Curious sea lion surprises 2 friends taking a cold plunge near Victoria

A sunrise dip near Victoria took a surprising turn on Monday morning when a sea lion lunged at two swimmers.

It happened at Esquimalt Lagoon, where Ennio Titarenko and his friend were taking a plunge and recording it on video.

However, about five minutes into their chilly dip, a sea lion showed up and hung around at a distance — at first.

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Before they knew what was happening, the sea lion leapt towards them with a big splash, startling them both.

Titarenko, a former commercial diver, has spent a lot of time in the water around animals and told Global News they just wanted to get out of the sea lion’s way.

“I wasn’t really fazed,” he said.

“I’ve spent a ton of time around sea lions, I’ve scratched their belly before like puppies, I knew that he was probably either just curious or wanting to show us who’s boss, but I had no fear that he was going to hurt us or bite us or anything like that.

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“During the moment, I was like, OK, it’s very clear he wants us to leave, so we’re just going to leave.”

The friends don’t want to give up on their cold plunges, so they hope this was just a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

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