2018 has been a busy news year, and one of the more popular stories to come out of the Okanagan was a reported sighting of Ogopogo.
But was it actually Ogopogo? Or was it a log? Or a wave?
The minute-long video is shaky, so it’s hard to say exactly what David Halbauer captured on his cellphone earlier this year, but it is something. The only question is what?
Halbauer, his brother Keith and their families were enjoying time along Okanagan Lake in early September when they spotted something in the water. Halbauer whipped out his phone and began filming. Later, he contacted Global News, and word quickly spread that he may, or may not have, spotted the lake’s legendary serpent, Ogopogo.
“When you’re sitting on the beach on a sunny day, you don’t expect to see a dinosaur coming out of the water,” Halbauer said at the time. “We were all just stunned.”
“I don’t think I could put my arms around it,” he said of the creature’s diameter.
“It rolled up and down as it went in the water. Another lump of the same thing came up about five metres in front of it.”
The video went viral and has been viewed thousands of times. Various news sources around the world wound up re-telling the tale, citing Global News. To date, the Global News story has been viewed 477,000 times, though it’s safe to say it’s likely in the millions when combined with other news sites.
WATCH BELOW: (Aired Sept. 27, 2018) A Kelowna resident says he’s a firm believer in Ogopogo, the mythical Okanagan Lake creature. He has searched the lake several times for it.
Halbauer said response to the video was mostly negative, which he expected. But in fairness to him, in a moment’s notice, who would rightly be prepared to video Ogopogo?
Halbauer added “my brother was there, his wife was there and we know what we saw. My only regret is that I didn’t act sooner and get my phone out quicker and didn’t have the sun in my eyes, because the thing was much closer before I started videoing.”
Halbauer said he was “in shock for the first minute, asking ‘What is that?’ You’re looking at something that doesn’t exist, but there it is, right in front of you.”
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