So, why would you want to take off your bathing suit to go swimming? Yet for most of history, the question would have been: "What’s a bathing suit?" It was only in the 19th century that bathing suits became first fashionable, and then customary:

"At Seaton while Dora was sitting on the beach I had a bathe. A boy brought me two towels as I thought, but when I came out of the water and began to use them I found that one of the rags he had given me was a pair of very short red and white striped drawers to cover my nakedness. Unaccustomed to such things and customs I had in my ignorance bathed naked and set at nought the conventionalities of the place..."

—Rev. Robert Francis Kilvert, Diary, 24 July, 1874
Quoted by Cec Cinder in The Nudist Idea.

The modern nudist or naturist movement, starting first in Germany, and then spreading to England and eventually to America by around 1920, was a reaction to this Victorian attitute of shame at the human body. The new card-carrying nudists established private "camps" or resorts, often with some resistance from authorities; today, nudist resorts and travel companies are increasingly seen as legitimate, mainstream business enterprises.

However, many skinny-dippers cannot be identified as formal nudists. Benjamin Franklin swam and "air-bathed" nude; Presidents J. Q. Adams and Teddy Roosevelt went skinny-dipping on public lands. And many older Americans may still fondly remember skinny-dipping at the old swimmin’ hole (now largely replaced by the water theme park).

But in the 1970s, as development started encroaching on traditional nude-use areas, and some decided skinny-dipping was immoral, skinny-dippers started to organize to protect them. It was then the term free beach was coined, modelled perhaps on the usual German term for naturism FreiKörperKultur (free body culture). South Florida Free Beaches is an outgrowth of this movement, as is The Naturist Society.

Today millions of people go "au naturel" each year at beaches in Europe, and often in family groups. Haulover Beach in Florida sees hundreds of thousands of nude users each year, and Gunnison Beach at Sandy Hook in New Jersey sees about as many users during the Summer.

Despite the success of Haulover and Gunnison, officials are still often skittish about nude recreation, and sometimes assume citizens are opposed. But to see what most Americans really think, check out the 2006 polling data that shows that 74% of Americans think nude bathers should not be hassled at beaches accepted for that purpose.

View NEF/Roper poll

Naturism maintains that there is nothing inherently wrong with nudity at appropriate times and in appropriate places. It is really the intention of the nudity that is the issue. (See quotes at right.)

If you are unsure, a visit to a designated clothing-optional beach like Haulover will be a truly enlightening and liberating experience. Nudity is optional, and you can wear a swimsuit if you are uncomfortable being nude -- although we suggest you "go native" as soon as you can. You will soon discover that you are really not naked after you remove your clothing, but rather remain clothed with the natural radiance that is the gift of Nature or of Nature’s God. Human dignity has nothing to do with clothing; it has everything to do with attitude, and the respect we maintain toward one another.

Eden was not just a place —
It endures as an attainable state of mind.