Awe As Sea Lion Starts Body Surfing With Woman: ‘What a Good Boy’

A video of a woman who meets a “surfing buddy” sea lion in the Galápagos Islands of Ecuador has captivated viewers on TikTok.
The video was posted by Cosette (@cozisadventures), a 24-year-old from Austin, Texas, who works as a nanny and a high school basketball coach. The clip has had 2.2 million views since it was first shared on October 15.
A note overlaid on the video reads: “I found somewhere you can surf with sea lions.” The footage shows Cosette in ocean waters, with a sea lion very close by.
The clip was taken in September at Porto Chino Beach on San Cristóbal Island during the poster’s honeymoon in the Galápagos.
Her husband Brock was recording a video of her “body surfing in the waves,” Cosette told Newsweek.
She said: “While he was recording, a sea lion swam over and started body surfing the waves with me! I also went surfing at that same beach and the sea lions would swim out and surf the waves as well.”
The couple stayed in San Cristóbal for two weeks and “it was not uncommon for the sea lions to swim up to us. They would swim around us like they were playing with us,” she noted.
The poster added: “We made sure to give them their space and not disturb them. They were so curious and playful and they were always the ones to approach us.”
San Cristóbal Island is home to one of the largest Galápagos sea lion colonies in the archipelago. They are crucial for maintaining the area’s ecological balance, keeping fish, squid, crustaceans and other prey at healthy levels. They also distribute nutrients through their excrement, which helps algae and aquatic plants to grow, notes the Galápagos Conservancy, a nonprofit based in the United States.
The nonprofit warns: “Despite their importance, these endemic animals are threatened by overfishing, unregulated fishing practices, and human disturbance of their natural habitats.”
The population of Galápagos sea lions has halved in the last 40 years to around 20,000, and the species is classified as “Endangered” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List, the nonprofit notes.
According to an April 2021 study in Scientific Reports, the Galápagos sea lion and Galápagos fur seal were “among the most important endemic species for conservation” in the Galápagos. The study noted that both are classified as “Endangered” since their populations have “undergone drastic declines over the last several decades.”
A caption shared with the viral TikTok post says: “It’s not every day you get a sea lion as your surfing buddy! It was so fun playing in the waves with this sea lion! When the sea lions came up to me in the water it was scary at first, but I soon learned they just want to play with you!”
Viewers on TikTok were delighted to see the body surfing sea lion in the video.
“Omg what a good boy,” said abstravelgirlie and PADI wrote: “Dream beach day!”
User lyss agreed, writing “gosh a new dream unlocked.”
“I would be talking about this for the rest of my life,” noted sophiebarris.
User @dumbothepig13 said it was the “Chillest sea lion ever” and whyessemm wrote: “Sea lions : the ocean’s puppies!”
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