Washington (CNN) #IslandLife was good to Barack Obama.

Before returning to Washington, the former president dove into an aquatic and athletic challenge with his friend, Virgin Group founder and billionaire Richard Branson, while vacationing on the British Virgin Islands with former first lady Michelle Obama.

Now that Obama is free from many Secret Service-imposed restrictions that did not allow him to partake in activities like surfing, Branson offered Obama the chance to learn how to kitesurf.

But to make things more interesting, Branson took on a challenge of his own.

"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," Branson wrote in a post on Virgin.com.

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