The Nude Life

A colleague at work was recounting a cruise they recently completed — a two-week Alaska itinerary as part of a ship repositioning for the winter months. They went on and on about how much better this cruise was than any other they had taken, because for the year prior to the cruise, they had ‘met’ other shipmates via Internet bulletin boards, and so by the time the embarked, they already felt like they had a dozen or more ‘friends’ on board with them.

She regaled us with tales of all the fun they had together with their new-found friends, who had been introduced to each other only online prior to boarding, but who felt like “old chums” since they had been in touch with each other for many months in advance. They had a ball, she told us, enjoying cocktail parties, shore excursions, dinner parties and more together — even a semi-risqué “pajama party” one night.

It was all we could do to appear envious. “Welcome to our world,” we thought. If she only knew…

In fact, she has no idea what we’re used to from our 10 nude cruise vacations. Each one seems better than the one before, because in fact many hundreds of the same friendly, fun-loving people are on the nude cruises year after year, and so we have literally spent weeks and weeks at sea with many of our nude cruising shipmates. Soon after embarking (or even while standing in the terminal house before embarkation), faces from cruises past are recognized and names and warm welcomes are exchanged…hugs aren’t hard to come by, either. We have spent so many wonderful times with so many of those nudist cruisers over the years that it really is like cruising with a shipload of your best friends.

My 10-part blog about our latest nude cruise in February of this year is online here (scroll to the middle of the listing for February, 2007) — and here’s one of our group photos from that cruise, taken at the bow of the ship with a few hundred of our nude cruising friends.

It really is true that once you try a nude cruise, you’ll never go back to textile cruises if you can help it. Literally everything is better about nude cruises. More on this subject in future posts — but for now, we’re glad our work friend got a taste of some of the fun that nudism brings to cruising — without even knowing it — and perhaps, if she’s lucky, someday she’ll know the full story!

Do you have a story about how nude recreation or the nude life has changed your perception of how the “other folks” live? Share it in The Nude Life Forum!

Since joining and being active in our local nudist club, we’ve made more friends among them than we ever made outside of nudist ‘circles.’ It is very true that it’s easier to make friends out of nudists than make nudists out of friends, as one of our (nudist) friends often remarks. And since we spend so much of our leisure time, especially during the long summer, relaxing and partying with our nudist club friends, we feel that our best and closest friends are all nudists.

So when we are chatting with our non-nudist friends (all of whom have no idea of our other, ’secret life’ of nudism), they are always astonished by both the vitality other activities we are always busy doing (pool parties, vacation trips, out-of-town outings to visit friends, etc.), as well as with the number of friends we refer to in conversation. It was quite evident, for example, that our non-nudist friends and co-workers were astonished when we said we were going on a group trip to Cancun with 20 other friends…they simply cannot imagine how people can have so many good friends and feel so comfortable with them to spend a week’s vacation together with them.

Friendships among nudists are true, deep and genuine, I think, because as nudists, we see all of each other, with all our blemishes and imperfections, and relate to each other as people, not because of social status, possessions, and other outward materialistic markings. Being nude together with others in a purely social setting is really a great equalizer, and has brought us (and everyone we know who has tried it) many great friendships because of the barriers and artificiality that disappear when we see ourselves and each other in the natural state.

How has being a nudist changed your circle of friends — and what effect has your nudist participation had on your non-nudist social life? Discuss it in The Nude Life Forum!

Over the weekend, we were chatting with a new nudist friend, a beautiful young woman who, with her husband, had discovered the joys of social nudism just recently while still in their early 30s. I asked the question I ask of nearly all new nudist friends, inquiring of them how they came to the nudist experience — and in their case, how they were lucky enough to discover it in early adulthood.

She responded that it was her husband’s idea to try it, and that he was very “gung-ho” to visit a nude beach. After much persuasion, she agreed to go along with him on a visit to Hippie Hollow, the famous “nude beach” on Austin’s Lake Travis.

Resolute that she would “never” take her clothes off, she went with her husband to placate his wish, and they soon found themselves at the famous “radio rock” at Hippie Hollow, a spot along the rocky shore where everyday people congregated, nude, to enjoy the beautiful scenery, weather, and the joy of simple nudism. No creepy perverts, no sex maniacs, no weirdos anywhere in sight, she remarked.

After a short while, she looked around and began to feel fairly self-conscious, dressed as she still was in a bikini. “OK,” she sighed, “I’ll take off my top.” And she did — then she noticed that no one really cared, stared, or made any notice of her state of dress or undress. Shortly after that, feeling the freedom and acceptance that nudism imparts to all who try it, she dispensed with the remaining scraps of textile that separated her from pure freedom, and, as she says, she “was hooked in a minute.” She was the last one on the beach that day to put her clothes back on.

As she says now, “It was just no big deal.” Nobody cared, one way or the other, what, if anything, she wore. Nude was better, she quickly discovered, and much more comfortable.
But the complete acceptance of her, clothed or nude, by the other visitors to Radio Rock at Hippie Hollow that day showed her how simple, how liberating, and how natural nudism is.

Now as confirmed, practicing, enthusiastic nudists, she and her husband have a whole lifetime of nude pleasure awaiting them. So many others will go their whole lives without discovering what they have found; for others, the revelation of nudism comes later or even too late in life to be fully enjoyed.

Like I have told many people over the years, nudism is like skydiving, SCUBA diving or learning to fly a plane: if you have ever thought about doing it, you should give it a try. One try will convince you one way or the other if it’s something you love and want to pursue, or if it’s not for you. But it is much better to try it and find out, than look back upon a lifetime wondering if perhaps you have missed something marvelous.

Can wearing less — less clothes, that is — add more to one’s life?

That is certainly the case with our experience, and with that of many of our closest nudist friends. As nudists, of course, we wind up wearing the literal minimum of clothing as often as possible — meaning we enjoy life nude whenever practical and possible. But does becoming a nudist, or practicing the nudist lifestyle, really add more to one’s life? And if so, why?

We and many of our nudist friends would argue strongly in the affirmative. In fact, nearly everyone we’ve met through nudism has remarked at one time or another that they never would have met and made friends with so many wonderful people as they have through social nudism.

We agree. The bonds that being nude socially with others brings is something special, something which we can not find a parallel for in any other social setting. People from very different backgrounds, professions, levels of income and education are brought together through nudism and the liberating, equalizing effect that being unclad with others brings.

When we mention to non-nudist friends that we spent the weekend at a party with 70 or so good friends, they blink in disbelief. Yet, it’s true: all of our close friends, and nearly everyone we consider good friends, are folks we met through nudism — and it is a number far greater than the friends we had before becoming nudists.

So yes, less is more when it comes to friendships and meeting a wide range of great, easy-going people — less clothes, that is!

Two of our good nudist friends moved to the US after several years living overseas. Knowing no one in our Dallas/Ft. Worth area, but as active nudists in their former country of residence, they knew they’d be welcome and meet a lot of fun people as soon as they could find and get involved with a local nudist club.

They got in touch with our club very soon after settling in, and started participating immediately. Being easy-going, fun-loving folks as most nudists are, they had no trouble at all meeting and making friends with everyone else in our club. Just a month later, one of them remarked that they knew that after moving to Dallas, they’d have to find a nudist club to join, because it meant “instant friends.”

It is so easy to make good friends from nudists you meet. The converse is not true: it is very difficult to make nudists from existing non-nudist friends. One of our members puts it very well when she says, “It’s easier to make friends out of nudists than nudists out of friends.“

We never had so many friends as we have met from nudism. When I tell folks at work that we had 60 or 70 friends over at our house for a pool party, the blink in disbelief. I doubt any of them has more than a handful of people they would consider friends; even fewer if work-related acquaintances are excluded. Nudism brings people together like no other pastime or lifestyle I know of. That alone makes it a wonderful way of life, because what is life without the love of friends?