Author: natplace

The hills are alive with the sound of … nudists!

Yes, it’s really summer. Besides naked biking and rollerblading, there’s also just plain old naked hiking. Steve Gough is perhaps an extreme example. But if you’re going to be anywhere near southern Germany or Austria at the beginning of July, the highlight of your summer could be a 5-day naked trek across the Alps from Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany to the South Tyrol in Italy.

It’s being planned now in some detail by a small group, but everyone who wants to join in is welcome. The plan is to cover about 20 km per day, so it’s not for total wusses. However, provided you can find the group en route, you can connect up for any part of the trip you want. Clothing is optional, which means you can even wear something (besides boots) if you absolutely insist.

If you start right now, you have two whole weeks to plan…

For more information, visit the organizer’s Yahoo discussion group, Naked Europe.

Originally published June 15, 2005

Naked Rambler to do it again – with a librarian

Groan. Some headline writers think they’re so clever…

No. Not us here. This was from a June 12 news article from the UK.

The “naked rambler” in question here is Steve Gough, who two years ago walked the length of the UK from Land’s End to John O’Groats wearing only a hat and boots.

It was hardly a hassle-free trip, as Steve was imprisoned several times, particularly in Scotland, which seems to be the UK equivalent of the US bible belt. Steve couldn’t finish the walk until January 2004 — but he made it.

And now he’s going to do it again, starting this Thursday, June 16.

For more information and (hopefiully) to keep up with Steve’s progress, you can refer to his web site, nakedwalk.org.

Originally published June 15, 2005

BeyondBushWhacked

One of the participants in the San Fransicso WNBR was a young lady named Shaye, who was on rollerblades rather than a bike. She describes herself, at her website BeyondBushwhacked.com as “a performing artist, videographer, and future presidential candidate in the year 2016 when she will be 36 years of age and constitutionally eligible to run. She resides in Arcata, Ca where she is a community activist and self-proclaimed rabble-rouser.”

The U. S. could sure use a lot more rabble-rousers, and presidential candidates, like Shaye.

Originally published June 15, 2005

More about WNBR

The AP news story on WNBR pretty much mentioned only London and Madrid. Here are some alternate references:

Naked cyclists protest car use
Cyclists Ride Naked In London
Cyclists Ride Naked in London Protest
Naked European cyclists protest car use

Unfortunately, it’s typical sloppy MSM journalism. For one thing, the story can’t make up its mind about how many riders there were in London. It leads off mentioning “hundreds”, but then says “about 100”. In fact, the ride organizers have an accurate count. Since the ride started and ended at the Wellington Arch, it was easy to count participants both at the beginning and end. 210 were counted at the start — and 250 at the finish. Meaning that at least 40 joined en route.

But there’s no clear mention at all of WNBR rides in the U. S. It appears that Seattle and San Francisco both had reasonable turn-outs. Report from Seattle says 62-63 riders, despite an early finish due to inclement weather. About 60 riders were also reported in San Francisco.

And if this report from Portland, OR can be believed, there were 200 riders there.

Originally published June 14, 2005

WNBR Reports – London

News stories on the WNBR now coming in. The ride in London seems to have been especially successful, with at least 100 participants.

World Naked Bike Ride 2005 – London

Cyclists bare all in oil protest

Naked cyclists in oil protest ride

Cyclists Ride Naked in London Protest

Mike Grenville of Bare Witness has posted 125 photos of the London ride. (Location may be temporary.)

Originally published June 12, 2005

Katherine Chronis, Performance Artist

This isn’t a new item, being from February 2004.

Thanks to “Gaiarobin” at the SFbarearea group: Public Nakedness to Alter Minds and Create Art.

The original article appeared here.

Since August 2000 she has been working on The Get Naked Project, which involves both showing up naked in public throughout America and the series of photographs documenting these revealing appearances. Not only has she altered people’s concepts of sexuality, nudity and the borders between the public and private, but she has also exorcized many of her personal demons in the process.

Originally published June 11, 2006

Naked yoga

The latest issue of the Naturist Society‘s N magazine has an article on naked yoga by Wendy Tremayne. You can find it here.

In yoga class you will often hear people greet each other with the word “namaste”. A direct translation is “I bow to you,” although the yogis use it to mean “The light (divine) in me sees the light (divine) in you.” When used this way we’re acknowledging the part of ourselves that is the same and we’re practicing yoga by bringing to life the philosophy that there is universality amongst all of life. As I approach my naked yoga class each week this greeting takes on greater meaning as I address my class, naked, human, part of nature, and as an extension of them and them of me “namaste.”

Tremayne offers her classes in New York City. If you’re on the other coast, San Francisco, there’ a similar opportunity: Doing it in the altogether is what makes this yoga practice altogether free from distractions.

This was the first yoga class ever for Kristin Johnson, 34, unemployed, from San Francisco.

“I wanted to approach yoga from a nonphysical, nonsuperficial way, because a lot of it is about cute outfits and competitiveness,” she said. “Doing it nude, I thought there wouldn’t be any of that. It would be internal, about me.

“Without clothes, I was able to move even more,” she said. “Man! Not having anything on is so freeing. I don’t know if I could do yoga with clothes on.”

There’s an active Yahoo group called yogabare that deals with naked yoga, for anyone who wants to look into it more seriously.

Originally published June 11, 2005

The Great Nipple Hunt Continues

Amazing what you find reading the (more or less) mainstream online media. There are commentators out there, not part of the naturist world (as far as is known) who are willing to blow the whistle on America’s hysteria over female breasts.

What’s pathetic, though, is to read the comments from all the dimwits out there in America who disagree with Jeff Jarvis’ sensible attitude and try to rationalize their breast hysteria…

Originally published June 7, 2006

The Same River Twice

Just posted: a review of a great new naturist-related DVD.

Here’s the summary:

In 1978 Robb Moss and a group of 16 other river-guide friends took themselves on a five-week (and very clothing-optional) river trip through the Grand Canyon. He brought with him a 16mm camera and made one of his first films, Riverdogs, to document the adventure. Many years later it occurred to Moss to revisit the lives of some of that company in a new documentary. The Same River Twice is the fascinating result.

Feel free to leave comments to this note about either the review or the DVD (if you’ve seen it or the earlier video version).

Originally published June 6, 2005

World Naked Bike Ride

Alert! The official World Naked Bike Ride for 2005 is on Saturday, June 11.

Visit worldnakedbikeride.org for full information, including the location of the naked bike ride closest to you.

In case you’re not familiar with this event, it is a real, honest-to-gosh opportunity for you to go naked (if you wish) and demonstrate your support for naturism.

Even if you can’t participate personally, find out where the nearest ride is happening so you can go and show your support for the riders.

Originally published June 6, 2005