Apparently a world record was set in July last year – the “largest number of people bathing naked together”, according to the article in the Toronto Sun, saw 13,674 people take a dip at locations right across North America.

That’s an amazing effort, and they are going to try and break the record this year!! Events like this raise awareness, show that there’s fun to be had when you’re nude, and does great things for the positive body image and acceptance message!!

We look forward to hearing how this years record attempt goes – hopefully the weather is hot and lots of people get out (because it’s still _freezing_ here!!)

Update: A new article is posted here, check it out!!

Although the term has been used occasionally in the past, “Nakations” are popping up more frequently now that Europe and the USA are right in the middle of their summers. Even the Canadians are getting in on the action, eh! According to this article in the Ottawa Citizen:

“There’s nothing more basic and human than being nude in the sun … because that’s being true to who we are,” says Stéphane Deschenes

While nakations are seemingly becoming more commonplace and mainstream, what’s more interesting is the way Deschenes (who runs the Bare Oaks Family Naturist Park northeast of Toronto) went about popularising nudism/naturism to the public:

Deschenes has a website, a blog, a Facebook page and a Twitter feed, and many of the campers he attracts are not lifelong nudists. They’re brand new at being buff.

A well-orchestrated online marketing campaign has helped to recruit a younger generation of nudists — or naturists as they prefer to be called these days — who weren’t around when the movement went mainstream in the ’60s and ’70s, he says.

It’s an interesting article, be sure to check it out on the link above! And remind yourself that we have passed the shortest day of the year and the weather should only be getting warmer from now on!!

We came across this post on the Sunkissed Naturists blog, and noted a comment that we think is quite an insightful observation:

we have heard of people leaving the lifestyle that they had discovered in their 20’s & 30’s, only to pick it up again when the children had grown up.

We found the observation interesting because it would suggest that the nudist lifestyle might actually follow phases or patterns. Very young children certainly have no hang-ups about being nude, but through their teens are highly unlikely to particpate (and even nudist families report the children opting out during early and mid-teens). Then in our 20’s and 30’s we might participate again, at least in the form of home nudism and the occasional skinny dip.

Do we then fall out again? The observations of the writer suggest that nudism tends to have good uptake again in the late 40’s+ age group, particularly with women (at least statistically). In fact, the article noted:

I read with interest a posting to one of the Naturist online forums where a woman involved in the lifestyle made the suggestion that women on reaching 40+ reach a point where they feel a lot less pressure to conform to the airbrushed ideals of the fashion magazines. If they can start to find an easy acceptance of their bodies then armed with this mindset they are ready to discover the full liberation of Naturism.

Interesting to ponder the implications – perhaps nudist communities are never likely to have the cohesion or life-long social associations that you might get with other community groups – we fade in and out depending on our stage in life…

Thoughts?

It would appear Skinbook has annoyed as many people as they have members – with rejection rates somewhere around the 90% range (can’t remember where we read that, but from memory it was 10000 members for every 150000 applicants), it would seem the site is splitting community views!!

So, this article that recently appeared on the Nudiarist site is an interesting analysis of why Skinbook seems to be so popular, and also causing so much angst!!

The problem with Skinbook is that it was founded upon shame, by people who admit to being embarrassed by their nude lifestyles and were uncomfortable on Facebook. 25 year-old co-founder Karl Maddocks also expresses some disgust for “elderly guys in sandals” at a nudist “colony”. Such age discrimination is not only troubling, it’s contrary to all accepted nudist and naturist philosophies. Maddocks also inferred that nudity should be primarily for the young and fit, admitting in a Times interview that “he works out regularly and that part of the joy of stripping off in his twenties is “we’re all going to look crap naked one day”.

Check out the article, well worth the read!!

A little while back (ok, perhaps a year ago) this little site called Skinbook was pointed out to us (we even wrote this post about it soon after). We even tried to set up an account on Skinbook, so this site would have another portal in the global nudist community where the good word could be spread!

But we were rejected, without reason, and no response to our enquiries…

But in an article posted today on The Times Online, it would appear that less than 10% of applicants get through. Interesting stat indeed!!

Check out the article on the link above, and drop us a line if you are a member of Skinbook and want to share your experiences!!