Barack Obama kitesurfing: This video will make you fall in love with ex-US president again

Pic, Video courtesy: Richard Branson

New York: After keeping his political opponents at bay for years, former US President Barack Obama has now beaten his friend and billionaire Richard Branson, who had challenged him in a Kitesurfing contest.

The Virgin Group founder had put up a blog post with pictures and video of the ex-president kitesurfing off one of Branson's private islands in the British Virgin Islands. 

Branson wrote that Obama, who's a native of Hawaii, had told him he was prevented from surfing by his security detail during his time in office.

"Just before he became President, he had been surfing on a dangerous break in Hawaii," Branson wrote. "When he came in from an exhilarating session, the new head of his security team turned to him and said that this will be the last time you surf for eight years.''

''For the next eight years he didn’t have the chance to surf, enjoy watersports or do many of the things he loved," he added.

Branson says after spending a couple days learning to kitesurf, Obama defeated the billionaire in a water sport 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," he wrote. 

"Barack and I both fell many times, but we kept trying again and again and made progress over the days. We were neck and neck until the last run on the last day, when I got up on the foilboard and screamed along for over 50 metres, three feet above the water. I was feeling very pleased with myself, only to look over and see Barack go 100 metres on his kiteboard! I had to doff my cap to him and celebrate his victory," he wrote.

Adding, "After all he has done for the world, I couldn’t begrudge him his well-deserved win." 

He says inviting the Obamas to his island was "a huge honor."

The video shared by Virgin Group founder has collected over 54,000 views and more than 10,000 'likes' on Instagram. Branson also shared this video on Twitter.

Challenged @barackobama to a kitesurf vs foilboard learning contest – here’s what happened https://t.co/5hwjOvy2TK pic.twitter.com/wEGSjL2TAr — Richard Branson (@richardbranson) February 7, 2017

Here's the amazing video.