My one encounter with a sea lion was at Balboa, Newport Beach.
A work colleague and I were on business for a week in California and decided to chill out at Newport Beach for the weekend. Still being jet lagged we fancied an early morning swim and, despite it being December, we thought it was pretty warm compared to UK waters.
After about 10 minutes bimbling about, I duck dived down and when I surfaced behind my mate he was treading water about 3ft from this big old sea lion. It was quickly apparent he hadn't noticed it, so I called out "who's your new mate then". Both he and the sea lion both turned and there was a comical moment when my mate clocked this beast, followed by a girly scream and much thrashing of limbs as he made his way to shore. He'd seen something in his peripheral vision but assumed it was me!
The locals on the pier seemed quite amused to see a couple of middle aged Brits acting like school kids on a day out at the seaside.
A work colleague and I were on business for a week in California and decided to chill out at Newport Beach for the weekend. Still being jet lagged we fancied an early morning swim and, despite it being December, we thought it was pretty warm compared to UK waters.
After about 10 minutes bimbling about, I duck dived down and when I surfaced behind my mate he was treading water about 3ft from this big old sea lion. It was quickly apparent he hadn't noticed it, so I called out "who's your new mate then". Both he and the sea lion both turned and there was a comical moment when my mate clocked this beast, followed by a girly scream and much thrashing of limbs as he made his way to shore. He'd seen something in his peripheral vision but assumed it was me!
The locals on the pier seemed quite amused to see a couple of middle aged Brits acting like school kids on a day out at the seaside.