This weekend’s Long Beach Scuba Show Main Stage boasts a truly world-class line-up of speakers – death-defying commercial diver Chris Lemons (whose true life tale of survival against the odds was made into a movie), Hollywood stunt performer Liz Parkinson (who is also acting as MC), freediving guru and tech diver Kirk Krack, cave diver and explorer Patrick Widmann, and underwater photographer and film-maker Annie Crawley.
Chris Lemons
Commercial diver Chris Lemons was thrust into the spotlight after he miraculously survived being on the seabed some 330ft down in the North Sea for 40 minutes after a freak accident cut him off from his surface-supplied gas, light and heat. He was left on the seabed, in complete darkness, with only the five 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 was developed into the 2025 Hollywood movie, starring Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu and Finn Cole.
Liz Parkinson
Freediving guru and PADI IDC Staff Instructor Liz Parkinson is rapidly becoming the go-to person for Hollywood and TV companies when it comes to teaching talent to scuba dive or freedive, or when they need a stunt performer who can excel whether they are on a set of scuba gear or diving breath-hold.
Over the past several years, Liz has been involved with leading water-themed films, including James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water, Marvel’s Wakanda Forever, Netflix’s mini-series Thai Cave Rescue, and Blumhouse thriller Night Swim, among others.
Her work has allowed her to also work on a variety of different production mediums, including television and documentaries. This work allows her to travel the world, working with actors, explorers, conservationists and fellow stunt performers.
Patrick Widmann
Austrian Patrick Widmann is one of the world’s most-experienced underwater explorers, having been involved in countless expeditions around the world.
Patrick has devoted his life to the diving profession since the age of 19. His technical diving journey began in the beautiful waters of Egypt in 2003 and evolved into cave diving in 2005 in the stunning underwater cave systems of Mexico, where he has resided since 2007.
Over the past two decades, Patrick has had the privilege of diving and exploring caves in 17 countries around the globe. Since 2014, he has led annual expeditions to Madagascar, where his team has made remarkable discoveries within remote underwater cave systems.
In 2024, Patrick participated in the Bottom Line Project, an expedition to the mines of northern Thailand. During this remarkable venture, he and his teammate Mikko Paasi achieved the deepest mine dive in Asia. Returning in 2025, Patrick surpassed this achievement, discovering a new 354ft level. This record-breaking dive resulted in a 90-minute bottom time below 229ft and a total dive time approaching ten hours.
Annie Crawley
Annie Crawley, known around the world as Ocean Annie, is an award-winning film-maker, underwater photographer, author, and ocean educator who uses the power of storytelling to inspire ocean conservation.
Through her films and educational programmes – including Our Ocean and You, Dive Into Your Imagination, and Our Underwater Backyard – she’s reached hundreds of thousands of students worldwide.
Her latest documentary, The Island of the Shark Guardians of Malpelo, reveals the beauty and vulnerability of sharks around the world and highlights the work of Biodiversity Conservation Colombia (BCC). To tell this story, Annie spent more than three months aboard a small catamaran 300 miles off the coast of Colombia to document BCC’s efforts to protect their waters from illegal fishers. The film exposes the urgent threats facing sharks and rays while amplifying the voices of those fighting to defend them.
Kirk Krack
Kirk Krack shares how nearly four decades in the water have shaped his approach to human performance and multi‑disciplined diving. Beginning in the late-1980s and progressing into mixed‑gas technical dives to 550ft in the Cayman Islands in the early 1990s, Kirk learned how physiology, psychology, training, and environment must align for divers to safely push limits. He then applied those lessons to freediving, founding Performance Freediving International and coaching athletes to 23 world records while building the first comprehensive freediving instructional system.
Kirk’s work evolved into Technical Freediving, survival and special operations breath‑hold programs for military units, and human performance consulting with elite teams, corporations, and athletes. Along the way, he helped bring ambitious underwater film projects to life, including The Cove, Racing Extinction, and working for James Cameron on the Avatar sequels: The Way of Water and Fire and Ash, by preparing actors and crews to perform safely under demanding conditions.
Long Beach Scuba Show
The Long Beach Scuba Show, this year sponsored by Divers Alert Network, is celebrating its 39th anniversary in 2026 (30-31 May), and it represents the first show under the banner of new owners Rork Media Limited, which also runs the GO Diving Shows in the UK and Australia, and publishes the global-multi-edition Scuba Diver magazine, as well as being behind the Scuba Diver Magazine YouTube Channel, and long-established website Divernet.
Fans of the long-running event will be delighted to hear that Rork Media plan to retain everything that made the Scuba Show such a staple on the West Coast diving circuit, and enhance it with new and improved elements, including a Main Stage with a huge video wall right in the exhibition hall itself, a new layout designed to stimulate exploration around the hundreds of booths, and additional interactive attractions including a VR dive on a deep-water shipwreck in the Baltic Sea.
The three seminar rooms have been organised into themes, to make it easier to find speakers/topics of interest, so prepare to dive into Adventure, Inspiration, and UW Imaging.
Whether you’re an experienced diver, a new enthusiast, or just curious about the underwater world, the Scuba Show brings together everything you love about diving under one roof.
Greg Holt from Scuba Radio will be entertaining the crowds on mornings before and as the show opens, offering plenty of fun and games, and the chance to win some amazing prizes.
Explore hundreds of exhibitors showcasing the latest scuba gear, dive destinations, underwater photography equipment, training programs, and ocean conservation initiatives. Attend inspiring seminars led by world-renowned dive experts, explorers, and photographers, and connect with dive professionals, travel operators, and fellow divers from across the country.
There is also the opportunity to expand your skillset. The PSI-PCI Visual Cylinder Inspection course is open to everyone who wishes to inspect high-pressure breathing gas cylinders, or just know about the process. These specialty courses support the inspection process with formal function specific training on valve maintenance and repair, and Oxygen Cylinder Cleaning. Inspectors who are at the three-year renewal mark and want to attend the PSI-PCI Update course will be able to take care of it at the Scuba Show as well.
PSI-PCI offers the only training that is formally endorsed, utilized, and referred to by the cylinder manufacturers. The training has been created with the input of industry professionals and experts in each field to provide you with the best training available to meet the Federal requirements for the associated processes. You can join the team of PSI-PCI Professionals at the Scuba Show. Don’t wait, seats will fill up quickly! Click here for more information and to book a slot.
The Scuba Show offers two full days of ocean adventure, hand’s-on experiences, and exclusive show specials, and is where the US dive community comes together to celebrate the underwater world.
Get your tickets now!
Tickets are on sale now for the Scuba Show, and new for 2026, there is a change to the cost of entry – there is now one ticket price, which gets every attendee full access to the Exhibition Hall, and entry to all seminars.
With many of the speakers in the dedicated Adventure, Inspiration, and UW Imaging seminar rooms either only presenting on one of the days, or giving two different talks, plus with the headline acts on the Main Stage, and the plethora of booths, interactive elements and much more, there is plenty to keep you occupied on both days, so why not make a weekend of it?
Tickets are available now – click here – priced at $33 for a day ticket, and $60 for a weekend pass. There is also the option of a VIP Pass, which includes a weekend pass plus 6 issues of Scuba Diver magazine and 6 issues of California Diving News (Magazine delivery US & Canada residents only), and a Scuba Show Dive Team T-shirt, for $100.
Under 16s go free – bring the family and let the kids dive into the fun as well.
Join us for two incredible days, 30-31 May 2026, celebrating the world of diving at the Long Beach Convention Center!
