Category: active naturists

Acro-yoga in the buff (which was too much for San Francisco)

by αNaturist, posted in active naturists

Here are the photos from our acro-yoga session in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco that ended in such a dispiriting manner, with rangers issuing us a citation for “expose genitals”. Well, but it was a lot of fun until they arrived, and it’s worth sharing the pics, so you can see what our authorities consider an inappropriate sight for a city park as opposed to horse manure that police left behind them 😀

As Wikipedia says, “acro-yoga is a physical practice which blends elements of yoga, acrobatics, performance and healing arts. These three ancient practices form the foundation of a practice that cultivates trust, connection and playfulness between partners.” It is definitely a great exercise for balancing and stretching, and needless to say, all those aspects intensify  only more, if you do acro-yoga naked.

I first tried acro-yoga at Burning Man this year and was looking forward to doing it again; Dan’s  idea of doing it in a park in the buff sounded fantastic (as we didn’t know rangers wouldn’t allow it). So, we started from a folded leaf pose, which for me, being in the role of ‘flyer’, was mainly relaxing and getting comfortable with the idea of being dependent on Dan, the ‘base’. Other poses involved more power and strenuous control of balance.

naturist 0000 acro yoga San Francisco CA, USA

In the beginning, we did poses that used support of base’s hands.

naturist 0003 acro yoga San Francisco CA, USA

The we followed to the poses, where I was balancing on Dan’s legs only.

naturist 0004 acro yoga San Francisco CA, USA

It felt like I was learning to fly! The last one that we managed to do before the rangers arrived was the most difficult to maintain.

naturist 0007 acro yoga San Francisco CA, USA

But it felt amazing, because I lost understanding of where up and down were while I was looking at the sky!

naturist 0010 acro yoga San Francisco CA, USAnaturist 0009 acro yoga San Francisco CA, USA

We’ll definitely try to find a place where we could do acro-yoga in the buff in open air without being disturbed by rangers.

Nude is not lewd. Where does ‘open-minded’ San Francisco stand?

by αNaturist, posted in active naturists

Recently, there has been a lot of fuss about the proposed ban against public nudity in San Francisco (I saw it to be the top read news on BBC website). So on my latest trip to San Francisco I thought I might as well enjoy the last days (hopefully not!) when I could express the simple freedom and most natural right of being naked. If it was only that simple!

I used to live in Berlin, where nude recreation was really easy to achieve even in major city parks, so I feel a bit repressed in New York City, where I reside now. I was happy to hear that at least one major US city, San Francisco, allowed public nudity.

My San Franciscan friend Dan and I had an idea of doing acro-yoga at Golden Gate Park and did about 20 min of acro-yoga naked on one of the lawns, while our friend Niko was taking photos for us (I’ll post more pics later, in a separate blogpost, this just to give you an idea of what it looked like).

naturist 0003 acro yoga San Francisco CA, USA

Then, all of a sudden, a park ranger showed up, told us to put on clothes and asked for IDs. Another one followed soon. The first one appeared to be quite indifferent to the matter though, whereas the second one made it clear that it was her personal interest that we’d be punished. She went into assumptions that we simply didn’t have our own children, and also noted that we wouldn’t be the first case she’d win in court unless we’d get a liberal judge! So, without giving us any warning, they immediately produced a citation for us, and the second one continued her verbal harassment.

naturist 0011 police and rangers, San Francisco CA, USA

We honestly had no idea there was a specific law against nudity in parks, but they didn’t care. Actually they tried to persuade us the law was city-wide! Three police officers soon came as well, they didn’t really try to interfere, but two of them were quite chatty. They didn’t seem to know exact law about public nudity, but at least they appeared to be ready for discussion, at least one of them, we felt, was on our side. But too bad, it wasn’t their case. We made a quick search online, and we found the following:

There is a rarely enforced anti-nudity civil ordinance in the parks of San Francisco, including Golden Gate Park. This ordinance was put in place in 1970 in response to a custom which had developed in early 1969 among some hippies of dancing nude in a circle every Sunday in Speedway Meadow in Golden Gate Park. The parks are run by an unelected Parks and Recreation Commission who draw up the park codes. If the Park Rangers encounter someone nude in a city park, they will inform the nudist that he or she is violating a city ordinance. At that point, the nudist can decide whether to dress or to be issued a citation, which would require time and effort to have discharged. No criminal charges are pursuable from the encounter.

Not only did it sound weird that in a city where nudity was allowed it was illegal in parks, the most obvious place for nude recreation, we were not given any warning and choice to act according to the ordinance. It is worth noticing, that one passer-by shouted from the car “Don’t arrest them!”, and another, a runner, stopped and asked what was happening in the park that he apparently frequented. When he heard the story, he seemed worried and said it could have been him… It was nice to get all that support, but the rangers left us with citation nevertheless… And the policemen just left a pile of horse shit after them.

naturist 0000 police left horse shit, San Francisco CA, USAnaturist 0001 police left horse shit, San Francisco CA, USA

We could only wonder why in our culture, our own body is considered inappropriate, but other animals, including the well-endowed horses, can walk around naked; do they really think our bodies were filthier than horse manure?

Later on, we went to Castro district, where Harvey Milk and Jane Warner Plazas are well-known hangouts of urban nudists. We spoke to a policeman there, he confirmed that it was legal to be naked on the streets of San Francisco but not in the parks; however, he wished us luck at the court. We also met Lloyd, one of the local nudists.

naturist 0004 Castro District, San Francisco CA, USA

It is thanks to Lloyd and people like him, that inhabitants of Castro district seem to be accustomed to nudity human bodies and are accustomed to it. Tourists? They want one of those ‘only in San Francisco’ shots!

naturist 0001 Castro District, San Francisco CA, USA

We strolled with Lloyd for a bit, and discussed the current affairs with the proposed ban on nudity in the city.

naturist 0000 Castro District, San Francisco CA, USA

Visit to the Hot Cookie pastry seemed almost mandatory :p

naturist 0002 Castro District, San Francisco CA, USA

Later in the evening,  quite a big crowd gathered to commemorate Harvey Milk at the Plaza that bears his name; it was anniversary of assassination of this prominent activist for equal rights for gays.

naturist 0005 Harvey Milk commemoration, Castro District, San Francisco CA, USA

Although, the fight for gay rights is far from over in the US, this made me think that naturists might be the last group that is discriminated so openly in this country. And certainly, no one can accuse them in practicing something unnatural.

This coming Tuesday,  the San Francisco Board of Supervisors takes the final vote on the nudity ban. There is a group of nudist activists that run a rally against this ban. Maybe they will manage to stop it and who knows, even reverse it to allow nudity city-wide, including the parks. Then, hopefully, San Francisco could again become the pioneer city in promoting human rights.

Nudity ban passed in San Francisco

by αNaturist, posted in active naturists

😦 :’-( :-(((

Nudity ban passed in San Francisco

I was quite surprised to find out that many people didn’t take it seriously, thinking that it wouldn’t happen, ‘not in San Francisco’. Now it has happened. Mind you, it all started with a law that required naked people to put a piece of fabric or a newspaper when seated in public places just about a year ago. Obviously, they didn’t plan to stop on that. What’s next? And we’re talking about the ‘most liberal city’ in the country that positions itself as a stronghold of democracy…

kayaking in Cold Spring Harbor

by αNaturist, posted in active naturists

As Juan wrote in his first blogpost, kayaking, although often overlooked, is probably the easiest outdoor activity to practice in the buff without anyone noticing. It’s hard to tell whether one wears shorts, speedos or… nothing 😉

Last sumer, I had a couple of fun kayak trips with a few buddies in and around Cold Spring Harbor in Long Island.

Cold Spring Harbor hosts the world-famous laboratory that contributed to the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA. Most of the land along Cold Spring Harbor and Oyster Bay is privately owned, but you can definitely explore the area by the sea.

Once you reach the edge of the Oyster Bay, you could head out to the open waters of Long Island Sound

or turn Eastwards in the direction of Caumset State Park.

This is how it looks from the air (these photos were taken on another occasion, obviously).

To reach the beach of Caumset Park, you need to paddle around the sand spit that is a part of private land. You won’t see many people on the shore, perhaps a lonely fisherman.

Once you go around the tip of the sand spit, you will see a beautiful beach of Caumset State Park.

It is surrounded by lush forest which gives it almost tropical appearance.

Cormorants seemed to to be the only ones to welcome us.

The beach doesn’t see many visitors, it has a touch of the lost world…

Which also meant we could stay there as nature intended, without clothes 🙂

The sand cliffs appeared to be even prettier than from afar, revealing different shades of orange and pink.

Some shorebirds, possibly sand martins, have a colony there; my friend Martin :D, who climbed the cliffs couldn’t confirm what they were, we didn’t see any birds leaving the nests.

We enjoyed viewing the scenery for a bit and strolled along the beach.

Low tide revealed a lot seaweed, that tried to anchor at anything solid.

We found a flat white rock that was perfect for a lunch break,

and a golfinch was pleasing our ears while we took a nap…

On another occasion, we actually did some jumps instead of a nap 🙂

After the nap, we discover that a storm was on our way. The forecast for the day was ambiguous, but we were not anticipating to paddle in the sea during a thunderstorm!

We prepared to leave hastily, but as soon as we got on water, the sky started clearing ahead of us and we just tried to escape from the menacing clouds.

It got quiet again.

The storm seemed to get sucked into the Atlantic Ocean over Long Island.

The only place where we got a bit worried again, was around the tip of the sand spit that I mentioned above, because it gets quite strong currents and waves during tide change.

But it wasn’t a challenge after all, and we got back safely. We definitely look forward to more kayaking!

“canuding” swamps of the Mississippi delta area

by αNaturist, posted in active naturists

I’ve mentioned already my recent visit to New Orleans with a resort-like club in the centre of the city, but my trip wouldn’t have been complete if I hadn’t ventured out to the outdoors. In the case of New Orleans, I am talking about swamps, of course.

There are numerous boat tours offered by tourist agencies in the city, but it was quite difficult to find a place where kayaks or canoes could be rented. My friends and I opted for canoe rental as it promised a more personal and adventurous experience at the swamps, plus it is also a good exercise. I also secretly hoped that I would get a chance to explore the swamps ‘as nature intended’, especially given that mid-October is still summerly hot in New Orleans.

One of just a couple of places that provided canoe rental in the area was Pearl River Eco-tours. They are located in a massive swamp area north-east of New Orleans, which includes various habitats such as river, marshes and flooded forest swamps.

Our adventure started as soon as we departed from the boat/canoe station. All of a sudden, a fish jumped right in our canoe!

You’d think it just happened by chance, but it happened two more times during our trip. Perhaps fish jumps out of water so often in that area, because it is chased by alligators. Oh, have I mentioned that was what we actually hoped to see there most?

Going upstream just a little away from the rental place, we noticed a narrow canal leading to marshes.

It was a vast open space covered with semi-aquatic and floating plants with some lagoons in between.

The water was very shallow, often barely enough for a canoe to go through – tourist boats definitely wouldn’t go there, so I felt confident enough to disrobe for a bit.

And here it was, our first encounter with a gator! Young and small, but looking  out of water with big appetite in the eyes :p

Soon it submerged and we headed back to the main river.

The river itself was beautiful too, surrounded by lush forest and very quiet… except for an occasional water-scooter, unfortunately. Unfortunately – because to me it seemed inappropriate to use such a noisy and not-at-all-environmentally-friendly watercraft in that wilderness.

Abundant fish attracts numerous birds to the Pearl River. You can see them resting in the woods at the riverbank or preying in shallow waters. The most common are egrets

and great blue herons.

It is even easier to spot them when they take off in the air.

A rarer encounter is an osprey, but we did see a few of them, which is a sign of a healthy ecosystem.

We continued paddling upstream, and without a proper map, we did not know where we would see those typical southern swamps. We almost gave up, but just behind an old metal bridge, we found an entry to a narrow canal through the flooded forest!

Yes, that was the flooded forest of bald cypresses that we had in mind!

But what gave the forest its mysterious, almost spooky, appeal was not so much the trees themselves but a plant that grew upon all their branches, spanish moss.

Another feature that made this forest look unusual was the so-called cypress knees.

Cypress knees are special structures of swamp cypresses formed above their roots. They are thought to provide additional support and stabilisation, and possibly additional oxygenation for the roots.

It’s pretty obvious that cypress knees indeed help secure trees in the ground, as they create islets around the trees; they look as if protected by fortress walls… I found another use of them – creating a live bridge 🙂

This felt almost like flying right above the water. By the way, the black water of those marshes was in fact quite clear – we checked it by dipping our oars. On the other hand, alligators aren’t as bright as those yellow oars, so one should be careful when stepping outside the boat… And yes, there are some pretty impressive alligators in the area! We saw this beauty on the way back.

Not that gator attacks are common in Louisiana, they are most likely to retreat when they see humans, but you never know… But if you do want a gator to come closer to you, local advise to give it a marshmallow. It sounds more like a joke, but we did see them go for it!

Naturist Activists, Friends and Guests in Bay Area!

by αNaturist, posted in active naturists

This Wednesday, if possible, you should take part in the historic RALLY FOR URBAN NUDITY in San Francisco. I wrote previously about an attempt to strip San Franciscans and guests off their right to be clothes-free in public places, but here is a chance not only to stop the ban, but perhaps help to secure and expand this overlooked basic freedom?

So, here is a copy of the announcement, hope it will be success:

Greetings Body Freedom Supporters and Friends!

A reminder that on Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at Noon, the  RALLY FOR URBAN NUDITY will take place on the steps of San Francisco City Hall, (across from Civic Center on Carlton B. Goodlett Place).

Clothed, nude or anywhere in between, if you support the right to choose your own form of attire without government interference, come join us!

nudist kayaking down the Ebro River

by J, posted in active naturists

español

Water is definitely the most popular element that invites many to try and practice nudism, and besides obvious swimming/snorkelling or just plain fun skinny-dipping, kayaking sounds like the next best thing to do naked in water. We organized a kayak tour through a naturist forum and got a very good group of people to go down the Ebro River in Spain.

Kayaking is a lot of fun: it’s a good exercise and a great way to explore the area. Although I bet not many people think about it as a naturist activity, it is probably the easiest one to practice on public land (water, that is), as no one can really see from aside whether you wear a swimsuit or not.

We found that we could rent kayaks at the town of Miravet (Tarragona province), which also sounded like a great place to experience Ebro, one of the mightiest rivers of Iberian peninsula. It is a town with long history but is well kept; it was very important during Medieval Ages as a river port. The medieval structure of the town has been maintained till now, and the castle is certainly worth a visit.

When came to rent kayaks, we wore swimsuits, of course; also we were given lifejackets.

But as soon we departed a few meters from the bank, off went the clothes!

The day was just perfect for kayaking, and although we had just tow hours for the whole trajectory, we made a lot of stops to relax and take photos. Aurelio lives in Miravet and knows the area well, so he brought us to an Ancient Roman mill, almost in ruins. This place seemed to be unknown for other travellers.

By the end, we got really tired. I went in a double kayak with my friend David, but it appeared that people that went in single kayaks could move faster. It takes time to learn to coordinate well with your partner, and otherwise, it is more difficult to control a double kayak.

So we definitely enjoyed the rest of the afternoon by the pool at the rural house. Excellent weather, excellent group of friends!

Hopefully we will organise something of that sort next year 🙂

Sandy Hook is stronger than Sandy!

by αNaturist, posted in active naturists

As life in New York metropolitan area slowly returns to normal after the Frankenstorm, some of the city dwellers start thinking beyond the most vital issues. I’ve heard from several people already their concern about whether we’ll have a proper beach season next summer, because of some rumours that beaches got destroyed. So, yours truly got on a plane and went to check it out. Well, luckily I have a friend who is a pilot on a small plane and we planned a flight on the clear morning last Sunday…

When we reached the coastal area of Rockaway, it was obvious that for many people by the waterfront, the most essential question was still… where to live.

A large part of Breezy Point was wiped out by fire that fire department wasn’t able to reach because of the flooding.

These are aerial photographs of one of my favorite beaches, Fort Tilden, before Sandy.

And these are from this Sunday.

The beach itself looks as beautiful, but you can see that the dunes receded… and their sand covers the road now! I have mixed feeling about it being less accessible now. In a way, it is also nice to have some wilderness areas within NYC boundaries.

Jersey Shore suffered from Frankenstorm even more, but we flew only above its northernmost tip, Sandy Hook. Gunnison beach of Sandy Hook, probably my favorite one in the area, appeared totally flooded at first sight.

But it definitely remains to be a wide sandy beach as we know it!

It’s got this interesting sand barrier structure that goes along the shore, but I doubt it will last till next summer.

Parts of the road were still flooded, and I am sure there is a lot of mud and sand.

Another thing that I noticed looking at the beach, was that the parts of sand dunes covered with plants, even just grass or small bushes, seemed to have resisted the surge pretty well.

This made me think that the fence that limits access to the dunes for protection of shorebirds, such as plovers, was actually also necessary to preserve the plant cover. This, in turn, reminded me of a couple of case when I saw rangers patrolling the beach hitting the fence while passing through it and not bothering to put it back! One friend of mine took care of it, and he made it artfully!

In any case, I have no doubt that there will be a beach season next summer. Sandy Hook proved to be stranger than Sandy!

Country Club in New Orleans

by αNaturist, posted in active naturists

In the aftermath of Frankenstorm in New York, I would like to post some happy photos from New Orleans, another city that 8 years ago suffered severely from a hurricane, and actually much stronger one than Sandy…

Despite being surrounded by water, New Orleans is not known for beaches, let alone naturist beaches. But there is a clothing-optional club with an open air pool, jacuzzi and bar all surrounded by lush tropical plants. It is called simply The Country Club, and the atmosphere is very laid-back.

It is located in the most charming and picturesque residential area I’ve ever seen, Bywater, rivalled only by the neighbouring Marigny (imho).

It is located close to bustling French Quarter, but in this neighbourhood, there are only few quiet cafes.

So it may be your perfect oasis of tranquility in the city. You can simply chill on a lounger by the pool or in a more secluded corner in the garden; there is WiFi, in case you need to work and stay connected to the outside world.

You can also order pretty decent food from the indoor restaurant (far not the best one in New Orleans, but that still means good in the culinary mecca!) or get drinks from the bar by the pool. Speaking of which, there are floating mats in the pool, that is what I call ultimate relaxation!

Body painting again and again :-)

by αNaturist, posted in active naturists

Body painting seems to be a nudist party activity du jour. Almost every nudist party provides body paint as a part of their program, and there are some that are dedicated to it specifically. I went to one of the events organised by Social Exposure Media in NYC a month ago, and as always body painting proved to be a great tool for socialising and exposing [love to] our bodies.

Unlike previous parties that I’ve been to, this event provided paint that glowed in the dark! in black light, that is. Body art is not difficult to make intriguing and entertaining, it’s just fun to decorate bodies, but glow-in-the-dark effect makes it surreal!

Maybe this video will be able to show the atmosphere.

Now, there is body paint event on Halloween at SoHo Gallery for Digital Art. That might solve your costume problem! I just hope the city will be fine after Frankenstorm. And I guess people will be even more eager to go out and party! Just sign up, show up and show off! It is a ‘bare as you dare’ event.