VIDEO: Lunging sea lion startles sunrise swimmers at Colwood beach<\/p>\n
Published 4:30 pm Monday, November 24, 2025<\/p>\n
Cold-plunging in the waters of Esquimalt Lagoon is supposed to take your breath away. But for two sunrise swimmers, a routine dip got the blood pumping in more ways than one.<\/p>\n
Langford locals Ennio Titarenko and Andrew Wierzbicki had barely been in the water five minutes when a bull sea lion surfaced roughly 15 feet away from them.<\/p>\n
Titarenko, a former commercial diver, wasn\u2019t bothered by its sudden appearance, but for his pal Wierzbicki, it was a different story.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am very afraid of the ocean,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ll go in, but it scares me, just because it\u2019s so huge \u2013 it\u2019s the most powerful force on earth, in my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the beast loitered nearby, a nervous Wierzbicki began slowly backing out of the water \u2013 Titarenko, meanwhile, stayed calm.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been engulfed by sea lions at one point,\u201d said Titarenko. \u201cSo I\u2019m really comfortable with them. So it didn\u2019t really phase me.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the mood shifted fast when the large male sea lion edged closer, suddenly lunging out of the water towards the pair. This time, both men made a hasty retreat to shore.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was game over for me at that point \u2013 there was no way I was dealing with that guy,\u201d said Wierzbicki. \u201cHe\u2019ll win every day on his own turf for sure.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tried to run out of the water as fast as I could, but I wear these water shoes \u2026 I swear I\u2019m probably never gonna wear those shoes again, because when I was trying to run, they were like cinder blocks on my feet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just as quickly as it charged, the bull disappeared again, leaving the pair convinced the encounter was a territorial warning.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was just doing that to scare us,\u201d said Titarenko. \u201cI knew that he had no intention of biting us or hurting us. He just wanted us to get out of the water.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I heeded that warning.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was definitely asserting his dominance,\u201d adds Wierzbicki.<\/p>\n
The friends are regulars at Esquimalt Lagoon, plunging up to three times a week. Wierzbicki also leads the Cold Plunge Crew, which meets every Sunday morning at the lagoon for a bracing group dip.<\/p>\n
Seals, otters, orcas and sea lions are all familiar sights at the lagoon, but Monday morning\u2019s (Nov. 24) close encounter was a first for both men \u2013 and, as it turns out, a stroke of luck to have caught on camera.<\/p>\n
Titarenko says he almost never brings his filming gear to a routine plunge. But on this morning, with his equipment on hand, the pair decided to seize the opportunity to film some social media content for their business Vic City Saunas, which is hosting a New Year\u2019s Day event offering folks the best of both worlds \u2013 a group cold plunge with a shoreline sauna.<\/p>\n
Additional footage was also captured by another member of the Cold Plunge Crew, who spotted the sea lion circling the swimmers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great story and I\u2019m happy we got it on video,\u201d says Wierzbicki.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Fisheries and Oceans Canada was invited to comment on the video. They said the public should always keep a safe distance from marine mammals.<\/p>\n
\u201cApproaching or interacting with them puts both people and wildlife at risk,\u201d said a spokesperson in a emailed statement. \u201cPlease observe from afar and follow all regulations that protect these species and their habitats, and reduce the likelihood of endangering people.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Canada, it\u2019s against the law to disturb a marine mammal, which includes feeding, swimming or interacting with them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you encounter seals, sea lions or walruses: move away slowly at the first sign of disturbance or agitation,\u201d the spokesperson added. \u201cIf the animal starts to stare, fidget or dive into the water, you are too close.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the scare \u2013 and the viral-worthy footage \u2013 neither Wierzbicki or Titarenko plan to stay out of the water for long.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt won\u2019t put me off at all,\u201d Titarenko said. \u201cWe\u2019ll be out there again this week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wierzbicki agrees.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a one-off out of hundreds, maybe thousands of dips,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ll be a little more aware, but it\u2019s not going to scare me out of the ocean. We are in his home \u2013 I respect the animals, and there\u2019s a big ocean out there, we can both share the same beach at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VIDEO: Lunging sea lion startles sunrise swimmers at Colwood beach Published 4:30 pm Monday, November 24, 2025 Cold-plunging…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-308056","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}