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Nude Race Series Promotes Naturism & Body Awareness

David Palermo ended Kevin McGuinness’ three-year reign as the Wreck Beach Bare Bun’s champion Sunday when he won the five-kilometer, clothing optional race in Vancouver under wet conditions.

Competing in the race for the first time against a field of about 50 runners, Palermo, a 27-year-old massage therapist, completed the course over the sand on Canada’s most famous nude beach in 16 minutes and 58 seconds, about 30 seconds ahead of Washington State native McGuinness.

“It was a great run, first time for me. I’ve been meaning to get down here for a few years,” said Palermo, body glistening under a mix of sweat and sand.

“I do a lot of road running so this is a lot different being on the sand. A lot of different terrain, you’ve got the mud, the sand, loose sand, water, it’s really interesting. And of course hills and stuff too. So it was different.

“I come down to Wreck Beach all the time, I love it down here. I had some friends down here that wanted me to run because they knew I could probably beat Kevin (McGuinness). Him and I have run together a lot through the series, the Lower Mainland series and stuff. It was about time I came down and kept the prize in Canada.”

The charity race, where all the money raised will go to help in the preservation of the nudist beach located down a steep cliff below the University of British Columbia campus, was the final leg of a three-race series around the Pacific Northwest.

Earlier races were held in Spokane and outside Seattle, the two big cities in neighboring Washington State.

McGuinness, who usually competes in traditional marathons, as well as in races of lesser distances, said he had been running nude, periodically, for about 18 years.

He called the conditions for the three races in the series very different. The Seattle race was on a course up a steep mountain and very dangerous coming down, while the Spokane course was along a gravel road.

With his training, fully clothed, covering anywhere from 80 to 120 kilometers a week, he added running nude was no different, it all depended on the weather.

“When it’s cold it’s a bit uncomfortable sometimes. But that’s why they have the races in the summertime. It’s fine,” said McGuinness who has run in the world famous Boston Marathon on two occasions.

“A lot of people think that it can be painful. I don’t mind it all. It’s a lot of fun. Fortunately it is only five K. It’s not like I am running a marathon.”

“I do train with clothes on,” he added with a laugh. “I would imagine training in the nude I would probably be arrested in the town that I live. But I haven’t tried it and I don’t think I will. I’ll stick with racing in the nude.”

With the participants of the Vancouver run ranging from seven to 90 years old, among those who stood out were a heavily pregnant woman who walked the course, elderly couples who alternated between jogging and walking in the light rain, and assorted crazies in creative headgear. For most, the joy of competing in and completing the race was a major accomplishment.

Judy Williams, chairman of the Wreck Beach Preservation Society, organizer of the event, said the race was started 14 years ago in memory of elderly comedian Paddy White, a tireless fundraiser for the beach, who was run over by a vehicle while in the southern United States.

She added the main purpose of the race was not as a fundraiser, but more so to let non-nudists or non-naturists understand that “body acceptance is the idea and nude recreation is the way”.

“While you are on this Earth you have one temple that you live in forever, regardless of what your outer surroundings might be, and that is your body. And if you can accept your body you are much more tolerant and accepting of other people on this planet. If everybody were naturists we would not have the wars that we have. There would be peace on this planet,” he said.

Having a nude beach within 15 minutes of the city center, however, has not come without its controversies. While the secluded beach has been enjoyed by naturists for more than 80 years, if has often come at the expense of much scorn and public debate.

For many years, the beach was a no-man’s land and inner-jurisdictional. The university sought to develop the land, while the federal Department of Public Works wanted to dredge it. Vancouver City’s board of parks and recreations also wanted to develop and build bath houses and not allow nudity.

In 1985, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the national force which patrols the Endowment Lands where the university and some of the country’s priciest real estate is located, wanted to build road access to the beach.

Enraged, the naturists responded by producing a petition with more than 13,000 signatures opposing the plan. The naturists eventually won the right from the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation to be nude on all 7.8 kilometers of Wreck Beach.

By 1991, the area’s various municipalities voted nearly unanimously that the beach would stay clothing optional.

“They didn’t want us to be naked down here at all. We had to go through the fires of Hell in order to establish that we were environmentalists, we cared about what happened to this beach,” Williams said.

“Our mandate is to preserve Wreck Beach in as nearly a natural state as possible. That’s because it is a very beautiful, a very spiritual place.”
2010.08.10 / no responses / Category: Nudist News
Nudists: Bare Facts Still Good

Some nudist resorts are closing and membership numbers declining in Canada, but those who drop their clothes say that’s no reason to go undercover.

In fact, naturists, as they prefer to be known, insist that their hobby is alive and well. It’s just adjusting for the 21st century.

“I hear old naturist club owners, those same ones that are failing, complaining that people aren’t the way they used to be,” Stephane Deschenes, spokesman for the Federation of Canadian Naturists, said in an interview.

“That’s true. You can either complain or you can adjust.”

The latest casualty is the Crocus Grove Sun Club, which for 40 years was based out of a 100-site campground northeast of Winnipeg. Last month, owners Ray and Susan Ryynanen announced a change to a regular campground to compete with others in the area.

“On any given weekend last summer, the various members of the Manitoba Association of Campgrounds and Parks were full … and we weren’t,” Susan Ryynanen said. “We’re down to 20 (full-season) campsite rentals.”

Members of the Crocus Grove club have said poor marketing and mismanagement were to blame for the declining turnout. But Ryynanen said naturists no longer feel the need to gather in an official resort to shed their clothes. With just a few clicks of a mouse, naturists can find a beach or park where being nude is tolerated — and there’s no rental or membership fee required.

“A number of people have said, ‘Well, the beach is free,’ and as a business, we certainly can’t compete with that,” she said.

Last year, the Glen Echo Family Nudist Park north of Toronto told its members that the property was being sold and clothing would be mandatory.

But enthusiasts insist the future is bright.

“When naturism started in Canada … the expectation in terms of amenities was minimal,” Deschenes said. “Camping meant a tent. Today camping means a trailer. It means you want electricity, you want running water and sewage.”

Crocus Grove members in Manitoba are searching for a new home. They plan to buy their own piece of land and run a resort themselves.

“It is a niche market, we’ll admit that much,” said enthusiast John Kundert. “But we’re far, far from having a situation where the numbers are in decline.”
2010.05.11 / no responses / Category: Nudist News
Canadian Nudists Shedding Clothes For Summer Nakations

At a campground in Ontario, two young couples sit in a sauna, chatting and relaxing. Parents set up tents and a barbecue, while their kids ride bikes and play volleyball.

Everyone is stark naked in this picture, although no one seems to notice — or even care.

These campers are on a “nakation,” engaging in the same activities as other run-of-the-mill vacationers, but doing it in the buff.

“There’s nothing more basic and human than being nude in the sun . . . because that’s being true to who we are,” said Stephane Deschenes, who owns Bare Oaks Family Naturist Park in Sharon, Ont., about 70 kilometres northeast of Toronto. “We’re suffering from an ill in society . . . where we can’t ever look right.”

Not known for its balmy winters, Canadian nudists are gearing up for the summer season, which offers up temperatures less offensive to the naked body.

The desire to bare chests and bums outdoors is not new, although enthusiasts say camps devoted to the nudist lifestyle have had to adapt to keep people interested.

Nudists, or naturists — as many prefer to be called — say the movement is relying more on social media to recruit new campers.

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 to being buff.

A well-orchestrated online marketing campaign helps recruit a younger generation of nudists who weren’t around when the movement went mainstream in the 1960s and ’70s, he said.

Ironically, the tools Deschenes uses to spread the word of naturism are exactly what many campers are trying to escape by stripping down.

“People are also looking to re-connect on a human level because of technology,” he said. “People find that they are missing something.”

Enthusiasts of the lifestyle received considerable attention last week when what had been Manitoba’s only clothing-optional campground announced it would ask its patrons to keep their clothes on this season.

Owners of the land used by Crocus Grove Sun Club say the shift is a result of waning interest in the naturist lifestyle, but local naturists say the camp wasn’t promoted well enough.

Either way, nudists from Manitoba are currently without a campsite where they can strip down.

“That was the last remaining nudist venue,” said John Kundert, who lives in Winnipeg and has been a nudist since 1988.

The club plans to meet and decide what to do next, he said, which could include buying a new piece of land.

Canada is dotted with clothing-optional beaches for those not ready to leap into strictly nudist camping.

Vancouver’s Wreck Beach — an eight-kilometre stretch of land with stunning views of mountains and the ocean — attracts massive crowds in the summer, some there to relax in the buff and others to watch them do it.

At its peak, the beach is crammed with sunbathers, vendors and the occasional police officer on patrol.

Michelle, 26, tried the naturist experience for the first time at Bare Oaks last summer along with her husband and their baby.

She was so hooked on being nude she now has a job at the camp.

“I always thought I could never do that, or I’d be too self-conscious,” said Michelle, who preferred not to give her last name because some of her family doesn’t know about her nudist lifestyle. “(But) it just feels good. It feels free.

“I learned to love my body more since I started coming,” she said. “You always compare yourself to other women, but when they’re nude you can see . . . that no one’s perfect. It’s nice to feel that I’m just like everybody.”

Being nude is the great equalizer, said Bob Campbell, 60, and people who show up thinking it’s all about sex are in the wrong place.

“It’s just more comfortable,” said Campbell, president of the Western Canada branch of the American Association for Nude Recreation. “It removes that whole issue of body acceptance. I find, as well, that there’s a whole lot less obstacles to social interaction. People tend to be more welcome, more friendly.”
2010.05.05 / no responses / Category: Nudist News
Nudist Camp Goes Clothed After 40 Years

No more will everyone just hang out at a Manitoba nudist campground, as the park’s owners try to better cover their costs by limiting their exposure to hefty water improvement bills.

After more than four decades of a “clothing-optional” attitude, what’s been known as Crocus Grove Campground is changing its name this month to keep in step with a shift away from nudity among its users.

The newly named Sandhill Pines RV Park and Campground, about 40 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, is requiring campers to begin wearing clothes when out and about at the facility, so that its owners can try to attract more customers and maintain their site’s viability.

“It’s too bad that it’s had to go this route. That’s just the way it’s happened,” Susan Ryynanen, who owns the park with husband Ray, said Thursday.

“We’ve had declining numbers in terms of clothing-optional campers, and we have to do something differently.”

The 60-campsite park is asking users and guests to wear clothes for the first time since it opened in 1969. The owners say it’s because of new federal and provincial regulations requiring that facilities like private campgrounds chlorinate their tap water and undertake related engineering studies.

“The cost is going to be between $15,000 and $50,000, depending on the size of the campground, to comply,” explained Susan. The Rynnanens had continued to allow nudity since purchasing the park in the Rural Municipality of Brokenhead more than three years ago.

Because their revenue potential is “extremely limited” by appealing to a naturist niche market, Ryynanen said, it’s necessary to woo a wider array of campers.

“We just have to cope with the additional costs, and maintain the same size of campground,” she added at the park on Provincial Road 317, where the couple live.

“So we need to go public and expand our horizons.”

To distance the park from the nudity image, she said, they’re using advertising and signage under the Sandhill Pines name and “don’t have any affiliation with Crocus Grove at all any more.”

The end of Crocus Grove’s nudity, however, doesn’t mean campers can’t go naked anywhere in that region east of Lake Winnipeg. Ryynanen pointed out that the Patricia Beach area, a short drive north, continues to maintain a “clothing-optional” section along the lake.

The shift doesn’t appear to be steering users away.

After talking to campers who have regularly used the park, Ryynanen said about 98% have indicated they’ll hang around — even if not hanging out.

“They understand. They’re here because they love camping,” she said.

“Everybody is sad and disappointed that we can’t maintain the clothing-optional status, but the reality is that the big draw here is camping and being out in nature. It’s a bit of a change, but not a complete change.”
2010.05.03 / no responses / Category: Nudist Resorts & Clubs
Au Naturel (Paperback)

Au Naturel provides a look at the naturist movement in Canada. From the viewpoint of an American, I found the book fascinating. Dr. James Woycke spares no detail in his unblinking look at Canadian nudism/naturism. He covers nudism (then – now the term “naturism” has been adopted) from its humble beginnings in Canada, province by province, following its growth up to the present. Not only is the writing meticulous in its detail, expected from someone with Ph.D. after his name, it’s also quite readable.

The growth of nudism/naturism in Canada wasn’t an easy one, to be sure. Similar to the trials and tribulations of American nudists, Canadians faced their share of legal and societal hassles. Dr. Woycke also notes the connection with America that Canadian parks often adopted and the movement to separate from that association.
2010.04.03 / no responses / Category: Nudist Books & DVD's
Ontario’s Nudists Losing Place To Hang Out

By this time next month, about 150 nudists will be thrown out of the province’s oldest nudist retreat because their 100 acres of Eden is being sold to another owner.

The several dozen nudists who live within Glen Echo’s grounds on campsites got their eviction notices on Tuesday.

“We’re all very disappointed. You suddenly lose your second home, our home away from home.”

“We have to be out by Oct. 1,” said Keith Scott, a member since 1995.

The nudist movement in Ontario had its genesis with Glen Echo Park, which was founded in 1955 as a cooperative. Most in the community got their first taste of naturism at the site, which is nestled along the Oak Ridges Moraine in King Township. In its mid-1990s heyday, as many as 350 families were members. But interest in the movement has sagged across the world in recent years.

Glen Echo’s owners, Mary and Edward Todorowsky, are approaching 80. Since 2005, they’ve been trying to sell to someone within the nudist community, who would keep their sanctuary open.

But after fours years of trying and several failed offers, the Todorowskys gave up. The property was sold for a rumoured $2 million.

“Losing a club is not good for naturism,” said Stéphane Deschênes, who owns Bare Oaks. “It just means there’s less space. So many people have grown up in Glen Echo. It’s just really sad.”

There are three other nudist resorts in and around the GTA – Four Seasons, Ponderosa and Bare Oaks, which is not far from Glen Echo.

Four Seasons, which is located just south of Guelph, does have campsites available for $350-$450 a month. Like Bare Oaks, it has been undergoing a massive transformation over the past few years.

Hoping to attract a younger crowd, both resorts are moving away from the old “roughing it with nature” mentality by installing plumbing, electricity hook-ups for trailers and satellite television.

“We just added Wi-Fi,” said Four Seasons manager Tom Landers. “I’ve been talking to the owner of Bare Oaks and both of us feel that this market is in its infancy.”

The pair even discussed launching joint marketing to promote the naturist lifestyle, which Deschenes explains is about being at one with nature and not about being naked.

Reached at Glen Echo, it’s apparent Edward Todorowsky isn’t thrilled about losing the camp.

“I really have to go,” he said. “We only have a short time to move.”

“It’s very short notice. I don’t know how I’m supposed to move everything out of here in a month,” said one member, who has built a permanent cabin on his site that will likely have to be abandoned.

Meanwhile, Glen Echo members are crossing their fingers the deal will still fall through.

“Then – where are any of us supposed to go?”
2009.09.23 / no responses / Category: Nudist News