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Image Copyright: © Christopher Lemons

Chris Lemons

Deep Sea Saturation Diver and star of Netflix hit ‘Last Breath’, Chris has been a commercial diver for over 18 years and currently specialises in deep sea saturation diving, operating almost exclusively in the oil and gas industry.

In Person

£9500 - £13000

Price based on UK delivery

Virtual Event

£5000 - £7000

Categories

Adventure After Dinner Entertainment & Celebrity Speakers Business Health Wellbeing & Mental Health High Performance Inspiration & Motivation Leadership Personal Development Sales

Topics

Adversity Communication Employee Engagement Extreme Conditions Health Wellbeing & Mental Health High Performance Inspirational Leadership Management Mindset Motivation Overcoming Adversity Performance Planning & Preparation Resilience Risk Taking Self-Belief Teamwork

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 seabed, 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,’ a version of which is currently being developed into a Hollywood movie starring Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu and Finn Cole.

Chris’s signature keynote features a fascinating insight into the world of saturation diving, along with a first-hand account of his miraculous story supported by stunning real time video and audio of the incident. It touches on various key themes and learnings including performing under pressure, teamwork and collaboration, and resilience and overcoming adversity.

In this breathtaking experience, former deep sea diver Chris Lemons will lead you on a guided tour of the relatively unknown world of saturation diving, where those involved live within 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.

Chris will then take you on an immersive journey as he guides you through the fateful day in September of 2012 when a freak computer failure on 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 seabed, 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.

He is happy to tailor his address to align with your specific theme or requirements, which may include focusing on the safety aspect and lessons learned from the accident, the human and emotional elements involved, or a more generic oversight of the offshore and saturation diving world. Chris offers an acute, honest and emotional testimony of what goes through one’s mind when seemingly counting down the minutes to death, and how surprising and revealing one’s response to such a situation can be. He also tentatively explores how staring death in the face can focus one’s mind on life, as well as force you to contemplate the very finite nature of our time here on earth.

Chris also discusses the practical and physiological reasons which may have contributed to his miraculous survival. He moves beyond the miracle and communicates how teamwork, preparation, training, procedures, drills and practice played a huge role in his recovery and survival, and how implementing these can benefit your sphere of work or life. Chris is delighted to deliver his keynote either in person or online. He is also happy to engage in question-and-answer sessions on any of the subjects related above.

Chris has delivered his signature keynote globally to a wide variety of clients including HSBC, Anglo-Eastern Shipping, The Reinsurance Group of America, Cunard and Saga cruises, Shell UK, BioMarin, Purus, the Royal Society of Medicine in London, and at the Titan Summit in Toronto.

Key Themes

  • Performing under pressure
  • Teamwork & collaboration
  • Resilience & overcoming adversity
  • The importance of drills & procedures
  • Workforce diversity
“Chris is a remarkably powerful speaker with a tremendously valuable story. He also happens to be a genuine gentleman. Highly recommend.”
“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!”
“Chris is a very friendly, down to earth and engaging speaker whose story is hard to believe. He took the audience of 160 through the story of that fateful night in a clear manner, using clips from the Netflix documentary to emphasise the story at certain points. Prior to the event, we had discussed with Chris the themes we wanted him to focus on in his talk and he was very accommodating with this request. We received great feedback from the audience who found the talk incredibly interesting – many went on to watch the Netflix documentary after.”
“Your presentation demonstrates the trust that we have for each other, unconditional within small teams. The courage to continue when most would simply give up, deep below the surface in an extreme environment where the inky black sea turns your thoughts inside, the passion to dare and survive is yours alone.”
“In a challenging time period during the COVID-19 pandemic, DeepOcean wanted to bring in a key note speaker from our industry that had a fascinating story to tell, could draw parallels between their own experiences and the global pandemic lock-down and who could connect and resonate with our onshore and offshore communities. Boy did Chris deliver! His presentation was funny, engaging and deeply touching.”
“Chris joined us in Kuala Lumpur for our annual conference designed to bring together OPITO’s global network of training centres, industry partners and colleagues. We received overwhelmingly positive feedback on Chris’ presentation and ability to translate the importance of safety training into the real-life emergency situation he experienced while diving in the North Sea back in 2012. His humble delivery, sense of humour and lived experience of the challenges of working in a remote and hazardous environment really resonated with our audience and we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend him.”
“We were thrilled to welcome Chris Lemons as our keynote speaker. Working with Chris has been an absolute pleasure—his professionalism, enthusiasm, and seamless approach made the entire process effortless. His gripping presentation offers a rare glimpse into the world of saturation diving, combined with his miraculous real-life survival story—brought to life with breathtaking real-time video and audio footage. His journey is a testament to performing under pressure, teamwork, resilience, and overcoming adversity. Through his experiences, he highlights the critical role of drills, procedures, and workforce diversity, delivering powerful insights that inspire and resonate across industries. Don’t miss this unforgettable session!”
“The most gripping and unique story I have ever heard, our audience was gobsmacked.”
“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’!”
“Our society represents an extremely specialist allied health profession. Clinical perfusionists are responsible for keeping patients alive by artificially taking over the role of the heart and lungs. We deal closely with aspects such as oxygen delivery and cerebral protection which is the reason why we invited Chris to speak at our annual congress. Chris was eloquent and engaging throughout. He had clearly researched our profession and was highly respectful to our knowledge and expertise, allowing him to tailor his presentation to make it all the more relevant to his audience. It is a truly remarkable story and Chris does an amazing job of bringing to the stage.”
“When we had a preliminary conversation and learned that Chris generally speaks for 90 minutes, we were taken aback a little bit. In this age, you have to be of good character to captivate an audience for more than 20 minutes! We envisioned a mutinous crowd ahead of us. He convinced us to give it a try and we did not regret that. Chris is an outstanding and engaging speaker. He speaks professionally to a large (500+) corporate audience like ours. In addition, he has excellent support material (graphics, video) that makes it varied. Last but not least, the video of the dramatic events underwater gave our participants such goosebumps that they were on the edge of their seats for the entire narration, and it was quiet as a mouse.”
“Especially for an audience with a technical background, the technical-oriented introduction about the ups and downs of a commercial diver gives depth to the story. That information allows the story to be better understood. And those details also create the bond with the audience because they can identify with them. Perhaps this text is still a bit cryptic, but I don’t want to give away any spoilers. That is why I say: trust that this is a story you want to share with any audience because it is dramatic, incredible, and hopeful at the same time. “
“There are enough ‘hooks’ (angles) in the story to connect certain conversation themes for the participants: for example safety, cooperation, dealing with fear or ethical questions. Those themes can be further elaborated in an afterword (e.g. interview with Chris on stage) or in other forms (conversation between participants in small groups). There a link can be created to: what does this mean for me?”
“Thanks once again for your time last week. I have had really positive feedback from your sessions and also heard from many who also tuned in to watch the Netflix documentary.”

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