Karlos Simón has been diving on the five continents since 1988. He is an entrepreneur in the diving industry, documentary filmmaker, underwater cameraman, technical diving specialist, TV presenter, speaker specialising in conferences on how to overcome fears and above all, as he says, “an expert and passionate about sharks”. In his professional career he has made almost 10,000 dives on more than 200 trips and expeditions that he has organised in the best dive sites in the world.
After diving with more than 40 species of sharks, his passion for them and his eagerness to prove that they are not man-eaters led him to set an international record in 2011 for staying underwater with sharks: 12 hours surrounded by tiger sharks. Since then, he has been researching tonic immobility with sharks, even leaving a four-metre-long tiger shark completely immobile underwater.
Among many others, in 2013 and 2014 he gave two lectures on the world of sharks at National Geographic Madrid; in 2014 he opened the Valladolid underwater film festival with the lecture “Tonic immobility with sharks” and in 2017 he was invited by TEDx to give a talk on sharks at the Madrid edition.
He has written numerous articles, all related to the Ocean and sharks, in Spanish magazines such as Buceo XXI, Inmersión, Oxígeno and Buceadores.
His name also stands out in the famous diving brand MARES, being ambassador of the same since 2017.
Within the audiovisual production, we can highlight his documentary as a director: “Cozumel, a paradise in the Mayan Caribbean”, awarded with the silver dolphin at the Cannes Film Festival, the bronze rail of the San Sebastian Underwater Film Festival and with three first prizes at the festivals of Ohio, Porto and Catalonia.
In October 2018 he premiered a new project on Spanish television (TVE La2): HUNDIDOS. A 13-episode series presented by himself, where he tells the story of 13 wrecks sunk off the Spanish coast.
At the end of January 2019 he released his first book: TRATANDO DE TIBURONES CON KARLOS SIMÓN, where he tells the story of his 30 years diving with sharks. Published by Reino de Cordelia and written by the writer of historical novels, Alfonso Mateo-Sagasta.