How far away is the British Virgin Islands from the United States Virgin Islands? A mere ferry ride away. That’s how close former President Barack Obama and his family are from the U.S. territory, where they’ve already spent two weeks on vacation on Sir Richard Branson’s Necker Island.
And what a time they’ve been having.
Mr. Branson, the Virgin Group founder and billionaire, said he invited the Obamas to his private island in the BVI, and that one of the first stories they told him was how Mr. Obama, just before he became president, had been surfing on a dangerous break in Hawaii. When he came in from an exhilarating session, the new head of Mr. Obama’s security team turned to him and said: “This will be the last time you surf for eight years.”
According to Mr. Branson, for the following eight years, the former president didn’t get a chance to surf, enjoy watersports or do many of the things he loved.
“So it was tremendous to offer him the chance to learn to kitesurf,” Mr. Branson wrote. The sport has really taken off in the past decade and we have the perfect conditions and team to help anyone learn. I have also wanted to learn foilboard surfing. So we decided to set up a friendly challenge: could Barack learn to kitesurf before I learned to foilboard? We agreed to have a final day battle to see who could stay up the longest.”
The story goes on to tell of how Mr. Obama wound up winning the competition: “After all he has done for the world, I couldn’t begrudge him his well-deserved win,” Mr. Branson wrote.
Watch the video above, and enjoy the full serving of pics from the link atop.
Pictures courtesy Jack Brockway
Tags: barack obama, president barack obama, us virgin islands
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