Skinny Dippers. That’s Who We Are. Simple as That.

What happens when the project you’ve been working on becomes abusive?

Yesterday I needed my friends, so I turned to our community.

Thank you for being there, I really appreciate you guys.

But I think I’ve had enough. The Nudist community in the states is too much for me. I’m tapping out.

What do you mean you’re tapping out?

I mean I closed my Twitter account back up. I’m tired of battling porn bots and shitty men. I got divorced to get away from this behavior only to find myself right back in the middle of what I literally fled Portland to get away from.

The nudist community in the states is not healthy for me, so I can’t engage with it anymore.

What I DO want to do is continue engaging with people that are hella cool and also like to hang out naked. YOU.

We don’t like labels because it puts us in a box. We are made up of many things, not just one. We care about people. And we would never terrorize our community on the internet or in person.

Skinny Dippers.

That’s who we are.

Simple as that.

0 Share

The Flag You Fly

"If you have an opportunity to use your voice you should use it."

Samuel L. Jackson

Jeremy and I get asked a lot if we are bisexual because of our use of the Rainbow Flag.

Last summer, I got evicted from my family’s property partly since we put it up on their Flag Pole. I was told to take down the ‘fruit flag.’ (I then disowned that side of the family for obvious reasons.)

When I first started building this community, I decided to use Instagram as the primary way to find you guys. I did this for a few reasons. Firstly, I used to teach Instagram courses, so I understand how powerful it can be. Secondly, it has a way of pre-qualifying people that Twitter can’t do. (You see people – their photos, their videos – and you get a much better picture -sorry for the pun – of what kind of nudist they are.)

But the problem with having an open Instagram account is that as a woman, it’s an open invitation for people to abuse the space and send you unwanted DM’s of people’s parts. And if you’re really lucky, you’ll also get abused with words. I finally couldn’t take it, so I shut it down.

I told Jeremy, “If this is what being a nudist is, then I don’t want any part of it.”

I took a few weeks and re-strategized.

I grew up with Prince, Viva Glam, and an obsession with Madonna’s Truth or Dare. I’m no prude, but dude – running around naked isn’t an invitation for abuse. I re-opened our Instagram account around the time of PRIDE and thought, “I need a bold symbol to tell people who we are from the get-go.” I kept the account closed and only allowed those in that I had already pre-qualified from our previous account. This strategy worked well.

We love everybody – as long as you aren’t an asshole.

I’m proud to use a symbol that means equal rights for everybody. And if you have privilege, you should use it for good.

Otherwise, you’re just an asshole. And the world has enough of those already.

0 Share

Naturist Podcast: What Does Naturism Mean to You?

>>SUBSCRIBE!

The idea of a Naturist Field Guide came to us when Jeremy found his old Boy Scout book. What we realized is that the naturist community as a whole could probably benefit from a guide book – especially for people thinking about getting into naturism. Then that turned into a podcast and then launching a non-profit. The non-profit – Global Naturist Alliance – has a social justice arm to it that we just haven’t seen on a large scale globally with naturist organizations and we really think the naturist movement simply cannot progress without it.

We will be looking for board members from all over the world representing different countries. The goal is to not only collect data from our communities and create a Global Field Guide to Naturism but to also set the mission, vision, and values of the Naturist movement worldwide.

Without a vision, a movement has no gas.

This is our podcast I hope you enjoy it!
Mandy + Jeremy

Skinny Dippers Club
www.SkinnyDippers.Club

RSS LINK: https://naturistpodcast.libsyn.com/rss

ep. 3 Community and Social Justice

Our podcast wasn’t supposed to be released for another month but we recorded this episode and just felt like it needed to get out in the world.

PART OF THE REASON WE ARE STARTING A NON-PROFIT IS BECAUSE we haven’t seen Equity and Social Justice in our organizations on a global level.

The goal of the Global Naturist Alliance is to set the mission vision and values of the naturist community worldwide – The idea being we have representatives of all countries coming together to set the standards of what our movement is all about.

Naturism, for me, is where environmentalism, social nudism, and feminism collide. You’ll see that reflected in this podcast.

Mandy

>>FOLLOW ME FOR EPISODE THREE

Skinny Dippers Club is on a Year-Long Mission Scouting for a Global Field Guide to Naturism. We’re Gonna Bring You With Us As We Do Research for the First Edition!

All podcast episodes are sponsored by The Global Naturist Alliance. The Global Naturist Alliance is a non-profit aimed at setting the standards for mission, vision, and values for the naturist community worldwide.

Our series will start as a year-long global journey – one episode per week.

When I think about why we do what we do with Skinny Dippers Club and the Global Naturist Alliance, it actually has little to do with being a nudist and everything to do with community.

Naturism, for me, is where environmentalism, social nudism, and feminism collide.

Jeremy and I met in Portland, Oregon. I was raised in the inner city as a church liberal, and he was raised in the ‘burbs as the kid of cops. Law and Order – the whole nine yards. He got shunned for listening to black jams while I was praised for learning the Roger Rabbit on the playground.

Despite childhoods that couldn’t be farther apart (his classmates shot tin cans on their lunch hour, mine hotboxed in my ’73 bug), we both had a passion for making our community stronger, more diverse, and to feel empowered.

We fought coal trains moving through our city – he as the Mayor me as the local blogger Rachel Maddowing my way around town. I helped pass bond measures with well-placed social media posts, and my PR efforts helped fund LGBTQ candidates on a national level.

Then we went to China.

We went on a diplomatic mission under the program then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had spearheaded. It is a prestigious, competitive EcoPartnerships program of the U.S. Department of State.

During the summit, three U.S. cities and their Chinese counterparts formalized EcoPartnerships. EcoPartnerships are cooperative relationships between Chinese and U.S. entities that work jointly to promote economic growth, energy security, and environmental sustainability.

We saw rusty rivers, air pollution dropping from the sky like snow, and I stopped wearing underwear. (Have you ever tried to pee in a hole in the ground while in First Lady attire? It’s a nightmare.) It was here that we really came to understand the urgency of taking care of the earth and its inhabitants.

As a lifelong entrepreneur with ADHD, I get burnt out often. On one of these occasions, Jeremy quickly convinced me to go with him to a boutique nudist hotel in Palm Springs instead of delivering the Alt Summit speech I was supposed to give. With little energy to fight it, I said yes.

I didn’t get the nudist thing. He had already visited our local nudist place on several occasions, and I even left our home from time to time so that he could have naked hangs with friends. (Totally thought this was weird too.)

What’s weirder is that I’ve always hung out naked at home. Every time I’d clean the house, I would do it without clothes because I just thought dirtying clothing to clean the house made no sense. And when I could work out at home, I just wore a sports bra because again, why would I deliberately do something that would cause me to do more laundry? And obviously, working from home is and was always pants-less.

But being naked with anyone other than who I was sleeping with? No thanks.

When we walked into the nudist hotel for the first time, I felt assaulted by the front desk dude who was bare-ass naked when we arrived. “Jeremy, isn’t there some transition time? Like, you just walk into PENIS-Ville?” I was not impressed.

As the days of my stay wore on, I was struck by how cool the people were. I kept showing up day after day in my bikini while everyone smiled and tried to make me feel as comfortable as possible while I hid behind my sunglasses and book in the lounge chair. Jeremy, on the other hand, was busy being mister socially naked in the pool with everyone. I was intrigued.

Had this not been my first experience with nudism, I’m not sure I would have jumped in. I honestly think that it being a clothing-optional resort made all the difference. By day three or four, I realized that the only one that cared about my body was me and that taking a naked dip in the pool sounded pretty spectacular. Besides, why did Jeremy get to have all the fun? With enough weed-infused muddy buddies, anything is possible.

I tell you guys that I started Skinny Dippers because of the pandemic, but that’s not entirely true. I started it after meeting so many awesome naturists at all of the places we’ve visited. I wanted to hang out with you guys and not just when I could go on vacation to a nudist place.

Then, when Jeremy and I moved to a nudist park, we started seeing how it really looks. In the off-season.The politics of it all. In colonies. And our mission expanded.

Naturism, for me, is about community. Nudists are some of the coolest people I’ve ever met. And like any community, they can also be some of the worst people I’ve ever met.

This is why we proudly display a rainbow in our logo. This logo is meant to be a bit of a block home. A sign that if you are new to naturism and you see someone with our logo, they are a safe person. They believe everyone is equal, and they will make you feel like you belong. They will protect you if anything goes awry because sometimes it does not matter how careful you are being or how much research you’ve done. Shit happens.

Because of the discourse we have seen on a global scale revolving around those that lead the naturism movement, we have launched a non-profit aimed at setting the standards for mission, vision, and values for the naturist community worldwide.

I have never felt so comfortable in my skin since taking the plunge into naturism. I’ve never felt so body-positive. And now I want everyone to join me. Thank you for being here.

Mandy Z.

Skinny Dippers club is a non-landed club for naturists and nudists. Our mission is to connect nudists using digital media in a way that revolutionizes our community.

In our community, you’ll always have a place to hang out nude with someone, whatever nude is to you.

5 Share

Happy Nude Year!

I know that Biden winning the election in the states isn’t going to solve all of our US problems. But I can still be optimistic.

Biden appointing Deb Haaland, the secretary of the Interior, is a step in the right direction.

“As president of the United States, Roosevelt’s obsession with the physical supremacy of white manhood would influence his policy decisions.

Roosevelt saw the West as a place to be won, and in his view, white Americans had already won it – by conquering both the terrain and the Native people. To Roosevelt, it was white Americans’ honored duty to preserve and protect the beauty of Western lands for future generations of white Americans to enjoy. Roosevelt claimed for the United States tens of millions of acres previously promised to Native people, land that had been stewarded by Native people for countless generations. They became our national forests and parks.”

– Mediocre by Ijeoma Oluo

Deb Haaland, the first Native American Interior Secretary. Finally, something to celebrate.

Skinny Dippers promotes the practice of social nudism at resorts, clubs, and places where social nudism is legal.

Let’s protect and enjoy our natural world together!

A portion of your Skinny Dippers’ membership goes to our partnership with Leave No Trace.

The Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics provides proven, research-based solutions for the protection of the natural world.

0 Share

Where to Get Nude in San Fran

This week we take you through the Redwoods and to two San Francisco Nude Beaches.

Because we went over the holidays and in the winter there were actually many clothed tourists at both Marshall and Baker Beach. We are told that is very NOT typical. But, it explains all the clothing we have on.

Cheers!

Courtesy of Thrillist Magazine:

Marshall Beach

Level of Nudity:The Full Monty

What You’ll See: Marshall Beach earns the distinction of being a mainly gay nude beach and having one of the best views of the bridge, so if both of those are your thing, get on it.

The Nude Part: Apparently all of it, though in particular the driftwood/rock cabana things that some past nude sunbathers have built.

Baker Beach

Level of Nudity: Game of Thrones

What You’ll See: As the largest urban nude beach, this place attracts the largest crowds and almost a Burning Man-type atmosphere with artwork, drums, and frisbee. Disclaimer: if you act like a weirdo and just stare at people, you will be told to leave.

The Nude Part: When you get to the beach, go to the right, past the “Hazardous surf, undertow, swim at your own risk” sign.

0 Share

DIY Soaking Tub

Over the summer when I was working on my parents 40 acres alone with Scout and Magic (my cousin’s horses) Jeremy hooked me up with this sweet soaking tub set-up since the property lacked shower facilities. (I used the outdoor hose for showers and dishes.)

We thought you might want the deets for the set-up. It was so good we brought it home to recreate it. Enjoy!

Parts List using Ferg’s options: (local tax not included)

Stock Tank $175

Heater $129

Batteries $8

Propane tank $0

Pump $25

Hose/fittings $20

Total $357

The Soaking Tub: ($175 our option)

We went with a 6” stock tank from Tractor Supply for $175. Unfortunately, it’s an in store pickup. This works perfectly for two people because you can both stretch out your legs and soak all the way up to your collarbone.

You can go with a bigger stock tank or even use an old claw foot tub.

The heater: ($129 our option) – don’t forget D cell batteries! ($7.99)

We used a Tankless Water Heater, specifically a Gasland Outdoor water heater. This one provides continuous hot water right from the source, and with the addition of a recirculating pump, you can reheat the water to really get it warm without wasting a bunch of propane. This unit runs at 1.58 gallons per minute. So consider the time it takes to fill an empty tub. Ours was about 100 gallons, so it took about an hour to fill, then it took a little bit to recirculate the water to bring it up to temperature.

Propane options: (we used a tank from our BBQ) We pay about $2.59/gallon for propane

This may be considered cheating a little, but I figured I didn’t need to have a dedicated propane tank just for this use, so I used one we had for our BBQ and fire ring. We actually have several because we cook and campfire ring so frequently.

Recirculating Pump: ($25 our option)

In full transparency, the first pump I ordered I didn’t like. I was an external transfer pump and it is really loud. So, we just ordered a submersible pump. The water will deaden the noise number one, and number two, it makes the setup really portable for any impromptu soaking tub arrangement. We’ve ordered a Hygger quiet aquarium pump.

Hose and fittings: ($20 our option)

Your setup may be different, but I needed a short section of hose and a couple of garden hose ends to make it all work. They’re easy. Pocket knife and screwdriver easy to install.