Christopher Lemons Profile Picture

Keynote SpeakerChristopher Lemons

Deep sea Saturation Diver featured in Netflix documentary 'Last Breath'

Chris Lemons has been a commercial diver for over 14 years, and currently specialises in deep sea Saturation diving, operating almost exclusively in the Oil and Gas Industry. This highly specialised form of diving involves living in the claustrophobic confines of a decompression chamber for up to 28 days at... Read More

Biography

Chris Lemons has been a commercial diver for over 14 years, and currently specialises in deep sea Saturation diving, operating almost exclusively in the Oil and Gas Industry.

This highly specialised form of diving involves living in the claustrophobic confines of a decompression chamber for up to 28 days at a time, commuting daily to the sea-bed in a diving bell, and working at depths of up to 900 feet for 6 hours at a time.

In September of 2012, a freak failure of the dynamic positioning system of the vessel he was working under, resulted in the umbilical which provides him with breathing gas, light and heat being severed completely. He was left on the sea-bed, in complete darkness 300 feet below the surface, with only the 5 minutes of breathing gas he carried in the emergency tanks on his back, and no way to protect himself from the freezing temperatures. It took his heroic rescuers over 40 minutes to come back and fetch him, and his miraculous survival story has baffled experts ever since. His extraordinary story was subsequently immortalised in the hit Netflix/BBC documentary ‘Last Breath,’ whilst Chris continues to dive to this day. It was announced in May 2022 that Alex Parkinson was directing a narrative film remake of his documentary, with Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu and Djimon Hounsou cast to star. In May 2024, Focus Features acquired the distribution rights to the film, with a release date in 2025.

Chris Lemons was born in Edinburgh, raised in Cambridge, and now lives in the Scottish Highlands with his wife and daughter.

“I’ve had the honour of hearing Chris’ story on several occasions now, each time with a fresh angle or nuance. Articulate, knowledgeable and surprisingly dispassionate (given his subject matter), he is able to spin a riveting yarn which will have the audience gripped. It’s an incredible story of survival, told with genuine flair by its humble protagonist in true edge-of-your-seat style. Hear him if you dare!” Dr. Oliver Firth MBBS, Bsc, MRCGP, The Royal Society of Medicine
“Thank you so much for speaking to the Shell Energy network this week - it was a great presentation and we’ve had so many comments about it being the ‘event of the year’!” Rebecca Watson - Finance Advisor at Shell, Shell UK
“The most gripping and unique story I have ever heard, our audience was gobsmacked” Grant Rawlinson - Royal Geographical Society Singapore and founder of Powerful Humans, The Royal Geographical Society Singapore

Popular Talks by Christopher Lemons

  • Leadership
  • Death
  • Crisis management
  • Procedures, Checklists and the importance of training and drills
  • Risk
  • Decision Making and Survival