Gymnastics and capoeira at Sandy Hook beach

This blogpost contains some of the best photos that qualify for both ‘active’ and ‘naturist’. It was prepared for the 4th of July, but instead of finishing it on time, I went to the beach 🙂 Well, I guess most of the readers in US did the same anyway, so one day delay is OK. Moreover, now I have this photo with historic American flags to add. Thanks to the nice couple who brought these flags and my friend Andre, I got a little lesson on American history right on the beach (I wish all history classes were like that, I would probably have learnt way more). Although I’m not a US citizen or a big fan of any sorts of patriotic celebrations in general, it seemed appropriate for the Independence Day to take a photo with the 13 star “Betsy Ross” variant of the first (or second?) flag of the USA, as well as the Gadsden Flag. Actually, I liked that according to Wikipedia contemporary significance of Gadsden Flag includes its use as “a symbol of disagreement with government, or a symbol of support for civil liberties”; given unfortunate recent developments with closure of some nudist beaches around New York and anti-nudity law in San Francisco, for example, this rebellious interpretation seems more appropriate for a nudist beach. Well, I don’t want to get carried away with this topic for now, I promised some of the best active naturist photos 🙂

So, the visitors of Sandy Hook’s Gunnison Beach may have encountered quite astonishing situations with some crazy people ‘flying’ around, sometimes upside down.

One of them is certainly to be my gymnast friend David, who just cannot sit still for too long. His moves are impressive from the beginning

to the end,

but of course it’s what happens in between that draws attention!

David can do most major exercises of floor gymnastics and tumbling and is eager to demonstrate his prowess,

for which I have to thank him, as it inspired me to take gymnastics classes too.

I’m still struggling with front handspring though.

However, I could show a one-arm cartwheel…

or a three-leg-one-arm cartwheel 😀

A handstand isn’t a problem either 🙂

I wasn’t the only one inspired; when we were tumbling last year during Tacoboy’s Beach Fest, we were joined by Amanda, and she learned how to do a handstand!

Another fun activity that we’ve engaged with at Sandy Hook was capoeira.

We are yet to get big enough group to arrange a proper roda (capoeira game), but it’s fun even with just two (this time with Fardo), only more tiring as there is nobody you could rotate with and rest in between.

At least we had the advantage of not being constrained by clothes and doing it in the fresh sea air 🙂

Playing on the wet sand felt nice (pretty close to the matted floor that we usually have in classes), but it sort of added a ‘secret weapon’ to some of the kicks, when the sand would get off the foot during the kick and fly into your opponent. Oh well, but capoeira game is all about surprise moves and being unpredictable.

Here’s a video that sums up all this fun, hopefully more and more people will get inspired!

PS I’ve just realized, my Independence Day blogpost last year was also about Sandy Hook (check it for directions and general description), it’s probably going to be a tradition!