Nude recreation consists of recreational activities which some people engage in while nude. Historically, the ancient Olympic Games were nude events. Some societies in Africa, Oceania, and South America still engage in everyday public activities—including sports—without wearing clothes, while in most of the world nude activities take place in either private spaces or separate clothing optional areas in public spaces. Occasional events, such as nude bike rides, may occur in public areas where nudity is not otherwise allowed.
While nude recreational activities may include sports such as tennis or volleyball, nude sporting activities are usually recreational rather than competitive or organized.
History and terminology
Recreation is any human activity done for pleasure (or "play") during leisure time as opposed to those activities that are necessary for survival. Historically, this means that recreation was explored more deeply (recreation being something most animals engage in passively) after human society reached the stage where more leisure time could be afforded, perhaps during the late Stone Age (Upper Paleolithic), as shown by the first appearance of cave paintings and musical instruments.
Modern concepts of recreation begin with ancient civilizations. Sport is any activity recognized as requiring physical skill. Any sport may be recreational for the participants, while viewing sports is a recreation for spectators.
Naturist/nudist recreation
Naturism, or nudism, is a cultural movement practicing, advocating, and defending personal and social nudity, most but not all of which takes place on private property. The term also refers to a lifestyle based on personal, family, or social nudity. Research indicates that contrary to public opinion, naturists are otherwise typical members of society who engage in social activities such as volleyball, swimming, and tennis in the same manner as at other resorts, just without the clothing.
In keeping with their basic function, naturist clubs and resorts feature recreational activities. Naturist recreation also includes cruise ships, which offer a variety of activities.
Naturist venues also host special events, such as New Year's Eve parties. Florida Young Naturists organizes seasonal "bashes" at several Florida nudist/naturist clubs and resorts.
Nude volleyball is a recreational activity that has been offered at many naturist clubs (see below).
World Naked Gardening Day
People across the globe are encouraged on World Naked Gardening Day (WNGD), held in May each year, to tend their gardens in the nude. WNGD was organized by the Body Freedom Collaborative. Since May is a cold month in New Zealand, the New Zealand Naturist Federation has instituted a National Nude Gardening Day in October.
Clothing optional recreation
Some nude or "clothing optional" recreation occurs in public spaces as occasional exceptions to social norms.
Beaches
Clothing optional beaches in the United States vary in the degree to which they are separated from the non-nude public, and whether nudity is officially permitted by local authorities or merely tolerated although illegal. In the Miami metropolitan area, the clothing optional section of Haulover Park is marked only by signs, and is sanctioned and maintained by Miami-Dade County. The beach features food, beach chair, and umbrella concessions; and showers. In contrast, several California state beaches with clothing optional areas are isolated by steep cliffs and have no facilities outside the parking areas. The long-standing tradition of nudity on these beaches is tolerated. These include Gray Whale Cove State Beach near Pacifica, California, and Black's Beach in San Diego.
In some European countries, such as Denmark and Sweden all beaches are clothing optional. Beaches in some holiday destinations, such as Crete, are also clothing-optional, except some central urban beaches. There are two centrally located clothes-optional beaches in Barcelona.
In a survey by The Daily Telegraph, Germans and Austrians were most likely to have visited a nude beach (28%), followed by Norwegians (18%), Spaniards (17%), Australians (17%), and New Zealanders (16%). Of the nationalities surveyed, the Japanese (2%) were the least likely to have visited a nude beach. This result may indicate the lack of nude beaches in Japan; however, the Japanese are open with regard to family bathing nude at home and at onsen (hot springs).
Bicycling
A clothing-optional bike ride is a cycling event in which nudity is permitted or expected. There are many clothing-optional cycling events around the world. Some rides are political, recreational, artistic or a unique combination. Some are used to promote topfreedom, a social movement to accord women and girls the right to be topless in public where men and boys have that right. Many of the political rides have their roots from Critical Mass and are often described or categorized as a form of political protest, street theatre, party-on-wheels, streaking, public nudity and clothing-optional recreation; thus, they attract a wide range of participants.
The Solstice Cyclists (also known as The Painted [Naked] Cyclists of the Solstice Parade, or The Painted Cyclists) is an artistic, non-political, clothing-optional bike ride celebrating the Summer Solstice. It is the unofficial start of the Summer Solstice Parade & Pageant since 1992, an event produced by the Fremont Arts Council in the Fremont district of Seattle.
World Naked Bike Rides (WNBRs) are annual clothing-optional bike rides in which each city's participants plan, meet and ride en masse on human-powered transport to "deliver a vision of a cleaner, safer, body-positive world" by attracting attention to a healthy alternative for vehicles that depend on fossil fuels; the naked body is used as a symbol for the vulnerability of humans to pollution, and of cyclists to the vehicular traffic in cities. WNBRs have taken place all over the world since 2004 involving thousands of people. These take place in mostly western cities, where cyclists ride either partially or totally nude in a light-hearted attempt to draw attention to the danger of depending on fossil fuels. Some commend the World Naked Bike Rides for their visible expression of the effort to promote healthier transport modes, including walking, cycling and public transport, which have been a mainstay of green-alternative politics for decades.
Body painting Body art (such as body painting) is a common form of creative expression used to promote body freedom, and is often a part of other clothing optional events. Because the body is technically covered, if completed in private, full body painting does not violate laws against public nudity, leaving the police to make case by case decisions based upon other laws.
An arts collective in Bushwick, Brooklyn has celebrated a Bodypainting Day annually since 2014, with 45 models and 25 artists participating in 2019.
Bowling Nude bowling offers naturists a chance to enjoy indoor recreation during cold weather or in locations where outdoor opportunities are limited. These activities are usually held in commercial bowling alleys willing to rent their facility to nudist groups for a period of time to restrict participation to just the members of the group.
Bungee jumping When A. J. Hackett opened the world's first commercial bungee jumping site at Kawarau Bridge near Queenstown, New Zealand, customers who performed the jump in the nude were granted free entry. This offer was later withdrawn because too many jumpers were taking advantage of it, but the site remains clothing-optional. Billy Connolly famously bungee-jumped nude from the bridge during his 2004 World Tour of New Zealand.
Since 2006 there has been an annual naked bungee jump at WildPlay park on Vancouver Island as a fund raiser for the Victoria Branch of BC Schizophrenia Society. The 2019 event drew more than 100 participants.
Hiking
Nude hiking, also known as naked walking or freehiking, is a sub-category of the modern form of social nudity.
Neither nude hiking nor skinny-dipping are expressly prohibited by the US Forest Service, which instead applies laws against disorderly conduct as necessary.
In the United Kingdom, Stephen Gough, known as The Naked Rambler, received much media coverage for walking naked from Land's End to John o' Groats in 2003–2004 and again in 2005–2006.
Conversely to Gough's experiences, in 2005 and 2006 the European Alps were crossed naked during a one-week hiking tour, and there was little media coverage. No one was arrested or troubled, and there was no police involvement. Most naked hikers report friendly reactions from people they meet.Stephen Moss “Now which way back to the car?” in The Guardian, August 6, 2003
Some jurisdictions have regulations formally prohibiting nude hiking, and can impose fines or other punishments. A local bylaw to this effect was adopted, for example, by the 2009 General Meeting (Landsgemeinde) of the residents of the Swiss canton Appenzell Innerrhoden.Swiss canton bans nude hiking (Reuters, Mon Apr 27, 2009) In nearby Appenzell Ausserrhoden, the court of second instance "Obergericht" reinforced an unpaid fine of 100 Swiss francs for naked hiking and added the court's cost of another 3330 Swiss Francs."Nude hiker convicted" (Tages-Anzeiger, Jan 20, 2011)
Museum tours
In February 2013, the Leopold Museum of Vienna opened its doors to nude museum goers for an exhibit entitled "Nude Men from 1800 to Today". More than sixty visitors attended in the nude. In June 2013, the Portland Art Museum in Oregon admitted nude participants prior to the nighttime World Naked Bike Ride for a special exhibit called "Cyclepedia" on the art of bicycle design. Hundreds of patrons saw the exhibit in the nude.
Parks Two sections of the "English Gardens" in Munich, Schönfeldwiese and Schwabingerbach are officially designated as clothing optional, although nude sunbathing may be found in other locations. There are three clothing optional areas on the Isar River, and at the Feldmochinger See. Berlin also has a number of nude sunbathing areas. A section of Bois de Vincennes in Paris has, since 2017, been designated for naturists and is open from April to October. To recognize its third anniversary, a naturist picnic was held in June, 2019.
Parties
A number of colleges and universities have a tradition of nude parties, often as experiments in social interaction that run counter to the perfect bodies seen in the media. The Pundits at Yale has been throwing naked parties since 1995. At Brown the party is hosted by an off-campus housing cooperative, and at Wellesley it is a charity event for which the administration provides security. At other institutions such as Wesleyan, Columbia, MIT, Bowdoin and Amherst the parties may be more impromptu events in dorms or off-campus.
Restaurant dining There have been a number of restaurants (commonly referred to as nude, naked or clothing-free restaurants) where diners were legally at liberty to be nude.
The Amrita restaurant in Japan, now closed, had strict rules of entry for its naked party. Other nude restaurants have included The Bunyadi in London, Innato on the Canary Island of Tenerife, and L'Italo Americano in Milan, all of which also closed. O'naturel was Paris, France's first naked restaurant, located in the 12th arrondissement. The restaurant opened in November 2017 and served French cuisine. In January 2019, sibling owners Mike and Stéphane Saada announced plans to end operations in February 2019.
There are a number of bars and restaurants directly accessible from the clothing-optional beach at Orient Bay, Saint Martin, in the Caribbean, which allow varying degrees of nudity. Although essentially wiped out in 2017 by Hurricane Irma, they are slowly being rebuilt.
Social dancing