Where was your first naturist experience and how was it?

[nudebeachmap]

Would love to hear your answer to this question.. especially for the newbies!
For us - Wreck Beach in Vancouver.
We'd just moved to the area and decided to check it out. Locals told us that is was the best beach in the city by far... but it was mostly a nude beach. We told each other "whats the harm" that there will be naked people at the beach as well.. we'd never been anywhere like that before.
Arriving we sat down in a swimmers / full bikini and laid in the sun. We were adamant we were not going to get naked. But after laying there for 5-10mins we looked around and almost everyone surround us was naked.. then we suddenly felt like like the weird ones.
One of us said "what about if we just try it for a minute and see what it's like". We did. No one looked at us. No one cared - we felt nervous but it was a great feeling... we eventually got up the courage to walk to the water naked. Again, no one looked at us or cared. We thought that was a pretty good feeling. Especially to not have to worry about wet swimsuits and bikinis.. maybe next time we come back we'll try it again.
And we did! The rest is history..

How did you start?

Megan & Matt!

[BeachBum_CA]

Ours was actually completely accidental too 😂

I was 27 and my husband was 24 and we were on holiday and ended up walking way further down a beach than we planned. Suddenly realised basically everyone around us was naked.

We were both like absolutely NOT happening haha.

Then after maybe half an hour my husband goes “I actually feel more awkward being the only guy here in board shorts” 😂

He went first. I lasted maybe another 10 mins before thinking okay whatever, if I hate it I can just put my bikini back on.

The funny thing was the actual getting naked part felt like this huge deal in my head... and then about 2 mins later it wasn't a big deal at all. Nobody cared. Nobody was looking at us. We just went swimming and laid in the sun like normal.

That was about 5 years ago and now we actively look for nude beaches when we travel.

I think that's why I always feel for newbies. That first 5 minutes can feel MASSIVE when you've never done it before, then you realise everyone else is just there having a beach day 😂

[pete]

In my case it was as a young teenager on the Isle of Wight in the UK back around 1985/86ish. I had gone on holiday there with my parents and they gave me free rein to go explore wherever I wanted - I just needed to be back at the accommodation in time for the evening meal. So we were staying at a small town called Ventnor to the south of the island and I decided randomly one day to go for a walk to get away from the masses. I was around 14 / 15 at the time and already had some issues of H&E at home which were going some way to educate me that nudity didn't have to equate to sex. After walking some distance I was well away from Ventnor and on a stretch of coast which wasn't accessible by road or visible from any nearby roads. It was summer and I'd taken a towel and a few basic things for the day (sunscreen. water etc) and got to a place where I just chilled. I got to a point where it was too hot and as nobody else was about I just shucked off my swimsuit and enjoyed a couple of hours of nude laziness (with some occasional skinny dipping).

Just to add some context - my parents were pretty uptight in terms of body image. Dad was less bothered about walking around nude upstairs but mum properly gave me body image issues and insisted I cover up all the time.

Visiting the beach was that first step to freeing my mind from her damaging body image issues and from then on I insisted on getting to a nude beach every summer and Studland Beach (as well as a few others) became a regular place for me. I didn't really get the "scary first five minutes" like some others get because I was on my own where I was. Going to a public nude beach I had already got the experience of being naked on a beach so whether others were there or not didn't have the same impact. I'm at a point now where I love the freeing sensation that much that where I was at the local Spanish nude beach whilst on holiday I would get naked at the car park before we all (my ex and our kids) headed to the sand - saves getting sand in a wet swimsuit!