Obama kiteboarding: part of dangerous water sports
Previous U.S. president Barack Obama is trying some new and dangerous water sports that the Hawaii native had to miss out on for safety reasons while serving in the White House.
Obama, whose eight years as president ended the previous month when he was succeeded by Donald Trump, learned to kiteboard while vacationing the previous week on a Caribbean island owned by British billionaire and adventurer Sir Richard Branson, who published an account of their trip on Tuesday.
Photographs and video on the website of Branson’s Virgin Group show the previous president, a life-long surfer, figuring out the increasingly popular sport in which people ride a board while being pulled behind a kite.
Watch the video:
“Being the previous president of America, there was lots of security around, however, Barack was able to really relax and get into it,” Branson wrote.
Obama and his wife, Michelle, were spotted the previous week in the British Virgin Islands, and people posted photos of them on social media. Branson owns 120-acre (48-hectare) Moskito Island, which is part of the archipelago.
Kiteboarding was chosen in 2012 as a sport for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, replacing windsurfing. The decision was criticized at the time because the sport can be lethal, and it was reversed within months.
As stated by Branson, Obama studied the pastime for two days and flew a kite from the beach, “as if going back to being a child again,” before heading out into the waves.
“Barack started learning to kitesurf on the beach on Necker for two days solid, picking up the basics and flying a kite as if going back to being a child again. Then he went into the water, standing up and getting a feel for the kite. Finally, he put the board at his feet and gave it a go. Being the previous president of America, there was lots of security around, however, Barack was able to really relax and get into it”, Branson wrote.
Branson was trying to learn a similar sport, foilboarding, which uses a modified board that rises a few feet above the water. He wrote that he challenged the ex-president over which of them would succeed first.
Obama triumphed, he said, by kiteboarding for 100 meters (328 feet).
“After all he has done for the world, I couldn’t begrudge him his well-deserved win,” Branson wrote.
- NAN