Prince Harry goes surfing at the Surf Ranch wave pool
Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, has become the first British royal-blooded to ride the Surf Ranch wave pool in Lemoore, California.
The younger son of King Charles III and Diana, Princess of Wales, added a new chapter to the surprisingly long list of surfing events in the British royal family.
Tutored and backed by Raimana van Bastolaer, the resident surf coach at Kelly Slater Wave Company’s Surf Ranch, Harry took off on a right-hander and surfed it to the end.
The fifth in the line of succession to the British throne was even able to find a quick cover-up under the transparent blue barrel.
The truth is the Royal regular footer is no stranger to water sports and surfing in particular.
In 2011, he planned his brother William’s stag do. The celebration included a surf session at Speke’s Mill, Devon, in southwest England.
Harry, William, and their friends went bodyboarding one year later in Polzeath Beach, Cornwall.
The former active senior member of the British royal family and father of two – Archie and Lilibet – continued practicing surfing hidden from the photographers and journalists.
In 2020, his wife Meghan bought him surfing lessons for his 36th birthday, which apparently pleased Harry.
The couple lives in Montecito, Santa Barbara, just one hour away from Malibu’s Surfrider Beach, where they were already spotted biking.
Guided by Raimana van Bastolaer
At the Surf Ranch, Harry made surfing in a wave pool look easy.
Starting by riding next to Van Bastolaer’s jet ski, the Prince breaks away as the wave begins to peel, skillfully popping onto his surfboard.
With guidance from Raimana, the Duke of Sussex quickly finds his balance and rides the artificial wave for nearly a minute.
At some point, the Tahitian surf coach tells Harry to move his shoulders to make the Prince of Sussex turn and cut back and lose some stiffness.
“In Tahiti, we still call you Prince Harry, but at Surf Ranch, it’s my brother. It was an honor to have you surf with me,” Van Bastolaer wrote on his Instagram account.
The Duke of Sussex has been mingling with VIP surfers for a while.
In 2023, Harry met Kelly Slater, Gerry Lopez, and Raimana Van Bastolaer at the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.
The meeting occurred two years after Slater violently criticized the British royal family on a social media post following the controversial Oprah Winfrey interview.
A Royal Surfing Family
British monarchs have a connection to surfing that goes all the way to the birth of the pastime and sport.
In April 1920, Edward, Prince of Wales, took an official trip to Hawaii.
At Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, the future King Edward VIII, who ruled for just 325 days in 1936, was invited to ride a wave guided by the father of modern surfing, Duke Kahanamoku.
Later, in 1947, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret gave surfing a go at King’s Beach in South Africa.
Somewhere between 1970-1973, Charles, the Prince of Wales, parked his beloved Aston Martin on a dune and went surfing with a single-fin surfboard at Constantine Bay Beach in Cornwall, England.
In 1977, the now King Charles III, who is also an accomplished windsurfer, paddled out at Coogee in Australia, wearing no wetsuit despite the freezing waters.
Last but not least, in 1978, the Prince of Wales and patron of the former British Surfing Association invited the national surfing team to meet him at Buckingham Palace before flying to South Africa to compete in the World Amateur Championships.
Words by Luís MP | Founder of SurferToday.com
