President Barack Obama spent New Year’s Day at the beach and playing tennis on Windward Oahu.

The president began his day with a workout at the Semper Fit gym at Marine Corps Base Hawaii.

Just before noon, the president, his family and friends took a short motorcade ride from Kailua, where they are staying, to Pyramid Rock Beach at the edge of the base.

News reporters and photographers traveling with the president were kept away and weren’t able to see whether the president went in the water. The Obamas spent part of Christmas Eve at the same white sandy beach. 

Pyramid Rock has been dubbed “one of Oahu’s bodysurfing jewels” by Midweek magazine. The Marine Corps sponsors an annual bodysurfing contest there.

The first family left the beach at about 3 p.m. and then went to play tennis at the Kailua Racquet Club, a private tennis club.

They were back in their compound at 5:30 p.m.

In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama said yesterday that lawmakers must return to Washington this week prepared to make serious decisions about how to grow the economy in the short run and stay competitive in the future.

“I’m willing to work with anyone of either party who’s got a good idea and the commitment to see it through,” Obama said in his address, taped in Kailua. “And we should all expect you to hold us accountable for our progress or our failure to deliver.”

Obama said his New Year’s resolution is to do everything he can to grow the economy, create jobs and strengthen the middle class, though he warned that the economic recovery is still fragile.