Environmental organization Greenpeace is looking for hundreds of men and women to strip-off their clothes on July 18 and 19, 2007. The volunteer nude models will pose on a Swiss glacier for world renown nude photographer Spencer Tunick, as part of a publicity campaign to raise awareness about global warming. It’s estimated that the world’s glaciers will all have melted well before the end of this century, raising sea levels to the point where many heavily populated coastal areas of the world will disappear.

More Spencer Tunick articles

There’s two types of nudist resorts: commercial, and family-owned. The difference between them is the same that exists when comparing a major chain hotel with a bed and breakfast. The latter gives you the owners’ personal attention and often a lifelong friendship.
One such place is Bonita nudist resort in Candor, New York, west of Binghampton. The property is owned and managed by the Troegers and their two teenage children. Nudist Day visited them this past week and left impressed by their affable nature and their strong commitment to each other and naturist principles. Jerry and Annie, a Colombian just like our very own Alexandra, have been married for 18 years, but you’d think they were newlyweds by the amount of genuine affection they bestow on each other. Three years ago they bought a ramshackle nudist resort, formerly known as Buckridge, and lovingly restored and updated it. The club is located on a heavily forested hilltop, giving visitors the chance to walk naked on countless trails spread out over 100 acres, as well as swim in a small mountain lake.

Bonita has the usual facilities: pool, hot tub, club house, snack bar, unisex showers, etc. As for accommodations, there’s camping and hookups for RVs, as well as five gaily colored tiny cabins. The interior walls of these cabins are unpainted, but at just 40 dollars a night you probably won’t care as you’ll want to spend all your time enjoying the natural surroundings. Speaking of which, be sure to pack insect repellents as biting insects abound in wooded areas.

To get to Bonita, this author took a complicated combination of small country winding routes that included a few lucky guesses at forks in the road. Your best and only bet is to take Highway 17 (I-86) and then north on route 96 until you reach the village of Candor.

Related Sites:

• Bonita Nudist Resort’s web site

Recently, in Argentina, Jorge, an entrepreneur who lived 12 years in the US, and Laura, a globetrotting translator, announced they were offering English immersion courses, the difference being that both teachers and students will be nude. The idea is to have fun and learn at the same time, according to the organizers. We’ll bring you more details as soon as we can get them!

When I first visited the Sunsport Gardens nudist resort in Loxahatchee, Florida back in 2001, the club had an air I could only describe as “Dukes of Hazzard”. The place was overgrown with weeds, there were abandoned vehicles strewn about, the “lake” was a swamp, the trails had turned to jungle, etc. Later that year, Morley Schloss, a self-confessed flower child who first discovered social nudity at Woodstock, bought the place and set it on a new course, guided by his spiritual, ecological and naturist principles.

Last week Nudist Day revisited the resort and found enormous improvements. At the entrance were brand new offices, where visitors check-in and are given a sense that this is a really a resort. The grounds are well tended and all the facilities have been renovated. The notable exception is the clubhouse, which still maintains too much of the rundown, dirty look of the original club. Schloss would love to knock down the building and construct a better one, but budget constraints don’t permit it at this time. The nature trails were in good shape with the addition of signs pointing-out the different species of plants and trees. There is a wide variety of fruit trees on the grounds, some of them quite exotic, which provide the resort’s health-conscious restaurant with all the fresh fruit it needs.

Schloss, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, made efforts to keep his club environmentally-friendly. For instance, the swimming pool’s water is kept warm thanks to solar water heaters that cover the roof of one building. Schloss also espouses strong nudist values: A sign at the entrance stresses the fact that visitors are expected to be nude. He also demands that resort staff be nude, or at least top-free in the case of female employees. As if to illustrate this policy, Schloss ordered a neophyte employee who was nervous about getting nude to get out of the view of my camera as I snapped photos of the reception area.

Schloss almost seemed angry when I asked him what he thought of the mainstream media’s recent contention that nudists are getting old and aren’t succeeding in attracting the younger generations. According to him, there’s no shortage of young people visiting Sunsport, the draw being it’s safe family-oriented atmosphere. Although Woodstock was as renown for its drugs as for its music, Schloss does not allow drugs to be consumed on his grounds, and doesn’t sell any alcohol, although visitors can bring in their own. Otherwise, Sunsport generally has very progressive policies, welcoming all singles and treating gay couples as such.
Schloss is also the resort’s father figure, as I witnessed firsthand as a female patron sought his advice on legal matters. Coincidentally, he’s actively involved in the Naturist Action Committee, defending nudist interests in Florida. Finally, Schloss is a spiritual person: He’s the organizer of the Northeast Naturist Festival, which will take place August 7-12, 2007, at the Empire Haven nudist club in central New York State. The event includes a large number of spiritual activities.
The resort has all the requisite amenities, including economically priced rental units. Among the latter, I elected to spend the night in one of the pop-up campers on offer. At 45 dollars, it was a steal, until I discovered that I would be donating about a half-gallon of blood to the hordes of mosquitoes. The other defect of this type of accommodation is that they have no bathrooms. Using the common showers and bathrooms is usually fine in a nudist resort, but not when you have to trudge 1000 feet down a dark road full of little vampires! Luckily, there are two nice fully-equipped cabins available as well. Schloss told me that within days he was going to have free wireless internet for patrons, which should please those of us who have to stay connected.

Sunsport Gardens is the nudist club nearest to the Miami and West Palm Beach areas, thus making it a good place to stop along Interstate 95 or the Florida Turnpike. It’s located several miles west along Okeechobee Boulevard in Palm county, and then north a few miles via unpaved roads (D road, then North Road). It’s not so easy to find, however, as there are no signs pointing the way except at the entrance to the club itself. Perhaps this discretion was necessary in view of the numerous conservative Bible camps in the area.

Related Sites:

• Sunsport Gardens web site

MORAVIA, NY - The Empire Haven nudist club near Moravia, in central New York state, will host a six day naturist festival organized by Morley Schloss (he of Sunsport Gardens in Florida) that will include a wide variety of activities, most of which are of the spiritual kind.
Scheduled throughout the festival from August 7th through 12th are yoga and meditation classes, kirtan (spiritual chanting), massage lessons, body painting, sweat lodge, and throat singing. In total, there will be 180 events, which can all be attended in the nude, of course! Some of the seminars are rather odd-sounding, such as “Write your own Vagina Monologue”, or “Shamanic Journeying”, the latter being led by a certain “Singing Wind”. The cost of the festival is just 35 dollars for the entire six days, although this does not include the ground fees of 15 dollars per person per day. The club has camping, RV hookups and some rental units available for overnight stays.

Recently, this publication visited Empire Haven. Curiously, this author was greeted by the very un-naked owner and his employees. I felt extremely ill at ease when I was led on a golf cart tour of the grounds while fully clothed, but I wasn’t offered an opportunity to make myself more comfortable. The owner, a Mr. Robinson explained that this is a clothing-optional venue, as he asked me to remove my camera bag from the floor in order that his rotund but friendly dog hop aboard for the ride.
There isn’t a lot to say about the rustic club, other than it’s up on a mountain at 1600 feet, has a lot of shade trees and a lot of RVs, but it is certainly a must for any nudist once the festival begins.

Related Sites:

• Empire Haven web site