Boaters Spot Ogopogo

Two women enjoying the sun and some fun time on the water had the scare of their life when they say Ogopogo swam near their boat.

“It was a huge snake, I saw it, I saw the head. It was two feet thick and it was like 50-feet long. I could not believe it,” says Suzie St-Cyr Cowley.

The “Ogopogo” was spotted about 1,000 feet off shore in front of Quails Gate Winery on the westside. She says it was heading south in the lake.

“I could not believe it,” says St-Cyr Cowley. “I was afraid because we were so close and I wanted to move my boat away. I was screaming “Oh my god, that’s Ogopogo! It was so big.”

St-Cyr Cowley has been boating on Okanagan Lake since 2008, and says she has never seen anything like this before – she thought it was just a legend.

“I thought it was just a story,” says St-Cyr Cowley. “But, it is true, it does exist, I saw it with my own eyes.”

Her friend, Marie Letourneau, had just arrived in town from Quebec for her first vacation in Kelowna and had never heard of Ogopogo. Letourneau was the first to see the creature and didn’t know what she was seeing.

“She was just yelling “Suzie, Suzie, there’s a big thing”, and I turned around and couldn’t believe it.”

She says because they were so in shock, and quite afraid it would go under the boat, they forgot to grab a photo or take video.

“I yelled at her ‘Did you take a picture?’ but we both were so surprised,” says St-Cyr Cowley. “We could not believe our eyes. I turned around and saw the back and saw the head and it just went down. We are so sad we didn’t take a picture.”

The women claim Ogie was very long and snake-like and had five curves along its back.