Because it's now so long ago I can't remember if this was my first time or not, but in any event it was very close (probably the second) and very memorable. As I've recounted in other posts I stumbled upon a pile of naturist magazines in the woods on our property. I liked what I saw and started pestering my parents about swimming nude in our pool. They finally relented and one afternoon my father took the three of us (I have a younger brother and sister) all skinny dipping in our pool. My father was also nude. We had a great time.
I suspect my mother was not happy with the idea because this was a one time event. However, it marked the beginning of my being able to skinny dip in our pool whenever I was by myself. As my brother and sister were not as eager to swim as I was this turned into almost all the time.
During last week's Virtual Meet Marc asked us to share our first naturist swimming memories. While Anna was chatting about our early naturist beach visits something popped into my mind that I had completely forgotten about until that moment. The joys of the mind, and also the inspiration of discussions in the live meets.
Opening my brain to this forgotten memory has released several more memories around the subject.
From an early age. I am not sure, somewhere around 8, I would take off my trunks when I was in the sea by myself to swim and walk naked in the water. This went on for 10 years or more, whenever I felt safe enough to be naked without others seeing.
Those of you who have read my blogs about my childhood, teens and early twenties Half A Century https://anaturistworld.com/member-blog/24653 and Learning to Accept Yourself https://anaturistworld.com/member-blog/45831will recall that for years I was petrified of being seen naked, to a point that it was effecting my happiness and functionality. You may also recall that I enjoyed being naked when I was alone in the house and also slept naked. The fear was not nudity, but being seen by others. In fact I loved being naked, and found many clothes uncomfortable. I hated layers, and hated things around my neck, wrists, and ankles - like socks, or polo necks, or buttoned up shirts.
Sometimes in the sea at a distance from family I would remove my trunks, carry them in my right hand and have a little swim or walk knowing that others couldn't see me, and even if some people got close, the opaque water protected my nudity. I would simply step back into my trunks and hoist them up into the right position when it was time to come out or if a member of my family swam or paddled out to join me.
I find it fascinating that something told me to do this in the first place, taking such a risk when I was so fearful of being seen naked. Though I guess it first started sometime before my fear really took hold. I remember once when I was around 8 having loads of sand and small stones in my trunks and pulling them down a little to remove the grit, and then thinking, this feels nicer than being in trunks, so I took them off altogether. I am assuming this may have been the beginning of my love of naturist swimming. It simply felt better being in the sea without the trunks on, and it would be something I looked forward to every year on holiday. An added extra to the various pleasures of being on holiday, and something that was mine. I loved being around my family, and playing in the sea and sand with them, but I always like little alone time too. Sometimes as a child I would not hang around with friends, but just enjoy a cycle by myself on a sunny day, or an exploring walk.
These early skinny dips were my moments on holiday, and I just loved the escapist feeling of being naked in the sea.
Occasionally I would worry that my family would work out that I was putting my trunks back on as they approached, but none of them ever said anything, so maybe they didn't.
I carried on enjoying the sea this way on and off for years. Looking back now, it more or less continued until I found the emotional strength to try naturism. In Corfu when I was around 18 I was strolling along walking parallel to the shore for some distance and a topless lady who was in her 30s came up to me and walked along side me for a while having a chat, and I found out that coincidentally she was also from Coventry. We had a nice chat, but I remember being totally distracted by the fact that I was naked, fearful that she may notice my nudity below the sea water, or a sudden change of depth (the water was around rib height). More afraid of being seen than the idea that nudity was a bad thing.
I never thought nudity in itself was bad, I was just afraid of it for myself. I recall trying to think of a way of ensuring I walked on further than she did, rather than leave the sea together to then find a way of reattaching my trunks underwater without her seeing. I think it resulted in a slight rudeness to carrying on our conversation on dry land, (a clumsy excuse rather than an outright rejection) which made me feel a little guilty afterwards and made me want to find her some other time to talk again, so I didn't appear uninterested in her conversation, but I never did. I have always had great fears of offending people by accident!
What I find amazing in these memories is that I have always had a natural attraction to naturism, even when my own concerns about my body were extreme. My fears were unnatural and only existed because the world encourages us to cover up. My natural desire to ignore that was always with me.
at July 24, 2025 5:23 PM BST 
After some reflection I realized that my first naked swimming experience was when I was a pre-teen in the mid 1960s. My parents would send me to a girls camp for several weeks in the summer. Occasionally there would be sleep away camping trips that they would take us on. This one time we were camping along the Delaware River in New Jersey. It was an lovey site. Large grass field that was adjacent to the river bank. It was a hot day and the water looked so inviting.. but none of us had brought bathing suits. Our counselors were two young women, probably 17 years old or so. They said, no worries, if you want to swim just get naked and go. We are all girls here.. and all by ourselves, no one else around. After some chatter one girl stripped down.. and we all soon followed. Our counselors joined us naked. It was such great fun. There was a rope that you could swing out on over the river and drop in. The river was fast and one counselor was positioned downstream to catch us. What a tremendously free feeling to be flying through the air naked, splashing down into the icy water, then being scooped up in the arms of a naked woman.. skin on skin. None of us had begun to develop so we were very curious about how different our counselors looked than us. It was so innocent. We asked why they had round breasts and "fur".
I haven't thought about that day until now that I have just begun my naturist journey. Thanks so much for helping revive such a precious moment in my life that had been lost until now.
I'm not sure if it's my first, but one experience that sticks out to me is a sailing trip with my Mom, her sister, and my cousins when I was about 10 or 11.
We were sailing on the Pacific coast of Canada one summer and noticed the phosphorescence in the water. Sometimes, particularly during the summer, you can get these microscopic organisms that glow and sparkle when disturbed. They were particularly bright that year, and we decided to walk along the shoreline to find a place away from the light.
We found a secluded spot and the suggestion came up to swim in the phosphorescensce. Of course, having no swimsuits, my cousins and I (a boy slightly younger than me, and a girl slightly older) we skinny dipped. It was absolutely beautiful. The water was clear but cold, and every motion would leave a trail sparkling blue green light. Coming out of the water your whole body would be covered with stars. Something about being nude in the water made it even better.
I am been a naturist since I was a child. But my wife told her first-naturist-swimming.
She was about 20 when she was with her parents in a spa. She was swimming while her parents went into the sauna. Then there was the announcement that the nudist swim evening begins in half an hour. Everyone who doesn't want to participate has to leave the spa. Two more announcement and her parents don't come back. And the announcement that the nudist time began. She hesitantly removes her bathing-suit and put it at the pool edge. She was swimming nude. But sometime she had to leave the water. She was used to be topless at the beach but naked. She gathered all her courage and left the water, She looked around, Everybody was nude. Nobody watched her. Why should she be ashamed? She lay down on a lounger nude as she was and made friends with the situation. Later her parents came nude from the sauna. Her father makes a joke about her nudity.
