a direct ascent to the surface. No caves and no penetration of wrecks. You can use this certification anywhere in the world.
There are further levels of certification you can go on to, when you’ve got enough dives under your belt, but the OW is your first one.

If you’re not sure about if you’d enjoy diving or not, some shops with PADI offer what’s called Discover Scuba. It’s a mini course designed to get you in a pool with an Instructor supervising you. You’ll get to try scuba for an hour or so in a nice safe place. The cost is usually minimal and sometimes (depending on the dive shop) free. You won’t become certified, but it’s a cheap way to find out if you’d like to spend the money to get properly certified.