(Originally written for my blog on 8/8/12, see addendum for
updates!)
I have in the past been a member of British Naturism (http://www.bn.org.uk/index.php ) the
main organisational body in the UK for naturists and nudists. I no longer am. This is not for any political or
philosophical reason but because I am now a poor person. I am one of many
people who managed to let their finances get out of hand and I am now dealing
with it, dealing with it rather well in fact, see my main website or http://simplymintyblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/money-get-away-get-good-job-with-more.html
for more details. The reason I am
getting my debts sorted out is because I’ve become very good at not spending
money so for the last three years there have been very few excursions, no
holidays and no BN membership. There
seemed little point in being a member if I can’t afford to do anything and
going to the beach doesn’t cost any more than the petrol to get there. I’d actually like to be a member again
because it is generally easier to take part in organised naturist events if one
is signed up.
Like many BN members I was perhaps guilty of not getting
around to doing a lot of stuff I wanted to do or could not quite persuade t’mrs
to drive to any of the events that were a little further away. So, one day back in 2009 I took the plunge (financially)and
ordered some tickets for our first nude event which was an evening at a leisure
centre in Alton, Hants where I could take a nude plunge, literally. The club would be open only to ticket holding
naturists for that evening as a private hire and nude use of all the facilities
including the pool and the sports courts.
It was just over 25 miles from our home to Alton leisure
centre but most of this seemed to be down dark, narrow and twisty roads so it
took a good 70 minutes for us to drive.
When we did reach our destination, however, we parked easily. We had arrived a little early, having set out
extra early in preparation for getting lost, so had to wait in reception for a
few minutes before we could enter the venue itself. At this point I was a little worried as everyone
else waiting was a male over the age of 40, Becky being the only female present
thus far apart for the lady checking the tickets (who I later recognised as Suzanne
Piper, the editor of Naturist Life magazine).
Once let in we went in to the unisex changing rooms, undressed, took our
towels and made our way to the pool area.
At this stage there were still an absence of female guests I started to
feel very protective towards Becky, I am very proud to be seen with her, naked
and clothed, and I don’t get jealous about her being seen by anyone else but I
am also very keen to avoid any discomfort being caused to her. So we both jumped in the pool and began to
swim around together until, thankfully, some more women turned up. I should make it clear that none of the male
guests at any time behaved in anything less than a polite and appropriate
manner!
Eventually ladies did make up around 35% of the guests and I
relaxed a little. I’m not a great swimmer
by any means so was soon restless to explore the centre a little. Though the centre had been hired privately
not all the facilities were open. As
well as access to the pool we had access on the wet-side to the steam room but
this was quite small and soon very full.
The sauna was out of action which was a shame as I’ve always wanted to
try a nude sauna. On the dry-side there were trampolines and badminton but the
table tennis had not been set up. We had
omitted to bring our badminton racquets; which was a disappointment, despite
how bad I am at Badminton; and were not really up for any bouncing around so we
contented ourselves with a nude walk around the centre. I purchased a few back copies of Naturist
Life from Suzanne (it felt not at all strange, buying a magazine whilst naked
from somebody else who was also naked and was on the magazine cover,
naked). We had a drink and a snack in
the coffee bar (towels are required for all sedentary moments) and then
returned to the pool until the raffle was called. My first ever nude raffle ended as most of my
clothed ones do, without me winning anything, but it was fun to take part. And this, overall, is what it was all about. It can be fun just to be with naked
people. The inhibitions and the reserve
are removed, the relief evident from the smiles all-round.
Right, now for a bit of naturist name-dropping. As well as Suzanne Piper the event was also
attended by Cindy who I was aware of as the female winner of Naked Jungle, the
one off nude game-show presented be a naked Keith Chegwin, along with her
husband who was also a contestant. Also
present was Will Golden, who I did not know of back then but I have read from
on various naturist forums since and spotted in attendance on the odd naturist
TV documentary.
We stayed at Alton for over two hours; the event is open for
three hours and happens roughly monthly.
The thought of the journey home made us not stay until the end. We both enjoyed the evening which was fairly
quiet but not boring, we were among the youngest there but not the
youngest. At the time we both very much
wanted to attend again, unfortunately financial matters took over at that
point. However, at only £10 per ticket
(or £45 a year for all events) this is not by any means a pricey way of getting
out and meeting other naturists. For
more details and news of when the next even is, follow this link: http://naturist-life-magazine.co.uk/alton-leisure-centre/
Having already paid for tickets we did manage one more
naturist event later that year when we attended Splashdown, an indoor nude
event at the Splashdown Centre in Poole, Dorset. The drive here took us around 90 minutes from
Emsworth but parking was not easy, Splashdown is one of many different leisure
facilities on the Tower Park complex along with bars, restaurants, cinema and
bowling and being Saturday evening it was jam-packed. We had to drive around repeatedly waiting for
somebody else to leave; I really would suggest arriving early if there are any
further events. On the plus side, you
could make a day of it; there would be no shortage of other things to do before
the nude fun begins! The event was
organised both by BN and YBN, the young person part of the organisation and it
was evident from the moment we arrived that there would be a much younger slant
to the age range here; many young adults of both genders were in attendance as
well as families. At this time we were
both in our late thirties, too old for YBN but still young enough to feel
sometimes a little out of place at other naturist events and places. Of course it is nice to see some young,
attractive people enjoying themselves au natural but more pertinently, the fact
that there are young naturists out there to take things forward, to stop
organised naturism dying out.
Splashdown is a mostly indoor water park, with all manner of
water slides and chutes, spa pools et cetera but no actual swimming pool. The only outdoor aspect of the park is a
short walk to the stairs for one of the longer slides but still I enjoyed the
walk from the main centre to the tower housing the top of the slide, feeling a
light drizzle on our bodies was most refreshing. The slides themselves ranged in the level of fear
they induced in me from “exhilarating” (e.g. scared me quite a lot but I would
do it again) to absolute blind terror, (literally I was shaking when I got out
of the splash pool after). I should here
point out that I am a big cowardy-custard and that I do suffer from vertigo so
hurtling down a dark tube was never going to be as fun for me as the next man,
woman or child. But I gave most of them
a go! If you are at all self-conscious
about being socially nude, trying dropping down one of those things, you’ll
soon forget you are naked.
Unfortunately for me, just a week before I’d had my head and
eyebrows shaved for a Help-For-Heroes event in my local pub. Coupled with the fact that I was carrying a
little extra weight, this left me looking like a nude Fester Addams for the
evening, which would have been a shame if I was at all vain! (Yeah, right)
There was an official photographer in residence that night, (official
from BN that is) but at the time I did not think to ask if we could get a photo
taken so I have no souvenir form the occasion, which I do now regret. The official picture that appeared in BN
magazine after the vent did not feature us; I think it was taken at the
beginning of the evening, while we were still trying to park! Despite my slightly frightening appearance on
the day I would very much like to have seen myself in BN so I was a little
disappointed by this.
Like Alton, there was a coffee bar serving snacks and drinks
which we partook in, and BN had a stand selling official items. I naughtily broke out the credit card for one
more purchase, getting us a set of official, bright orange BN towels (the beach
towel is still my towel of choice) and was given a free jute bag to take them
away in. I have not made a purchase on
credit since!
Again, we both enjoyed the evening immensely but this has to
date been the last of our nude-social occasions. For reasons of money (not having any) we have
been restricted to the beach and for reasons of the weather (the general
crapness of it) these visits have been somewhat limited. I have worked hard to get what I do down to a
much more manageable level despite the cost of living rising whilst my wages
haven’t. Which is why I feel a reward is
due.
During the writing of this blog I’ve come to realise how
much I enjoyed taking Becky to these events (well, she drove so really she took
me but you know what I mean) and I decided the money I’d set aside for a cheap
MP3 player for the journey would be better served by re-joining BN. So I did.
I have completed an application along with uploading our photos for
membership cards and paying, all online, whilst I’ve put this together. I can’t see any evidence of another
Splashdown this year, I do hope I’m wrong, but there are naturist evenings at
Alton in September and October that I hope to be at.
See you there?
Addendum
In September we did re-join BN and we did go to another
Alton evening, which was fun, apart from one stroppy man who complained
bitterly about having to queue to sign in.
We were also looking at going to the BN event at Alton Towers but that
was cancelled before we could afford tickets.
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