unhappy endings

[freedivernd]

DanL, we're in luck as I have read that the older we get the slower our heart tends to beat, and a slower h.r. makes for a better breathhold. As long as we're not a dog that's too old to learn new tricks, we should have an advantage over the young guns.
Fred

[DRE]

There are quite a few wreck divers out there who approach wreck diving the same way (gear, procedures, etc) as cave. However, the typical wreck community are the NE wreck divers. They have point people as well (such as Gary Gentile) but their approach to diving is much more an anything goes mentality. They do a lot of solo diving, gear choice is completely personal and they're mostly after personal goals and glory (such as finding first class china on the Doria).
Because of this they have a much more macho attittude to diving. Example: most NE wreck divers wouldn't use nitrox and O2 for deco (they did everything on air) because to them adding two more bottles was an invitation to disaster. They usually never tried to accomodate their gear so they could properly carry those two bottles but that's another story.
There probably is as much infighting in the cave as in the wreck community, but at least there are more standards for cave than for wreck - and no, there is no dedicated agency for wreck diving.
As far as dangers are concerned, wreck is probably more dangerous than cave in that it is a less stable environment, but that is all the more reason to work with a very strict set of rules and standards to avoid possible CF's. Usually, however, the opposite is the case. Ever wondered why GI calls a NE wreck boat a StarWars bar scene?

[Freedive WI]

I have to admit to doing my fair share of deep air dives in the past, but that's because there was no other choice back then. Now that we have other gases and better gear to choose from I have gone away from that.
Granted, there still are divers and boat captains on the Great Lakes who run real cowboy type operations, there numbers are starting to decline. The last guy that I dove with like that ran out of air on his deco and had to borrow one of my stages to complete his dive. When he surfaced he stated that he didn't really run out of air because he had 200psi left- with 50 minutes of deco to do! :-X
I haven't dove with him since and I see that many of his best customers have gone away. He has also been bent more times than I can count.
If you are interested in more of a DIR type of diving, without all of the flaming insults, I would suggest checking out:
MIDWEST.org
They are a midwest based DIR dive club that has a perfect safety record and all members adhear DIR team standards. There are members from Illinois, Wisconsin, Tennesse, and Iowa. They could use some new blood from Minnesota. They do survey dives from 60' to 300'.
I was an active member in the club before I lost my interest in scuba and switched to freediving exculsivly.
Jon