Tag: Independence Day

Wreck Beach, the largest nude beach in North America!

by αNaturist, posted in active naturists

This is another guest entry, now from our devoted reader-turned-contributor Nat

Wreck Beach is North America’s largest nude beach. There are actually three nude beaches – Acadia Beach, Towers Beach and Wreck Beach – however most refer to the whole 8 kilometres around the Point Grey peninsula, as Wreck Beach.

naturist 0000 Wreck Beach, BC, Canada
The beach is located on the campus of University of British Columbia in Vancouver. It is easily accessible by transit, car or bike. It’s a 15 minute car ride from downtown to Acadia Beach which has a gentle slope for those that can’t do stairs.
As NW Marine Drive curves around the point, the slope get higher so that by the time you get to the main Trail 6 you have a few hundred steps to get down to the beach.
They are well built steps, however coming up is a good workout for some.


At the top of the trail you usually see lots of bikes and a concession stand selling snacks etc.
Trail 6 is the main section where you see thousands on a busy summer weekend, It is also one of the better places for swimming since when the tides are out you get large expanses of sand to run and play.

naturist 0001 Wreck Beach, BC, Canada
The beach has a breakwater. Near the breakwater is one of the area’s where gays like to hang out.
You will also see many licensed vendors selling food and non-alcoholic drinks. Alcohol is illegal on the beach. You will find people selling it, but when the police come down, it suddenly disappears. Be discreet, or if they see you, they will pour it out.
If you go continue to your left, you can find a trail that takes you to the gay beach.
You can also choose not to go down Trail 6, but continue on NW Marine, it turns into SW Marine Drive and go down Trail 7. You will need to look at a map if you plan to go to Trail 7, since it’s on Old Marine Drive, an offshoot of SW Marine Drive.
Once down Trail 7, again well maintained steps, you can go left for an older crowd (jokingly called Jurassic Park ) or right for a younger crowd. If you go right it’s about a ten minute walk or so to an area called Oasis.

naturist 0004 Wreck Beach, BC, Canada
The only thing that is not so great about Oasis and the beach along Trail 7 is that it is not good for swimming. Many just walk the trail towards Trail 6 and the main beach to do that. The area of Trail 7 is known for cruising.

naturist 0002 Wreck Beach, BC, Canada
There are no food vendors at Oasis, it is much quieter, but on some days you may find someone selling beer.

The great things I like about Wreck Beach are it’s size. You can strip down at Acadia Beach and walk for two hours around the point totally nude and still be within the city limits.


The views are of mountains and forest. When you stand on the beach, especially Oasis, you look at a fir tree covered hill tumbling down into the ocean. You feel very far away from the city.

naturist 0003 Wreck Beach, BC, Canada

Gymnastics and capoeira at Sandy Hook beach

by αNaturist, posted in active naturists

naturist 0000 4 July flag of USA @ Gunnison Beach, Sandy Hook, NJ, USA

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.

naturist 0000 gymnastics @ Gunnison Beach, Sandy Hook, NJ, USA

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

naturist 0049 gymnastics @ Gunnison Beach, Sandy Hook, NJ, USA

to the end,

naturist 0076 gymnastics @ Gunnison Beach, Sandy Hook, NJ, USA

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

naturist 0006 gymnastics @ Gunnison Beach, Sandy Hook, NJ, USA

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

naturist 0007 gymnastics @ Gunnison Beach, Sandy Hook, NJ, USA

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

naturist 0005 gymnastics @ Gunnison Beach, Sandy Hook, NJ, USA

I’m still struggling with front handspring though.

naturist 0001 gymnastics @ Gunnison Beach, Sandy Hook, NJ, USA

However, I could show a one-arm cartwheel…

naturist 0004 gymnastics @ Gunnison Beach, Sandy Hook, NJ, USA

or a three-leg-one-arm cartwheel 😀

naturist 0003 gymnastics @ Gunnison Beach, Sandy Hook, NJ, USA

A handstand isn’t a problem either 🙂

naturist 0002 gymnastics @ Gunnison Beach, Sandy Hook, NJ, USA

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!

naturist-0074-gymnastics-@-Gunnison-Beach,-Sandy-Hook,-NJ,-USA

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

naturist 0013 capoeira @ Gunnison Beach, Sandy Hook, NJ, USA

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.

naturist 0032 capoeira @ Gunnison Beach, Sandy Hook, NJ, USA

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

naturist 0039 capoeira @ Gunnison Beach, Sandy Hook, NJ, USA

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.

naturist 0051 capoeira @ Gunnison Beach, Sandy Hook, NJ, USA

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!

Sandy Hook

by αNaturist, posted in active naturists

Happy Independence Day! As a present for our US American readers, here is the post about Gunnison Beach at Sandy Hook. It is definitely one of the top clothing-optional beaches in the US, and for a good reason.

This beach is huge, even though large part of it is closed for protection of shorebirds, primarily plovers.

This part usually opens in the end of summer, when nesting season is over, but you can just go strolling or jogging in the protected area.

Once, the water was full of fish roe,

and it left beautiful crystal-like traces, or rather footprints, of the waves on the sand. And plovers were happy to feast on it.

But even the designated area is big enough to host numerous beach goers from NYC metropolitan area as well as Jersey shore.

Most people stay close to water, so there is a vast sandy part between people and dunes that may be used for  jogging

and of course nudists’ favorite volleyball.

The limiting factor is rather space at the parking lot which fills up quickly on weekends.

If you don’t mind spending more money – $45 0r $30 with this coupon on certain times – it is way better to get to Sandy Hook from Manhattan by ferry.

It leaves from two locations Midtown and Downtown, and you have an easy ride with fresh breeze and nice views.

Speaking of views, what makes Gunnison Beach very special is that there’s no other nudist beach that could boast with Manhattan skyline as a backdrop. You’ll definitely want a naked portrait with that background, just prepare a pair of glasses against the bright sun.

There you go!

Another option is to turn upside down 🙂

Oh wait, I think I did manage to get at least one ‘normal’ portrait. It is somewhat surreal to let it all hang out while seeing that crazy city so close.

Coming back to Manhattan after that feels like coming to another world.

Kiev: central nudist beaches with landmark views

by αNaturist, posted in active naturists

Русский

Last summer I rediscovered the capital of my homeland, Ukraine. I’ve spent most of my adult life outside Ukraine, in Moscow, Berlin and now New York, all of which have accessible naturist beaches, so I was pleased to find that Kiev has its own beautiful naturist beaches in the very centre of the city! Kiev boasts the mighty Dnieper River with some forested islands, that are luckily protected and not used for mansions of the nouveau riche. A couple of neighboring clothing-optional beaches at Hydropark (Gidropark) are located most centrally and have pretty amazing views.

This is how it looks from the bridge on the way from Gidropark subway station.

You cannot really see if it is a nudist beach at the other bank of the river, but trust me, it is! So after the bridge you need to continue till one of the typical city style beaches and take a “canoe-ferry” for 5 hryvnias (approx. 50 cents); from there, you can already see where you should head to 😉

First time I went there on a weekday, so it was relatively empty, and I stayed at the part known as a local gay beach, as my friend advised (he was at work that day).

It was nice and relaxing, except that the music from the opposite beach bar was quite loud, but I actually liked it. It is also possible to go a little upstream and find some small secluded spots.

There is a shaded kiosk where you can buy beverages without having to put on clothes. In the afternoon, I decided to explore the area a little more and went to the southern tip of the island, and it turned out to be clothing-optional too!

I actually liked that part more, as it was more spacious and had a great view with some of Kiev’s landmarks: Motherland monument, Kiev Pechersk Lavra (monastery), and a restaurant styled as Noah’s Ark.

So when I went to Gidropark beach next time with my friends Sergey and Sveta, we headed directly to the tip part. I couldn’t resist mocking the Motherland monument by posing with a bottle of water instead of the sword and a frisbee instead of the shield 🙂

Although the day was going to be fabulous even with those regular attributes of naturist pastime, it turned to be even more fun as someone brought body paint and anyone willing was welcome to join the body art frenzy!

Since it actually was the Independence Day, main themes were quite patriotic and Ukraine-inspired. I had our coat of arms (trident) painted on my chest, but frankly, Sergey did not do a great job, so you can hardly see it on photos.

Sergey himself had sunflowers painted saying ‘Support homegrown’, which referred to Ukraine being the biggest exporter of sunflower oil.


Sveta had hearts colored as the national flag and altogether looked very artistic.

And Petya was arguably the most popular model with the watermelon painted on his buttocks :p The “price-tag” said that the watermelon was sold at 2 hryvnias per hour (whatever that meant!) and that it did not contain GMO 🙂


Having a real knife in the not-so-real watermelon, Petya was probably the most daring model too!

On the other (literally) side, the Independence Day was taken also ironically, as despite the patriotic spirits, it was clear that the country was facing too many troubles.

So instead of wishing a Happy Independence Day, it read ‘Happy Inability Day’, as Ukraine is hardly able to cope with its economic challenges (I could translate it as ‘impotence’ as well, but I assure that is not our problem).

But on such a day, it was hard to think of anything gloomy, so the optimistic side took over!