Lewis Hamilton: the F1 driver has a promising career in surfing

The British F1 racing driver put on a thick wetsuit and visited Kelly Slater at the Surf Ranch in Lemoore, California.

Hamilton, who is currently enjoying a short off-season break, was invited by the greatest surfer of all time to experience the stars-only artificial wave pool.

Slater taught him the basics of surfing and, apparently, it paid off. After a few lessons, Lewis Hamilton hit the cold water and was even able to get barreled.

Is Lewis Hamilton a natural athlete, or has he had previous surfing experiences? The World Surf League, who now owns the Surf Ranch, says it was only his fifth time surfing.

"New year, new sport, and time to learn new things. Thank you, Kelly Slater, for teaching me! This was rad. Gabriel Medina: I'm coming for you, brother. Just kidding!" wrote the F1 legend.

"That one [the barrel] felt good. Right at the end, I was on it, I went like this [doing the shaka], and then I fell. I felt like I was most in it than ever before."

Lewis Hamilton won five Formula One World Championship titles (2008, 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2018), and holds the record for the most wins at different F1 circuits (26).

Now, he has probably become the first ever person to get barreled on his first days of surfing.

Top Stories

On March 7, 2024, Cloudbreak delivered one of the most epic swells in Fiji's big wave surfing history.

Is there any correlation between warmer or colder ocean waters and bigger waves? What is the influence of temperature on wave height?

It's one of the world's most out-of-the-radar big waves and certainly one of the most exciting surf breaks in Latin America and the South Pacific. Bienvenidos a El Buey.

Surfing is all about working the unbroken wave face and maximizing riding time. But how can you optimize and balance these two goals that cancel each other out?