Thousands of skinny dippers across North America took the plunge on Saturday, July 11, to set a new Guinness World Record in swimming pools everywhere as a grand finale to Nude Recreation Week. Sponsored by the American Association of Nude Recreation (AANR), more than 128 different locations around the U.S. and Canada participated in the event, and, as of July 15, (the numbers are still coming in) 12,143 people had skinny dipped simultaneously at 3:00 P.M. Eastern Nudist Time.

Several California locations were involved. Locally, The Sequoians (http://www.sequoians.com/), A Clothes Free Club in Castro Valley, had 90 participants  while NorCal Exposure (norcalexposure.home.comcast.net/~norcalexposure/)  in Sacramento participated through their sister club Laguna del Sol (http://www.lagunadelsol.com/) in Wilton (Sacramento County) and had 505 skinny dippers. Further south, the small but internationally-famous Terra Cotta Inn (http://www.sunnyfun.com/) in Palm Springs had just 41 participants, but “we turned down more than 100 couples,” according to Terra Cotta owners Tom and Mary Clare Mulhall.

AANR (http://aanr.com/) includes more than 260 clubs in North America and nearly 50,000 members and their families. In fact, nude recreation has evolved into a more than $400 million industry with the Roper Organization reporting that some 54 million Americans have skinny dipped in mixed company. The AANR-sponsored event, Nude Recreation Week, July 5-11, recently celebrated its 32nd anniversary, but this was the first year for the “skinny dip” finale which is expected to become an annual event in the quest to extend the Guinness record even further.

Readers who might be offended by the notion of nude swimming, should probably be reminded that, prior to the mid-19th century, swimming suits didn’t even exist. Some of our country’s most prominent skinny dippers included Benjamin Franklin and presidents John Quincy Adams, and Theodore Roosevelt. Probably every president would admit to skinny dipping at least once in his life, and most other Americans too.

In fact, swim suits were not permitted in physical education at most high schools and junior high schools in the U.S. until the 1970s, and even the YMCA did not allow swimming trunks until the early 1960s when it first admitted females to its program. I can still remember swimming in my “birthday suit” at the Y and in junior high and high school, and it was no big deal. Why? Because the common perception at the time was that there was nothing deviant or sexual about seeing people of the same gender in the nude. Many who grew up on a farm or in rural areas can remember jumping into the local fishing pond or swimming hole bare naked. You certainly didn’t carry around a swim suit with you when you needed a refreshing dip on a hot summer day. My, how times have changed - or have they really?

Of course, skinny dipping in mixed company might be considered a little risqué for any generation. Still, most readers have probably tried it, but how many would admit it? Gotcha! Perhaps it is just one of those “hush-hush” personal pleasures that reveal our sexual rebelliousness at some point in our lives that we choose to keep secret now even though we know that everyone else has probably done it too. But they’re not talking either.

For readers who might be inclined to revisit their mischievous “sins” of yesteryear – or experience something on the wild side – it’s not too late to start training for next year’s skinny-dip. Call AANR at 800/TRY-NUDE for details. It’s just water.

Photos courtesy of AANR.com

Couple photo courtesy of Terra Cotta Inn Resort :  pictured are Tom and Mary Clare Mulhall, Owners