020 8914 8966
020 8914 8966
Chris Lemons lives much of his life under immense pressure. That’s because he is a commercial, saturation diver for the Oil & Gas industry. Chris Lemons regularly works at depths in excess of 250 metres.
It was in 2012 Chris was working in the North Sea just 120 miles from Aberdeen in Scotland. It was to be a fairly routine job on a 30 foot high oil manifold sitting on the sea bed at around 300 feet below the surface. Above him was his diving support vessel The Bibby Topaz which contained the decompression chamber and the diving bell. The bell would be lowered each day to just 50 feet above the sea bed.
Saturation Diving:
Chris and his fellow dive team of Duncan Allcock and Dave Yuasa had earlier entered the ship’s decompression chamber whilst the ship was docked. Divers can often spend days and weeks in these chambers as they slowly compress to allow them to work at such depths and pressure.
Everything was going fine until a freak failure of the positioning system stopped working and the ship started to drift. A call then went out telling the divers to return immediately to the bell.
Chris was working on the oil manifold but his umbilical got caught on the structure. As the ship and diving bell moved further away it began to pull.
Unable to free himself, Chris’s umbilical snapped, cutting off his breathing gas, his power and his suit’s heating system. Now left with only the emergency tanks on his back. Chris had approximately 8 minutes breathing time left.
TV & Feature Film:
Chris now tells the full extraordinary story of his experience which in 2019 was made into a Netflix movie called Last Breath. Also, a Hollywood film starring Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu and Finn Cole of Peaky Blinders fame is currently being developed.
His 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.
Speech Topics:
- Leadership and Maintaining the Chain of Command
- Crisis Management and Emergency Response
- Procedures and the Power of Drills and Practice
- Risk
To book Chris Lemons and hear the full story of his ordeal, call SpeakOut on 020 8914 8966. Chris talks about what drives him to continue working in one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. He also discusses the teamwork required to keep him and his fellow divers safe.
